The Tale of Two Carburetors

This could also be titled: Old Motorcycles Mean New Problems

My last post described getting the motorcycles home. 

With the help of my friend Doug Wothke, who stopped in on his way to Bonneville Speed Week, the Indian started right up. He said it ran, shifted, braked, and rode well. Yeah!

Note: Doug is a real round the world traveler, unlike those two movie posers.
Check out his site here for tales of his adventures.

Inspired, I got to work on the BMW after he left and immediately ran into a brick wall. The bike wouldn't start. A little exploration revealed that the carburetors were seized and wouldn't operate. Remember that this is a 76 year old bike from the country that lost the war. You don't just run down to the local auto parts store for replacements or parts.

It took a day of carb cleaner, CRC Power Lube, and hot water soaks to get the slide to separate from the left side body. The hot water bath is to get the aluminum body to expand faster than the steel slide and break the corrosion bond between them. One problem is that the slide is connected to the throttle cable but you can't pull too hard for fear of breaking it. Remember, no parts available.

The right carb was not so easy. Three more days of all of the above were required. This time the hot water soaks had a mixture of vinegar added. Vinegar is a weak acid that will eat into the corrosion but leave it to long and it will destroy the aluminum carb body. 

Soak, rinse, check, repeat, ...

Finally, they were both freed up. As you can see, some of the parts are missing and some are different. 

I turned to Craig "Vech" Vechorik at Bench Mark Works for help. He is to vintage BMWs what Bill Silver is to vintage Hondas, the very best and most knowledgeable! He helped with parts, service, and advice for my R69S but this time had only sad news. The carbs were not Bing but Graetzin and parts were NLA (No Longer Available). Not even on EBay. However, he said he could provide gaskets which would be a big help.

Luckily, Germany was on the metric system and I was able to dig around in my box of old Honda parts and make up substitutes for the lost pieces. Not perfectly but close enough for an old war horse.

Spark plugs were another challenge. Neither the local Honda nor Kawasaki shop had the right ones but Amazon came through with the correct NGK B8HS items. I'm sure that to be historically faithful I should have chosen Bosch plugs but I've never had a failure with NGK and always rely on them.



Putting it all together was rewarded on the 5th kick! It sputtered to life and coughed and kicked a bit but it ran! Some time fiddling with the adjustments resulted in a bike that ran and idled. Wow! Older than dirt but not dead yet. An inspiration for us all.

For a real test after I took it out into the local roads and tried some dirt trails. What a hoot! I could see trying the Trans America Trail on this and having a blast.

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More Bikes In The Garage

I keep saying that there are too many bikes but somehow they keep multiplying whenever I turn my back.

My father was fascinated with World War II and had a collection of uniforms, vehicles, and memorabilia. At one point he had his own Jeep and half-track. He was equal-opportunity about it and collected both U.S. and German articles. To him, it was an era when the world knew right from wrong and was willing to fight for it.

As he got older it became harder to maintain his collection of vehicles and he sold them off until only about a dozen remained; a 1964 Corvette, a '63 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, 2 Cords, an ancient fire engine, and the actual taxi from a Laurel and Hardy movie that was his pride and joy.

When he passed away in January he left his two motorcycles to me. A 1941 Indian Scout Sport and a 1943 BMW R75 from Rommel's Afrika Korps. Through no fault of my own the inventory grew. A large growth it was because the R75 comes with a side car. So I drove to Calif with UHaul's biggest trailer with high hopes. 

 

Of course there were problems. The BMW with sidecar was just a few inches wider than the trailer opening. Weighing almost 900 pounds there was no picking it up and moving it around.

Scooting under it I was able to remove the kick start lever and the left foot rest and guard. At the very last moment I realized that this was also the mounting shaft for the transmission so I left that alone.

With a perseverance ( and a few choice words! ) my brother and I were able winch it into the trailer and get it tied down with loading straps.

The Indian was next and it was another big bike. It just barely fit in the remaining space and, thankfully, was easy enough to just roll in and strap down. 

Now came the really hard part, driving back to Utah with 3/4 ton of motorcycles behind me. The first part was to get out of the SF Bay Area before the Monday morning commute madness began. Sunday night meant that everyone was flooding back home as I was headed east. An overnight stay in Sacramento at my sister's cut my drive back by 100 miles and let me escape the commuter traffic. Then it was up and over Donner Pass and off across Nevada on I-80. By 8:30 that night I was home. Unloading could wait for tomorrow.

Just one question: How can Calif have the highest gas taxes and the worst roads in America? I-80 over the Sierras was rutted so bad that I had to straddle two lanes so that the trailer wouldn't sway back and forth. I find it truly amazing that the people put up with it!

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