Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Hi, just joined ,but have been lurking for a few months. I picked up a '67 R69S from an estate sale recently, along with an '83 R65 that was part of the deal. My questions here are about the 69S. My flywheel markings are not the usual OT, S and F, but rather, O, 8, 12, 36 and 40, as in degrees. Is anyone out there familiar with this flywheel? Also, I can't seem to get my float needles to seat in the cap. I've tried toothpaste with the needle a couple of times and also valve grinding compound with an eighth inch wood dowel that I had dressed to a conical end. Still no satisfaction, so I ordered the manual from Bing. Oh, I Guess I started describing the trees instead of the forest. The bike appears to me to be all original and for practical purposes and all there. It came with a CA plate on it from '75 and there are either 7 or 8 stickers total on the plate. Judging by that I'm assuming the PO was the original owner as I know he lived in Long Beach area in that time frame. I'm going to keep this as original as possible and mechanically correct, I hope. Any guidance on the two issues above would be greatly appreciated. Oh ya, one more thing, does anyone have personal experience with the work of Tom High in Deland, FL or Steve Kadelak in Tampa, or any other competent /2 mechanic to do major mechanical work in Florida?

Scott in SWFL

Welcome to the forum! I wonder if you have a lightened flywheel and those are markings from that manufacturer. They are certainly not usual. As for the carb seats, sounds like you've done what's necessary to dress the surfaces. Is it possible that your floats are binding on the way up and the needle is not seating? Note that the needle that runs through the middle of the float is supposed to fall into a detent on the shaft of the needle. Any chance the needle is not seated properly.

As for Tom High, I've heard the name and seem to recall both plusses and minuses about him. First I'm hearing of the name in Tampa. His name has not been mentioned on this forum nor the old Yahoo /2 forum.

Should have mentioned this in the previous post. The carbs have been dismantled, dipped and cleaned along with all components. They have new plastic floats, float needles, idle jets, seals and flange gaskets. Also new Karcoma petcock, filters and fuel lines.

Scott in SWFL

Plastic floats? From Bench Mark Works? They need to be the right weight...7 grams.

You can also purchase new carb tops (lever tops).
S

Check that the plastic floats are not taking on fuel; (shake and listen/eyeball the translucent top) if they are taking on fuel they won't raise high enough to stop flow.
Best-
George

George reminds me of some things that happened to me and plastic floats. There have been at least two versions of the floats. Ver 1.0 tended to swell and the flange would stick in the float chamber. I bought my first set at one of Vech's rallys and drove home on my R69S. Noticed one header got darker than the other...I think it was running leaner because the float stuck and the header got hotter. Vech sent a replacement Ver 2.0 with material that didn't react to ethanol fuel.

On my R25/2, I got a Ver 2.0 float but after about 18 months or so, it did develop a leak and took on fuel. Had to buy another one...only one year guarantee. So definitely ensure that the float doesn't weigh more than 7gr. The singles take an 11gr float.

Thanks for your quick responses to my carb flooding problem. I purchased all the replacement parts within the last month from Benchmark and had a conversation with Rich about what the application is. I don't have a scale to weigh the floats so I'm assuming they sold me the correct parts. As to filling with gas, I've closely inspected the floats after each hopeful try at correcting this. I was somewhat hesitant about the plastic floats but my wallet got the best of me and I made my living in the plastics industry for a number of years. I may have to give the lever top caps a shot if I can't figure this out. It doesn't seem like the seal in the cap should be worn out on a bike that shows 32k miles. Oh, and the needles are definitely seated in the wire cage on the floats. I'm expecting the Bing manual to arrive anytime now and hopefully it will shed light on something I can check dimensionally. Thanks again for all the input. Still want to find out about that flywheel.

Scott

Nice Find! - The Flywheel is a Bowman. I got one for my Barn Find R69S and Love it. Barrington love them so much they started making their own. The Timing markings... I forget which goes for what. But the Barrington, Clymer & Original manuals should have the degrees for each of the original OT, S, F markings.
Enjoy!
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Found the entries in the Original & Barrington Manuals:

Thanks a lot for the info on the flywheel. I have not yet had a good look at the flywheel, only through the timing hole, but the outer edge looks to be aluminum. The fact that the Barrington book says the timing mark's were often inaccurate makes perfect sense and explains why my actual point of TDC (found by using a wood dowel on the piston top) is at 3 to 4 degrees BTDC. This is somewhat of a relief as I wondered if the flywheel had shifted position on the crankshaft.