I began this BMW R51/3 journey not knowing where it was headed. I purchased an engine, a rear drive and drive shaft off of Ebay to start out. The engine was not in good shape when it arrived. The front timing cover was damaged and there was a lot of damage inside the engine block. It was a 1953 engine but I just wanted to build an R51/3 before I got too old.
I looked on Ebay for a cover and found a cover and a 1952 engine block that was priced very well. I almost asked the seller to split them up but decided to just buy it all...I could sell the block later and recover my expenses on the cover.
I have told how I ended up with matching engine and frame numbers before but didn't give the back story.
I do know the names of the person involved but will not mention the players by name here. A man in Oklahoma had gotten up in years and decided to sell his BMW parts stash so he advertised and everyone flocked to his garage to get a bargain. A buyer came up from Texas and started picking through his parts but he was a bit aggressive and he angered the old gentleman selling everything and he cut short Texas's shopping activities. Texas had already put together a pile and wanted more. In his pile was engine block 527466 but he also wanted a plunger frame that was up on a shelf. The seller told him to pay for his pile and leave...which he did.
He still had parts for sale and allowed more buyers to come. This is when my frame was purchased by another Oklahoma buyer who very generously sold it to me..thank you sir.
Here I am in SOCAL with a messed up engine, a 1952 engine block and looking for a frame. I would have had a non-matching bike but I was OK with that.
Late one night I got a frantic call from a gentleman that I had done business with and he said that an R51/3 plunger frame had just come up for sale on Facebook. I immediately called the seller and purchased the frame sight unseen. When he sent me pictures of the frame it had the same serial number as the engine block from Texas! This all strange but true............
I had Jeff Moore remove everything from the 1953 cases and use them on the 1952 block and now I have a totally rebuilt engine and freshly restored frame, plungers and drive shaft. Jeff is almost finished with my transmission and I have most everything for my front end so I need to keep on keepin' on !
Yes I do have slight dyslexia but I spelled that right.
When I took my engine cases to my motor builder (Jeff Moore) he looked at the BMW serifs that are stamped on either end of the serial number on the engine block. The serif is marked WMB instead of BMW. It's very small but visible under magnification. He said that he has only seen it on 1952 engine blocks and wondered if the frame is stamped with the same dies...it is!
This is the frame and engine that came back together by chance.
There are theories about these odd die stamps but most likely no one knows for certain. The dies were signed out to BMW employees by the company. Perhaps someone lost their serif die stamps and another set was made, Who really know but it's an interesting piece of BMW history.
I would love to have a set of correct looking tank roundels that are marked WMB!
I had Mike Dunn of Vintage German Motorcycles do some repairs and paint my frame. It cam back just beautiful! I sent the rear drive and drive shaft off to Todd Rasmussen in New Mexico and everything came back in really nice shape. I drove myself and him a bit crazy trying the mate the drive shaft up with the rear drive but I finely got it done.
