So today the tear down of the 1972 R75/5 Toaster began in ernest. And as this unfolded my initial thoughts of “good original condition” /5 started to fade somewhat. Aside from the expected dirt and grime and wear and tear I discovered more and more signs of previous dodgy workmanship. I won’t go into massive details on the tear-down, suffice to say that like with my previous project I am taking HEAPS of photos as I go and also bagging and labelling all fasteners etc. as they come off. The tear down is not really dissimilar to the R65 apart from some obvious differences such as the airbox assembly and the electrical.
Random oversized nut on right cylinder head– This little fucker gave me grief- it seems that at some point someone removed the head and when they went to replace it lost the 12 o’clock nut so replaced it with what they had lying around. Problem is the nut is too big and wouldn’t allow me to get a socket around it. No idea how they tightened it in the first place. I managed to use a burr on my Dremel and cut a groove in the nut. Then I put a flathead screwdriver into the groove and tapped it loose with a hammer.
Gasket goo disaster on the left valve cover– removing the left valve cover I discovered this shit-show. Blue gasket goo everywhere. It seems that it has been used instead of a gasket on this side. An astonishing amount of silicone- even on the rocker arms and pushrods. Incredible. Further tear down of the engine revealed that this silicone had reached the sump but seems to have been stopped by the oil pickup sieve. There was no silicone in the oil pump.
Random hose clamp on right lower frame– I discovered a random hose clamp on the right lower frame and couldn’t for the life of me work out why it was there. Until I removed it and discovered that it was a makeshift bracket to support the clutch cable. This was required because at some stage either the bike has bottomed out or the gearbox has been dropped resulting in fracture of the clutch guide on the lower right gearbox. This will be another thing to repair.
Choke (enricher) cables wired onto the carbs this was another strange one. The choke cables appear to have been wired onto the carbs. Unsure why this has been done- it could be that the wrong cables were used.
Broken exhaust manifold and cross over pipe- as soon as I started disassembling the exhaust the cross over pipe fell apart. Also, the mufflers are not original and not in the same style or angle as the originals. They will need to be replaced.
General Grime and Dirt-Like all old bikes I expected a fair amount of grime. But it’s fair to say there was a lot on this bike as I stripped her down.
Overall the teardown only took a couple of days. The cleanup will take longer. I think things are progressing faster than the for the r65. Maybe I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way! Next up; Engine strip down.
