Having see videos of the motorbike being started and ridden I was confident that I would quickly be able to finish up the last couple of jobs on the bike and get her on the road. I never intended a full restoration but would leave the bike 'as is' with it grubby and worn patina. However, after getting her home and trying to get her started, I soon ran into a series of unexpected problems.
Firstly, the bike did not start easily. It took a lot of fiddling around before it finally kicked over and ran for about 8 minutes. It then began to backfire through the carburetor and the ignition was snuffed out. After changing the spark plugs, the bike would start up promptly but was now backfiring constantly. Hmm, ignition timing was too far advanced it seems. In the meantime, the old petrol tap began leaking like a sieve and the carburetor began flooding. I already had a reproduction petrol tap and carburetor on order so waited for them to arrive. Other items I ordered - mainly for general hygiene were a taillight, a replace speedometer and cable, and all control cables. These arrived this week.
I decided to keep the old Amal carburetor, but I used the replacement carb for parts. The replacement was a copy of an East German copy that fitted almost all old DKW and MZ motorcycles. The problem with the Amal carb proved to be a missing needle clip, so that was an easy fix.
This stopped the carburetor flooding and a little tightening here and there stopped the steady drip from the carb. The carb was also missing an air filter so a temporary modern filter was fitted in the meantime. I have contemporary version on order.
The next job was the replacement of the broken speedometer. After a bit of fumbling around I managed to remove the speedo housing, but have since found the original speedometer is very firmly attached to the housing to the point I could see no way to remove it. Discussions with the prewar DKW motorcycle owners club on Facebook (there are several groups) suggest this will need a lot of soaking in WD40 and then gingerly attempting to unscrew the speedo from the housing. I guess they made things to last in the old days and did not conceive the need to replace the speedo. So that's that for the moment. The speedo is 'sitting' with ample doses of WD40 to help it along.
One long bolt secures the speedometer housing to the top of the forks.
The speedometer appears to be screwed very firmly into the housing. There is nothing to get a purchase on so loosening with WD40 and a lot of careful twisting appears to be the only way to deal with this.
Backfiring through the carburetor is a symptom of the ignition being too far advanced. This was not a problem prior to my taking possession as the bike was starting and riding easily. All I can think is that the VAPE ignition has shifted during transport. I attempted to remove the generator side engine cover last weekend, but appeared to be firmly stuck despite all the bolts having been removed from the cover. A week of soaking with WD40 finally broke the seal and I was able to remove the cover. Looking at the Vape and the marks made on the housing, I think the ignition timing has moved reset about 3mm from where it should have been. Unfortunately, I don't have a puller to remove the hub and make the adjustment. I suspect I may have be a puller from the Troll Powerdynamo installation so will have to dig through my boxes of parts and tools.
Next thing I tried to do was replace the worn out choke cable. That proved to be more challenging than expected. Modern cables are often not the same size as the originals and their fittings do not necessarily fit. A lot of frustration and much swearing was involved in refitting the cable. I'll have to wait until I fix the Vape ignition to be sure whether the cables have been fitted correctly.
Wiring up the rear brake light and horn should be the last jobs and then we're done - He says! Looking at the contemporary literature, brake lights, indicators were not standard at the time.
Vendors I have used so far include:
1. https://www.motorradmeistermilz.de/
2. https://www.Zeitmaschinen-shop.de
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