1999 September 4 (Saturday)
Cylinder fin repair
Cylinder fin repair
Welded fin
The right cylinder had a broken cooling fin in a noticeable spot just inboard of the right carburetor. Joe broke off a somewhat matching fin from a sacrificial cylinder then ground it down to fit the profile of the missing fin on my cylinder.
That piece and the cylinder were send out for welding. This is the result. When painted it will be very hard to tell that the fin was ever repaired.
1999 September 14 (Tuesday)
I decided to buy the chromed steel rims from Paul and went over to his place to lace the front wheel. The results were mixed. Paul and I both learned that these Radaelli rims were not drilled correctly to match BMW hubs.
Wheel lacing start
Lacing start
One side done
Lacing started OK. I was using the same stainless steel spokes and nipples that I took off the original wheels. There’s really only one place each spoke can go providing that the wheel and hub are in the proper orientation.
Wheel lacing 2nd side
Second side
I’ve installed the spokes on both sides quite loose. Now the wheel will be placed on the truing stand.
Truing stand
Wheel on truing stand
I tightened spokes by eyeball first. With the exception of the area around the weld the wheel is beginning to look good. The problems start when we get out the dial indicator for fine tuning.
Curved spokes
Spoke bend
no illusion
As we added tention to the spokes we noticed that they were not straight. This was not an optical illusion, as the second photo on the left shows the bend when compared to a straight edge. Reason unknown at this point.
1999 September 23 (Thursday)
Note: the location of the dial indicator shown in the following pictures is per the BMW factory manual… and incorrect. See Alloy Wheels for a more experienced view on wheel rebuilding.
Home made truing stand
Home made stand
Checking for out-of-round
Stand close-up
This is the quick-and-dirty 2x4-and-washers wheel truing stand I hacked together to work at home. It does the job as long as I keep the mag mount base of the dial indicator stand attached to the axle and not the stand itself. This way measurements will always be axle to wheel, regardless of slight movements of the stand. This wheel is within spec, but still needs work as the spoke tension isn’t even close to being even. There’s nothing I can do about the bend in the spokes with these rims.