Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

So I just pulled the vented bolts from my R 75 and R 60. They are the same thread and the turned nose of the bolts look the same. The R 75 bolt is a few mm longer and has a 10mm head, the R 60 is 9mm. I think if you shim a post 1970 bolt with a few washers you'd be fine. Just run it in until it captures the Speedo cable and you should be good to go.

Thanks George and Bill...both great ideas. I'll have a look tomorrow and see if I can't make one of these solutions work!

Here is another thing that you may not realize. There were two speedometer gear drives, and they will interchange, BUT the early gearboxes used a 23 22 1 030 224 drive, that used an unvented bolt to hold the cable in. Later gearboxes used a 23 22 1 030 165 drive, used in conjunction with the vented bolt. If you use a vented bolt, with the early drive, it will spit oil out the vent hole. Again, who knows what someone stuck in that gearbox years ago. Could be it has an early drive which is why it is spitting oil out. Simply clean the hole with car cleaner and fill it with silicone seal, and the leak will stop, if it has the early drive in the gearbox.

That's extremely useful advice, Vech. Much appreciated. I have the vented bolt on order from Motorworks over here, so we'll see what the deal is when it arrives and I swap it out with the unvented. My guess is the seals need replacing anyway, due to the migration of gear oil down the driveshaft, and out the breather hole on the rear hub.

Thanks for mentioning the difference. That's the kind of thing you're never going to find just from looking at the manuals...and why I appreciate folks helping out on sites like this (and going back to the Air Mail newsletters many years ago!).