Does anyone have a drawing please ?

[Matteeee]

Hi All

Hate to rant on about an over posted topic but as everyone is no doubt aware the cam alignment tool for the 1250 ShiftCam are unobtanium, I have tried pretty much every Motorrad supplier in Europe and they are all listing the parts as discontinued, I even got a refund from a supplier in Germany today where I had the jig on backorder. This is a bit odd as BMW are selling container loads of ShiftCam bikes and there must be hundreds of thousands in use.... hardly obsolete.... If I was cynical I might think BMW were trying to discourage DIY maintenance... Surely not. 

TDC tool is pretty simple to produce something that will suffice, The chain tensioner a bit trickier but doable, my problem is I cant make an alignment jig (BMW part # 83302467268) unless I can get my hands on a set to reverse engineer I am lucky enough to have a high precision 3D printer at my place of work that can produce reinforced nylon parts, I suspect for light use this may well suffice (worth a try anyway), Does anyone have an accurate, dimensioned drawing of these jigs please.

 

Also I'd like to do a massive shout out to Mr Boxflyer, what a legend this man is,  not only for his vast knowledge and experience, but his utter willingness to share, an absolute mine of information and superbly detailed videos... and then to cap it all he says "drop around to my house i'll do it for free".... warms my heart that there are still people with such community spirit. Wish I wasn't 3500 miles away. Like I said "LEGEND"

[Twisties]

I thought Boxflyer has a cam alignment tool available for purchase or rent?  

[Matteeee]

Ah, that would be handy I’ll PM him. Thanks. Matt. 

[Boxflyer]

Hi Matt,

First off, I received your request via PM for the details and drawings of all the tools I have for both 1200/1250 WetHead and ShiftHead bikes. 

I was contemplating how to respond…I have a lot of hours of R&D as well as machining costs involved in what I make.

 

The idea that any of these tools can be printed on a 3D printer is doubtful…the tolerances are very tight and the strength exceeds any of the materials I have used with my 2 versions of 3D printers. 

 

Something as simple as trying to make the 8mm TDC pin is very complicated.  It requires a perfectly centered hole in a plug that has a precision fit pin that will be able to not only locate TDC precisely in the slot in the rotor of the alternator, but also resist the torquing of the cam locking bolts to 65Nm.

 

I completed 8 Cam Timing and Valve Clearance checks last week...bringing the total up to 156 done to date.

The tools I make and use, or the OEM versions, are essential to improving the operation of the 1200/1250 WetHead/ShiftHead bikes.

 

Sorry I don't feel like handing over my intellectual property with regards to the tools I have, but it's taken me 5 years to get these things refined to the state they are now.

This is also making me question my plans for making available these tools for use as Rental Tool Sets in the future.

 

Brad Smith

 

  

[Matteeee]

Hi Brad.

Many thanks for responding to my request, I completely understand your reticence to help out here.

I would love to improve the performance of my bike but as mentioned the tools are completely unavailable.

If you know of anywhere I can get my hands on the jig and camchain tool please do tell.

All the Best 

Matt 

[Matteeee]

16 hours ago, Twisties said:

I thought Boxflyer has a cam alignment tool available for purchase or rent?  

No. sadly not if your outside the good ole US of A

[Matteeee]

15 hours ago, Boxflyer said:

Hi Matt,

First off, I received your request via PM for the details and drawings of all the tools I have for both 1200/1250 WetHead and ShiftHead bikes. 

I was contemplating how to respond…I have a lot of hours of R&D as well as machining costs involved in what I make.

 

The idea that any of these tools can be printed on a 3D printer is doubtful…the tolerances are very tight and the strength exceeds any of the materials I have used with my 2 versions of 3D printers. 

 

Something as simple as trying to make the 8mm TDC pin is very complicated.  It requires a perfectly centered hole in a plug that has a precision fit pin that will be able to not only locate TDC precisely in the slot in the rotor of the alternator, but also resist the torquing of the cam locking bolts to 65Nm.

 

I completed 8 Cam Timing and Valve Clearance checks last week...bringing the total up to 156 done to date.

The tools I make and use, or the OEM versions, are essential to improving the operation of the 1200/1250 WetHead/ShiftHead bikes.

 

Sorry I don't feel like handing over my intellectual property with regards to the tools I have, but it's taken me 5 years to get these things refined to the state they are now.

This is also making me question my plans for making available these tools for use as Rental Tool Sets in the future.

 

Brad Smith

 

  

In my defence, I'm not asking for your IP i'm asking for BMW's. I was merely inquiring whether anyone on the forum that possessed a pair of the original BMW alignment jigs was able to sketch and dimension them for me so that I can reproduce them through necessity. I'd buy them if I could.

As an experienced (read old) toolmaker with access to a full machine shop I can make the tools easily enough, but the jigs will be a pain as I will need to engineer them from scratch, I'll try and get a scrap head and cams to work with otherwise i'll be pulling the cam covers off my daily rider an awful lot (not ideal).

Thanks to those on this excellent forum for listening, even though it has been unable to help in anyway.

 

Regards

 

Matt.

[JCtx]

12 hours ago, Boxflyer said:

Sorry I don't feel like handing over my intellectual property with regards to the tools I have, but it's taken me 5 years to get these things refined to the state they are now.

This is also making me question my plans for making available these tools for use as Rental Tool Sets in the future. 

You'd be crazy to provide that info for free indeed. And as far as anybody here trying to copy your tools, I wouldn't worry about that. It wouldn't be worth the headache, plus nobody here would buy copied tools anyway (at least I wouldn't). But up to you if you want to stop renting them. I'd fully understand and respect that decision. You're already offering free labor sometimes, which nobody else does, so that's enough in my book.

[GSRallye]

Well I got my Alignment Jig from Max BMW Motorcycles www.maxbmw.com  Tool is sitting on my desk.  Took about 30-45 days. 

[JamesW]

Well, you guys have convinced me that I will never own a new BMW motorcycle.   Nope, not ever in what's left of this lifetime.  As if I could ever want or need more than 90HP on any mc and a set of common feeler gauges will never break the bank.  Oh, and if I need more snort I can always fire up the FJR.  lol..lol..