never too late to learn, BMW R2 setting ignition

deQuincey

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you never know how easy is to drive actual cars until you have a classic like our coupes
but you never know how easy is to deal with the coupe until you have a pre-war thing

my prewar R2 has a manual advance lever in the handle bar, this means that you set the lever at no advance for starting the engine, and then while driving as rpms increase you need to advance ignition accordingly, and obviously when you reduce rpms you need to reduce advance too

this is very comfortable, yes, but my question was, how to set iginition ?

in the e9, you have two nice marks in the flywheel, the OT (Top Dead Center) and the "ball" for 22 degrees BTDC (so the advance at 1700 rpms), from there on, the distributor has two other ways to add advance automatically (cinetic and vacuum, both mechanical as you can see)

the R2 is a bit less sophisticated, and she has NO marks in the flywheel, good !

so then you go to the manual, yeah, there is a manual actually, dtaed 1931, cool, but what ? it says nothing about it, except a nice diagram that among other issues has a marginal note: máximum advance 9,5mm, in perfect German, you may notice it or not
 

deQuincey

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now you are aware of the instruction, but as there are no marks in the flywheel, as you can not open the engine, and to make things worse the spark plug points the combustión chamber in an angle different than 0º, you start to think WTF ! fritz and Hans dit it again....

so then you start to think about alternatives and you came to the PistonStop device, basically a fooled spark plug that you convert in a metric stop to exactly block the piston at 9,5mm BTDC using trigonometry and patience

funny enough you should set ignition not at the mínimum, but at the máximum advance

equipped with a red diode light set to ground and to the point of the condenser terminal you are able to know when points are exactly opening to reléase the spark

a very very simple thing, but only once you know what you are doing...

enjoy



previous videos only show the checking
 

Arde

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Oh, you missed the footnote in the 1931 pre-war manual where it says:

Footnote:
For any further questions on setting timing on pre-war products please contact Andreas Hartz in Munich.
Do not send emails, the internet has not been invented yet.
Consider that in any pre-war period Mr. Hartz's response time may be affected in case of war.



...
this is very comfortable, yes, but my question was, how to set iginition ?

so then you go to the manual, yeah, there is a manual actually, dtaed 1931, cool, but what ? it says nothing about it, except a nice diagram that among other issues has a marginal note: máximum advance 9,5mm, in perfect German, you may notice it or not
 

Belgiumbarry

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great bike deQuincey ! fun to wrench.... and learn prewar stuff :)

I collected over the years the 5 (identical , pitty ofcourse not "mine" after 40 years ) bikes i have driven before my first car ( between age 16 and 20) , afterwords i had always a bike but more for fun , as i had a car for daily . Those first 5 give me nice memories , surprized i'm still alive :D

Purpose was to decorate my garage but now with 4 cars in it they are almost standing in the way :)

all jap's , the '70 ties... but in restored running condition .

de5 005.JPG
 

deQuincey

Quousque tandem...?
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great bike deQuincey ! fun to wrench.... and learn prewar stuff :)

I collected over the years the 5 (identical , pitty ofcourse not "mine" after 40 years ) bikes i have driven before my first car ( between age 16 and 20) , afterwords i had always a bike but more for fun , as i had a car for daily . Those first 5 give me nice memories , surprized i'm still alive :D

Purpose was to decorate my garage but now with 4 cars in it they are almost standing in the way :)

all jap's , the '70 ties... but in restored running condition .

View attachment 43526

nice bikes
 

deQuincey

Quousque tandem...?
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i am enjoying the bike, now the e9 is grown up

i am trying to homologate this bike for night driving, this means you have to show light when you brake, so i need to incorporate a double filament bulb and a second connector in the light itself, but more difficult i need to place a switch

this is the process:

first template
placed using the holes for the passenger foot rest, you can see the type of switch, in this case is off when pressed


20180403_190704.jpg

once painted

20180404_183224.jpg



and covered with the rubber protector, light can be seen is position light

20180404_185327.jpg

now brake is pressed, and switch released, brighter light means second filament, and 21 watt

20180404_185333.jpg

is the less obtrusive i have been able to design, discrete in my opinion, the cables come out from the rubber cover and go under the support towards the frame

BTW see that the top edge of the support plate is bent to be able to stand the force of the swtich spring

20180404_185413.jpg
 

deQuincey

Quousque tandem...?
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oh, i forgot, this is how the brand new carb setting sounds, after ignition setting, i had to rebuild the carb, a mess, but iddle now is smooth and nice, no smoke in the exhaust, nice mixture, IMHO,...

 
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