Boxerworks.com

Ditto Jean. When I worked at the Beemer dealership in Austin in the 90's, we saw scads of /5's that had been passed down from student to student. The wiring was usually a snarl of mis-match and many of the fasteners were, shall we say, not factory approved.

Here's a better picture for the files, a relatively unmolested example (missing the headlight plug) click on the pic thanks to Steve Crist

About 1/3 of the right side is missing. but it looks "new".
Is this a salvage part - picture taken at a swap meet or something?

Jean wrote:About 1/3 of the right side is missing. but it looks "new".

Jean, right click on the image and select 'Open Image' to see the whole pic.

Oh.
Done it. Worked fine.
Still have not got the "pix-posting" bit under control tho.
Notice Darryl got his rear brakes bled: some things I CAN handle!!

Jean wrote:About 1/3 of the right side is missing. but it looks "new".
Is this a salvage part - picture taken at a swap meet or something?

For sale on the IBMWR awhile back.

I talked to Richard at Bench Mark Works today and he seems to think that the problem with the switch is/was the idjit with the key, he does not think I had it all the way in. To be fair I have 4 or 5 "nail keys" hanging around the house and I might have grabbed a worn-one.

Vince

"Unmolested" You really think that BMW ever turned out crap wiring like that? Every model from the /2 through the /6 was as neat as a pin from the factory. I am not saying that it came from the dealer that neat, because many didn't. Keep in mind that most of the bikes that we sold get a fairing from day one, or very soon. The resulting wiring was nearly always a mess and they most likely are today.

I came from the electronics field and I never allowed my mechanics to mess up the original wiring. The crappy ones that came in usually didn't get "fixed" due to the owner not wishing to pay for the time.

When the wiring loom came into the bottom, it got split in half. One half went up and around one side of the bucker and the other half went up the other side of the bucket. The center was mostly empty and neat and clean.

It is hard to believe that nobody here has seen an original wiring/lacing job from BMW. They didn't always use the same color coded wire, or divide the same wires, but they were always neat.

Now, someone go get a clean shot of a proper bucket wiring.

Yes, many of the photos on my site are very poor. I am not a photographer, never was and never will be. I have no interest/skill. If one of my photos looks good, then you can be sure that I used one offered to me by someone who knows what they are doing with a camera.

The whole wiring system is super simple and it only needs a bit of tracing to find errors and then a bit of skill to fix them neatly.

"Unmolested" I believe refers to the observation there are no added splices and replacement wires in the shell.
I have a copy of a BMW workshop manual from 1977, and the only photo of the insides of the headlight shell is somewhat obstructed by a pair of ham-hands. Since it is a copy and in B/W it's not much good to reproduce again.
So, maybe someone has a pre-1975 workshop manual with an original picture they can post...? maybe?

Jean's right, while that headlight wiring isn't factory correct, that photo is a bit confusing because the white , yellow, and brown ground wires for the headlight bulb socket have been disconnected and stuffed back in. All my /5 buckets have had the switch board replaced, so I can't say any or them are "original". I'm trying to rewire a friend's bike that had the headlight bucket removed and a Windjammer installed with a later RT wiring harness. Talk about a nest of snakes! I was looking for a good example of a 1974 wiring photo on the net, and found one on the BMWMOA website. Thought I was good to go, until closer inspection revealed multiple wires going to the wrong places on the connector board! I have my own R75/6 as an example. Neat and tidy, but the switch harnesses are entering the bucket from the wrong sides. Switched to take up some of the slack from using USA bar wiring harnesses on a Euro bar bike. Here's mine, my friend saw this and thinks I'm "anal" : and here's the one I found: