Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

absolutely, I would not have spent 3 hours for clean the wrong pinstripe

Very excellent bike! I have a question for you or the group - I see you have a safety wired speedo drive keeper bolt. That bolt is not vented - just the safety wire hole. My '55 R69 I'm restoring has the exact same bolt there. My question is - how is the transmission vented with such a bolt there? Thanks for any insight.

Dave

Dave, see this thread:
http://www.vintagebmw.org/v7/node/14752

OK, solves the plunger trans question, but I do not see another way the R69 trans would vent. Mine has the ‘sidecar’ non ‘S’ transmission that was standard on the first R69s. I’m going to substitute a later vented bolt there unless I find out otherwise. Thanks!

Dave

...that's not a safety wire in the conventional sense to keep things from unwinding, but more accurately a "security" wire to keep owners from disconnecting the speedo/odo cable to keep the mileage lower. I believe these were placed in the fifties, up to about 1957, likely at the factory and possibly by dealerships after removing the gearbox or speedo cable. There should be visible a small aluminum tag with an impressed "BMW" that presses the wire together, and would need to be removed to unscrew the bolt to remove the cable. Maybe on this beautiful original R67/2 that tag is beneath the speedo cable boot? There was a seller on ebay awhile ago selling these tag-wire assemblies, and I even sprung for one, 'n I'm not one to spend money on stuff!

As for the venting issue, I recall a 2-3cm metal vent tube on the front aspect of the plunger gearbox when it's out of the frame. This permits the across the flats speedo bushing retainer bolt that takes this security wire. I don't think the vent hole on the later, post '57 bikes would even be necessary given that the speedo cable bushing is just a slip fit, but BMW thought differently?

I think the speedo cable top of gearbox entry/rubber boot setup is a real design weakness of there motorcycles. When the boot gets old and on a bike left outside, rain water wicks down the cable into the gearbox and inevitable end-of-tranny-gears.

If I were judging as fine a bike as an early R69 I'd look askance on substitution of a vented bolt for the original hole across the flats version...but you can do as you wish...might be a good idea however on a hard use gearbox as on a sidecar machine?

Thanks for the comments. Whether venting through the speedo cable connection (likely that's what happens) or some other way, I'm sure all these early bikes ran a lot of miles without problems. The original goes back in and we'll see how things go.

Dave

...that's not a safety wire in the conventional sense to keep things from unwinding, but more accurately a "security" wire to keep owners from disconnecting the speedo/odo cable to keep the mileage lower. I believe these were placed in the fifties, up to about 1957, likely at the factory and possibly by dealerships after removing the gearbox or speedo cable. There should be visible a small aluminum tag with an impressed "BMW" that presses the wire together, and would need to be removed to unscrew the bolt to remove the cable. Maybe on this beautiful original R67/2 that tag is beneath the speedo cable boot? There was a seller on ebay awhile ago selling these tag-wire assemblies, and I even sprung for one, 'n I'm not one to spend money on stuff!



i'm perfectly agree with you. i think is this the explanation of this safety cable/tag.
unfortunately no. probably is lost, but the cable is the original one, but broken in two points

attached a picture of original unrestored R68 with this tag on speedo cable

Hi guys,
finally this R67/2 clean

Bellissimo!!

Very nice. On eBay I found some white enamel pin striping paint with brushes. I touched up my pin stripes and I swear you can't tell. I just thought I would let you know.

Beautiful bike !!!