Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

So about month ago I decided to do the top end rebuild on my 1965 R60/2. In one of my previous posts, I posted a pic of one of my cylinders that had a substantial amount of pitting and I have sent the cylinders out to be bored out. At that time I decided to go ahead and have a shop here in town, one that has done substantial work on vintage BMWs, go ahead and tear down the rest of the engine. I’m glad I decided to go ahead and do that as both slingers were completely full. Fortunately there was no damage to the crank and all I need on the bottom end are new bearings. The old bearings are not in bad shape, but might as well change them out.

Good call
Do you think the miles on odometer is correct and what does it read
Tommy

Going through all the records I believe the engine has approximately 60,000 miles on it.

I wonder about this?
I've rarely (never) seen a BMW with a broken connecting rod because the slingers were full, the rod bearings seized due to not getting sufficient lube...but I've seen many BMW with a high mileage motor with rod knock but still running?
Not to seem paranoid, but I've wondered if everyone thinks their motor need to be redone because that's the conventional party line, and some folks make a business of doing so?
Occasionally I've seen new owners advised to "clean the slingers" of the motor after 15-20,000 miles, or "don't even start the motor until the slingers have been done".
I dunno for sure......but still I wonder.

That's the problem - you DON'T know for sure. This is a pre-war Flintstone design that was carried way too late into the post-war era. And cleaning/replacing the slingers is beyond most hobbyist's desires or abilities. Look at it this way - do it once when you get the bike and you'll never need to worry about it again. We don't put enough miles on these to ever fill the slingers up in our lifetimes.

Dave

The slingers functioned reasonably well during the earlier periods of oil composition. Non-detergent oils let particles fall to the bottom of the engine between starts...sump pan cleaning was more of a yearly task back in the days. Detergent and more modern oils held the particles in suspension, thus with more of a tendency for them to get caught in the slingers.

I recently adopted a very rare color '66 R 50/2 back in November. 13,740 original miles. I found a lot of gunk in the pan so I decided to tear it down take a look at the slingers. They were packed with stuff as the second picture shows.

The first picture is a look at a slinger that has overheated to the point it melted the front bearing carrier and seized the motor on the spot. That was from my '69 R 69S barn bike I restored in Turf Green.