Forum bmwbike.com

I have a 1941 R12, and a reproduction operators manual for it. (In German, of course, printed in that nearly unreadable fraktur font.) My German skills are not the best, and I can't figure out how to set the timing on this bike. Can anyone help me with this?

Also, there doesn't seem to be a condensor in the ignition system, only a set of points. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance for any help! (Here's a photo, in case anyone might like to see it.)

The timing is straight foward but you need to make sure the mag is timed correctly before you even begin to set the fine adjustment. The ignition is advanced and retarded by the hand lever. I am assuming you have this? I have a 37 and struggled with a low power problem for 3 months until I noticed that the bike never kicked back during starting, even with full advance. This led me to my key problem. The timing gear on the mag was one tooth off, set by the previous owner, which prevented me from gettting full advance. When I changed this, what a difference.!!! I had a full 18 hp!!WOW. If you wish, E-mail me and I'll try to walk you through the items to look at to confirm the proper setting, Pete

Darryl,
I received your response with the additional info re the carbs. The more you write the more I tend to believe your problem is not with the timing but with the carburation. A improving condition that occurs as the engine warms up is typically an indicator of a fuel/air mixture problem(carb) not a timing or ignition problem. Often a ignition problem worsens as the electrical systems gets hot. This does not seem to be what you are experiencing. It seems that there are many variables and I would suggest a systematic approach to resolving your problems eliminating one thing at a time. If you want contact me and we will take each item one by one(I'll probablyy start with the ignition timing anyway). Were you at the MOA meeting at Rheinbeck? My R12 was there as well as my 1st place R52 and a couple of other bikes. You can see them in this months BMWMOA magazine.Let me know how you want to proceed. Peter