What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[Venteuri]

Painted the 75/7 tank..

   
   
   

[Gone in 60]

Dang that is some nice paintwork!

[peterbaron]

Is this 1968-1980 Merc 280SEL?

This gas tank looks owesome..and the rest of the beemer too!

[Gone in 60]

Ok, I jinxed myself. Took the bike out for a test ride this evening, running several errands, starting, stopping, running on the highway and on city streets. 

Stopped to try on some new boots, which I might buy, Ikea to buy a new $1.99 trash can after I dropped my 20 year old $1.99 trash can and cracked it. She did fine until the last stop at Trader Joe's to buy my "keep me from killing everything around me" snacks and some rum. Came back out, and she went into limp mode. Key off/on while coasting, got home after five restarts. Now showing the twist grip again. 

Ugh. 

However, I did add one more skill to my resume list. The seats on some of our old BMWs have gotten sticky for some reason. One is really bad. "My guy" wanted $200 to recover it in plain black vinyl. That's crap. 
I had never recovered a motorcycle seat before, but here's what five bucks' worth of vinyl and a stapler can do.

[rdprdp01]

We also agreed that since I'm the "most experienced rider on the team", that if it were to happen again, best that it happened while I was riding, not one of the other guys.

May I also point out that you are the heart and soul of the operation. Placing you potentially in harm’s way seems ill advised, at all levels. May I suggest a BMW Dealership if the problem returns in lieu of you potentially riding on I-5, experiencing a sudden change in speed, and having to improvise on a motorcycle that seems fickle at best and cursed at worst! David

[Venteuri]

Dang that is some nice paintwork!

I had to settle it as it is, without the stripes that BMW uses on tank and fender, it became an impossible job for me.

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Is this 1968-1980 Merc 280SEL?

This gas tank looks owesome..and the rest of the beemer too!

 

Its a 1977 - 450SEL, W116. 

thanks

[Gone in 60]

We also agreed that since I'm the "most experienced rider on the team", that if it were to happen again, best that it happened while I was riding, not one of the other guys.

May I also point out that you are the heart and soul of the operation. Placing you potentially in harm’s way seems ill advised, at all levels. May I suggest a BMW Dealership if the problem returns in lieu of you potentially riding on I-5, experiencing a sudden change in speed, and having to improvise on a motorcycle that seems fickle at best and cursed at worst! David

Thank you very much for your concern here, but I'd rather have a recurring problem happen to me, rather than one of our other guys, who'd then be calling me for help. I've gotten pretty darn good at shutting off and turning back on without losing too much speed or focus.

Besides.... now it's personal. 

I gave the AI chatbots the two codes it tripped last night, and it's given me several interesting things to scan. I'm like Quint going after the shark at this point.

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Stripes or no stripes, it looks awesome. Nice Merc as well.
I had a good friend in college who got married and had kids way before he could afford it, and was driving a beater Dodge Omni.
His boss told him that such a crap car was unsafe to carry his family, and gave him... literally gave him his 1977 450SEL so that his children would be riding in a safer car.

A 1977 450SEL is a wonderful car in the hands of someone who can afford to take care of it. My friend could not. Not too long after taking posession, the car needed new catalytic converters, which totalled over $5k. The car remained parked from that point on.

[Venteuri]

We also agreed that since I'm the "most experienced rider on the team", that if it were to happen again, best that it happened while I was riding, not one of the other guys.

May I also point out that you are the heart and soul of the operation. Placing you potentially in harm’s way seems ill advised, at all levels. May I suggest a BMW Dealership if the problem returns in lieu of you potentially riding on I-5, experiencing a sudden change in speed, and having to improvise on a motorcycle that seems fickle at best and cursed at worst! David

---

Stripes or no stripes, it looks awesome. Nice Merc as well.
I had a good friend in college who got married and had kids way before he could afford it, and was driving a beater Dodge Omni.
His boss told him that such a crap car was unsafe to carry his family, and gave him... literally gave him his 1977 450SEL so that his children would be riding in a safer car.

A 1977 450SEL is a wonderful car in the hands of someone who can afford to take care of it. My friend could not. Not too long after taking posession, the car needed new catalytic converters, which totalled over $5k. The car remained parked from that point on.

Thank you,

I do strongly differ from your friend. Was his car a W116? 
This car is a tank, If someone asked me to choose a car to drive around the globe .... this one is on my top list.  A diesel W123 would be the best.
Very easy to maintain, in fact easier than my 1972 W118 280SEL.

I just googled it and a CAT for this car is around $250-400 usd - as you can (and should)  use a generic one. I understand back then it must have been expensive on the MB dealer.

[tommymck]

Painted the 75/7 tank..

That looks great.  The 75/5 is arguably the pinnacle of the airhead run.

[Gone in 60]

We also agreed that since I'm the "most experienced rider on the team", that if it were to happen again, best that it happened while I was riding, not one of the other guys.

May I also point out that you are the heart and soul of the operation. Placing you potentially in harm’s way seems ill advised, at all levels. May I suggest a BMW Dealership if the problem returns in lieu of you potentially riding on I-5, experiencing a sudden change in speed, and having to improvise on a motorcycle that seems fickle at best and cursed at worst! David

---

Stripes or no stripes, it looks awesome. Nice Merc as well.
I had a good friend in college who got married and had kids way before he could afford it, and was driving a beater Dodge Omni.
His boss told him that such a crap car was unsafe to carry his family, and gave him... literally gave him his 1977 450SEL so that his children would be riding in a safer car.

A 1977 450SEL is a wonderful car in the hands of someone who can afford to take care of it. My friend could not. Not too long after taking posession, the car needed new catalytic converters, which totalled over $5k. The car remained parked from that point on.

Thank you,

I do strongly differ from your friend. Was his car a W116? 
This car is a tank, If someone asked me to choose a car to drive around the globe .... this one is on my top list.  A diesel W123 would be the best.
Very easy to maintain, in fact easier than my 1972 W118 280SEL.

I just googled it and a CAT for this car is around $250-400 usd - as you can (and should)  use a generic one. I understand back then it must have been expensive on the MB dealer.

This would have been in the early 90s, and being California, you'd need a new one that's CARB (California Air Resources Board) certified. That puts a bit more of a sting on the price, and there were probably very few legal options other than a dealer. 
 
The car was magnificent. I was pretty jealous (my Tercel was nice, but...) and sort of wanted to buy it myself once my friend parked it, but I wasn't in any better position to take care of it at the time than he was. $500 would have pinched either of us at the time, let alone more than that.

Speaking of magnificent Mercedes, the Petersen just opened a very nice Mercedes exhibit. Worth the trip for a true afficianado.

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Ok, Captain Quint just put three barrels in the shark.

Got tired of the nebulous and inconsistent open circuit / short circuit fault codes coming up on my BMW scanner, and the inconsistent erratic throttle behavior. Since I'm using this bike for deliveries as well as diagnosing it, I haven't been too invasive about my approach. But, being a holiday week, we've pretty much figured out that we're not getting any action today. So, enough was enough, and I dissected enough to pull the harness that includes the throttle wiring.

I'm finding that former police bikes tell very interesting forensic stories about the level of care they received during their service. I was able to find that at some point in this bike's history, the cable for the right side of the handlebar was severed and repaired. About 20 wires, six of which control the throttle. The rest would be for heated grips, the start/kill switch and various police functions. Each wire was stripped, the ends twisted together and wrapped with electric tape. Errant strands were sticking out of the tape on a few of them. Not exactly an aircraft quality repair...

I did a little better job reconnecting and sealing each wire, taped up the loom and made sure it wasn't under any strain. Not putting any of my eggs in this basket yet, let alone all of them. But, after I get it put back together and clean myself up, I'm taking her out for a very thorough test ride. I told the boss that if this fixes it once and for all, I'm requesting an extra bottle of Macallan at the Christmas party.