BMW R75/5 Headlight

[koanes]

After removing the Vetter fairing from my machine, I find the headlight bucket stuffed with a styrofoam cutout. I am looking for all hardware required to afix a headlight. The fairing is available if anyone is interested. Was fitted to a 1972 R75/5. Thanks, Kyle

[darrylri]

You can find the parts drawings at several locations, such as A&S Cycles in Sacto. It sounds like you need the ring, lens, reflector and perhaps a socket and a bulb. I think all of that stuff is the same for any 70s era beemer.

The bigger question is, how much of a mess did they make of the wiring?

[koanes]

Thank you for the help Darryl. At a glance the wiring looks to be repairable. I am anxious to ride this bike as I have never had a ride on this model. The machine hasn't run for a few years. I was trying to remove the old and very dead battery without any luck, looks like I need to remove the airbox cover to get it out? When I push the starter thru I get some air noise out of one of the pushrod seals at the left cylinder. I assume that there is some sort of crankcase vent that is plugged up. I am hoping that I can put some new fuel line on, check fluid levels, add a battery and some fuel, and crank it up. Its exciting to be fooling around with something new to me, after 30 yrs of mostly HD and Indian. Thanks again for the link, Kyle

[darrylri]

The crankcase breather is under the top cover, in the starter area, and it leads to the right intake manifold. If you have excessive blow-by, it'll mess up the right carb and the bike will smoke out of the right side.

Have you checked/adjusted the valves? With a cold motor, the valve clearance leaves enough gap that there can be some noise in the valve train.

The battery should come up through the frame rails, perhaps with some tipping back. If your bike is a "short wheel base" (SWB) model, it takes a smaller battery. The long wheel base (LWB) models are easily identified by a 3" long cylinder welded to the back end of the driveshaft tube. They were more stable, but the SWB bikes were supposed to be more agile.

Besides the usual things you would look at in putting the bike back on the road, check the rubber diaphrams under the domes on the carbs to make sure they aren't torn. These are constant velocity carbs and depend on maintaining a vacuum up there to raise the slide. If a diaphram is torn or has a hole, you won't be able to spin the motor up very far.

I have to admit that I've never ridden a /5 either, but it's generally similar to the /6, and I own (and ride) an R90S.

You might be interested in the Airheads Beemer Club and/or /5 United clubs. The former has tons of people who are interested in all of the BMW "Airheads" (air cooled boxers from 1970-1995; vs. "Oilheads" with a separate oil pump to cool the exhaust valve area). The latter, of course, is specific to the /5 bikes.