BMW NOS points note.

[dwire]

[Major Softie]

Are you implying that 40 year old parts will behave no better than the 40 year-old parts they are replacing - or even worse? That parts that were good 40 years ago may not be as good now as they were 40 years ago - despite never having been used???

Gosh, that's so hard to understand....

[dwire]

I'll tell you what, since you remove all relevance and any helpful insight to others that might have been provided by my post, we'll leave yours to be the authoritative deal here and you can play kickball by yourself. Incidentally as my post was mentioning, the wires' were defective. I have a car - so yes automotive wiring full of wire 20 years older, none of which failed in such a manner; and yes even identically styled stuff. We have breaker points in the back of the hardware that old; and even older again those sleeves they put on them? Again,not bad... Anyhow.

[Major Softie]

Not sure you understood my post...

My point was: of course there are going to be some old parts which are going to be no longer viable because of their age, regardless of not having been used, thus, I was agreeing with your experience and implying that it will apply to some parts other than just the one you mentioned.

Or did I misunderstand YOUR post???

[Airbear]

D, ol' chap, could you please elaborate on the point (er, sorry) of the original post? I just see an image with no explanation.

[Major Softie]

D, ol' chap, could you please elaborate on the point (er, sorry) of the original post? I just see an image with no explanation.

If I understood correctly, it was a reference to his comments about NOS points in this string:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4911&p=58347#p58347

[Airbear]

Thanks Major. I was wondering if it was because the yellow sleeve on that set looks pre-slimed.

[dwire]

RE: Points; their is mention of my troubles in MS's hyperlink thee and it was with regard to the standard fabric sleeves one finds on a great deal of points from 30's and on on up on vehicles (I'd guess motorcycles too) and most certainly small engines - the only difference being I could throw out a counter-full of such parts for different applications and none of which would I be likely to find the failure I was speaking of in the original post. So, here and any place that speaks of doing concourse all original restorations, the OEM vendor would be one to entirely avoid since time and age reacts in the fabric portion and the rubberized coating - which in the picture you might even see it appears as a coating - IMHO it should not be, but ti doesn't matter; anything that falls apart and fails is usually not desirable. As for being afraid of fabric wrapped or rubberized fabric wrapped insulation, there is no reason for that as I could crawl around taking pictures literally of miles of the stuff 20+ years older that did not and still has not failed in any way and was subjected to far worse treatment than a parts bin or bag...

Here was my original post below. I see plenty of people doing or attempting all original restorations - ones that will pay twice for an old NOS footpeg than just ordering one. I ran across that picture on eBay and between being aware of its likely failure of all the crud that should have permeated the sleeve - now risen to the top ready to peel away like on would pull surgeon's gloves off, thought it a good message, as really there are only a handful of things that are not 100% generic that the original parts truly were built to a higher standard or so far that has been my experience to a great degree... Incidentally, the reason my post made no sense was that MS's comments made this defect (due both to time as well as composition' obviously since I van grab points with the same type of sleeve that is not falling apart made 20 years prior - some even much older if I dug for them) sound absurd. It is only absurd when you buy 3 or 4 of them (OEM NOS points) at the the same price or more than you could from the modern aftermarket once you find out that crumbly latex that should not be there is coming off of everywhere on everything...

Since I wondered upon this picture of an NOS set of points and I had just recently made mention one need take extra care mounting or using them; look below:



You can see it is a good old fabric rapped wire with a thin rubber insulated wire inside; nothing all so wrong with that, but whatever they treated it with; some sort of latex-like rubber will easily flake off, bunch under things and make what should be a very simple job turn into a nightmare until you just remove all the coating. I was lucky enough to have some heat shrink tubing that cleared the connector (barely) and was able to slide back over the inner rubber and most importantly the outer fabric. This lesson too had been brought about in two ways; the aforementioned and the crumbling insulation would "clog up" under the clamp to hold the wire down. The only reason to not just leave only the fabric behind sans its rubber-like coating (as the rubber will come off in one's fingers in seconds) is that then the (inner) wire diameter is too small for the clamp as the clamp is made in such a size as to require "something else" on it. That one was learned as I got the wire ever so slightly pinched under the clamp which caused a partially intermittent short in the ignition.

So be weary of the OEM parts - knowing what i do now, i would say if one knows the replacements they are getting are compatible and have a choice between NOS and the substitute newer ones, leave the NOS/NIB parts at the counter and buy the others...

[Airbear]

Ok, thanks for that, D. I have 4 sets of old points with the slimy yellow sleeves. I refurbish them in turn, filing and polishing each point carefully, get 10 or 15 thousand kms use and shove in the next set. New ones are $45 here from our best mail order supplier. I'm saving up. I thought my points days were over when I fitted an Omega a couple of years ago, but it developed an intermittent fault - possibly heat related - so I switched back to points. Current plan is to re-mount the Omega up on the spine of the frame to see if that works. I'll always keep the points as backup, and can just flick a switch to change over.
Cheers.

[Duane Ausherman]

Resurfacing points can be disasterous, but I might too wish to save the money. Once cleaned up, can you dip them in an ultrasonic bath to get the tiny dirt ouf of the valleys?

So many customers trucked in a dead bike from filing points. Jsut a warning.