Hi all.

I am a brand new member on here and also a brand new owner of a 1986 BMW K100 which has a few problems I have found already.

  

I live near Manchester, England but sadly nobody will be seeing me out and about just yet as it is my incentive to finally get around to getting my full bike licence. I may have ridden a few big bikes in the past without the proper licence and prefer the tourer style, so when a friend of mine was selling his K100 that I might of had a ride of last year when he got it and said "If ever you come to sell that, I want first refusal" I sort of stuck to my word and bought it off him.

It has only covered just over 52,000 miles from new and is in pretty good condition apart from the slight problems I have found. These are as follows; the headlight does not work at all, the horn tries to sound when you press the button but is hardly audible and the indicators only work as long as the headlight switch is not in either side or dipped position!

I have spoken to a local bike place and they said it could well be an earthing problem so it looks like my job over the weekend is going to be to take a look at those.

Hopefully I will get my tests passed soon and can be out enjoying my new bike and meeting up with peeps.

H

Grizzly wrote:Hi all.

I am a brand new member on here and also a brand new owner of a 1986 BMW K100 which has a few problems I have found already.

  

I live near Manchester, England but sadly nobody will be seeing me out and about just yet as it is my incentive to finally get around to getting my full bike licence. I may have ridden a few big bikes in the past without the proper licence and prefer the tourer style, so when a friend of mine was selling his K100 that I might of had a ride of last year when he got it and said "If ever you come to sell that, I want first refusal" I sort of stuck to my word and bought it off him.

It has only covered just over 52,000 miles from new and is in pretty good condition apart from the slight problems I have found. These are as follows; the headlight does not work at all, the horn tries to sound when you press the button but is hardly audible and the indicators only work as long as the headlight switch is not in either side or dipped position!

I have spoken to a local bike place and they said it could well be an earthing problem so it looks like my job over the weekend is going to be to take a look at those.

Hopefully I will get my tests passed soon and can be out enjoying my new bike and meeting up with peeps.

H

Welcome to the best place to get help on the planet for K bikes... if these guys can't help out, no one can!!! Friendly chaps and gals too!

Welcome too. Definitely the best place. We have a few members around Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and more. Check out the home page here, there is a section of what to do if you just bought a K. They also make you feel years younger and you meet lots of like minded folks.

Welcome too. Definitely the best place. We have a few members around Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and more. Check out the home page here, there is a section of what to do if you just bought a K. They also make you feel years younger and you meet lots of like minded folks.

Go through ALL the connections and clean them, earths and battery included.  Also replace all the fuses even if they look OK we have come across a few now that are cactus without being obviously blown. Not saying it will fix it but there is a good chance.

Thanks for the welcomes.

Rick, I have fitted a brand new battery yesterday and also replaced all the fuses with new ones and my weekend task is now going to be disconnecting, cleaning and then re-connecting every bit I can find. Hoping that sorts it out but where possible I will also check for continuity along the wires to make sure there are no splits.

Looks like it's going to keep me busy for a while!

While I am asking though, is there any suggestions as to what I can do with the rear brake? It appears that the master cylinder is seized.

 

Grizzly wrote: apart from the slight problems I have found. These are as follows; the headlight does not work at all, the horn tries to sound when you press the button but is hardly audible and the indicators only work as long as the headlight switch is not in either side or dipped position!

Sounds to me that you got a starter with dirty commutator and/or worn brushes.

To verify disconnect the starter input wire and ground it, all should then function as normal.
And of course...while carry out this test....don't touch the starter button.

1. If this test helps , you need to dismantle and clean the starter internals and very
likely the brushes needs to be changed....at least the positive one.
The commutator can be cleaned with a eraser rubber, also clean the groves
between the segments...use a toothpick, or similar.
Mark up the rear end cap relative to the stator, before dismantling.

2.If this test doesn't help, check the load shedding relay.

Thanks for the pointers but sadly I had already read a post advising to do that test and it didn't change anything. Looking more likely that it is either the relay (which one it is in the box I do not know!) or a bad connection somewhere.

Having spoken to my friend I bought it from it would appear that he had a problem with it when he bought it and was riding it back from the other side of the country. He stopped at a motorway services area on the way back and then couldn't get it re-started. Luckily for him though, a chap with an Ariel Atom helped him out with some jump leads.

 

Grizzly wrote: Looking more likely that it is either the relay (which one it is in the box I do not know!) or a bad connection somewhere.

You can swap the LSR and the horn relay, you find them in the relay box...
beside each other at front RHS.

Do these relays by any chance have any shared wires at all? Thinking that if the earth wire is common between the two, that could be what's at fault!

Only asking as the horn isn't working correctly either.

All the items you have problems with is connected via the LSR, then it's most likely here you would find the reason to your problem.

Okay. Super, thanks.

I will have a good nosey around and poke various relays/wires and try and replace the electrickery that is missing.

 

Good Luck!    .....you find a wiring diagram at the portal.

Inge K. wrote:Good Luck!    .....you find a wiring diagram at the portal.

That came in very helpful along with the advice I've been given.

I have been outside and braved the very hot sun and sorted out the problem. It was basically a poor contact on the LSR and as soon as I sorted that out the horn and lights are now all working properly.

Now all I've got to do is sort out the rear brake problem.

 

Well done   , post your brake problem in the technical section,
rather than member's introduction. 

More chance to get a faster answer................

It seems quite common that what often shows up as a component problem can be a dodgy connection to the component rather than the component itself. Its important that when you check any component that you check the connections first. Your work on the starter and the connections greatly improves future reliability.

The rear brake master cylinder on my L T was leaking when I got it. It wasn't an expensive thing to sort out, there is a repair kit for it. But open it up first as the whole thing could be in trouble and its easier to get it as one unit. When you are doing that clean out the fluid reservoir and the line in. The rear reservoir is prone to cracking with age and in fact its quite cheap from BMW. I just recently did the brakes on the RT and replaced the reservoir. I also put a new master cylinder kit in the front and it made a huge difference to to the braking.

Check the age of your tyres too. If they are over 3 years go for new ones but give them good time to scrub in. Then, on yer bike!!