Boy did that gas-in-the-oil-pan story bring back memories, but of a
different nature. Back when I rode m/c, I had a BMW R75/6. Went on
a trip, spent the night at a motel and went to start it next morn.
Pushed the button (yeah, I know, real men use kick starters, but by
'67 BMW had removed them) and got one-half a revolution out of the
crank and frying noise from the battery. Hit the button again and it
was obvious this motor was not gonna spin. Maybe if I pull the plugs
to release the compression might help, methought. As I started to
remove the right hand plug I notice I had neglected to shut off the
fuel petcock for that cylinder. The entire sequence of events then
appeared in my mind. The engine stopped with the RH cylinder at BDC,
the intake valve must have been completely/partially open, gas petcock
left open and float failure in RH Bing. All this equals 375 cc of raw
gas filling up the combustion chamber against which the starter motor
didn't have a chance. Let's see here, if I pull both plugs and hit
the starter switch should be able to pump that gas out right through
the spark plug hole. Sure enough, gas spewed out the plug hole at a
good rate for several crank cycles. Replaced the gas-soaked RH plug
with one of the emergency spares (a habit from owning Brit.cars) and
she fired right up. Changed the oil and filter and went on my merry
way.
Barry W. Fox fox@imagitex.com 65 TR4A
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