Ignition switch issues?

[King Herald]

My bike is a '97 r1100r, with 94,000 miles on . Last week I had the engine cut out soon after starting, outside the beer shop. I heard the pump whirr immediately and it fired up again no problem, then did it a couple more times. Then it was okay and I rode home. A week later it happened again, just once as I pulled up to a halt at a junction. And there were a couple of big 'jerks' one time as I was riding.

 

I've noticed that sometimes I can turn the key to 'on' and it clicks into place, but no power comes on until I do it a second time. 

 

Yesterday I was out riding, came to a halt, reached out to turn the motor off, and the second my had touched the key it all went off. Hadn't even turned the key.

 

I've given all the wires in the area a good wiggle when the motor is running, turned bars from lock to lock, with no dramas, so, I'm guessing the problem lies within the actual switch itself. Is there any known history of these failing? Is there any way to squirt cleaner and lube into the bowels of the switch itself, not the key hole I assume?

 

I'm thinking I'll have to pull the headlight off and drill up into the screws to get it out for a check otherwise. 

 

I've already bypassed the side stand switch, as that acted a bit erratic, it let me start the motor with it down a couple of times, which it  never did before, but that hasn't sorted the problem. 

[dirtrider]

21 hours ago, King Herald said:

My bike is a '97 r1100r, with 94,000 miles on . Last week I had the engine cut out soon after starting, outside the beer shop. I heard the pump whirr immediately and it fired up again no problem, then did it a couple more times. Then it was okay and I rode home. A week later it happened again, just once as I pulled up to a halt at a junction. And there were a couple of big 'jerks' one time as I was riding.

 

I've noticed that sometimes I can turn the key to 'on' and it clicks into place, but no power comes on until I do it a second time. 

 

Yesterday I was out riding, came to a halt, reached out to turn the motor off, and the second my had touched the key it all went off. Hadn't even turned the key.

 

I've given all the wires in the area a good wiggle when the motor is running, turned bars from lock to lock, with no dramas, so, I'm guessing the problem lies within the actual switch itself. Is there any known history of these failing? Is there any way to squirt cleaner and lube into the bowels of the switch itself, not the key hole I assume?

 

I'm thinking I'll have to pull the headlight off and drill up into the screws to get it out for a check otherwise. 

 

I've already bypassed the side stand switch, as that acted a bit erratic, it let me start the motor with it down a couple of times, which it  never did before, but that hasn't sorted the problem. 

Morning  King Herald

 

 

I have seen a few ignition switches act like yours. 

 

You can drop the switch itself out of the bottom of the ignition switch upper housing then clean the contacts.

 

Kind of a pain to get to but there is a little set screw (usually has red sealer over the screw), you can just remove the screw (or loosen it way out) then the switch part pulls out of the bottom.

 

[King Herald]

21 hours ago, dirtrider said:

Morning  King Herald

 

 

I have seen a few ignition switches act like yours. 

 

You can drop the switch itself out the bottom ignition switch upper housing the clean the contacts.

 

Kind of a pian to get to but there is a little set screw (usually has red sealer over the screw), you just remove the screw (or loosen it way out) then the switch pulls out the bottom.

 

 

Morning DR, excellent info, thanks.  It sounds like a far better plan than I had. 

[King Herald]

Well that was an adventure. I decided to tackle the job today, after a couple of total power cuts that lasted a long second or two out on the highway yesterday. 

 

I could see the grub screw easily enough, but it's directly in line with the headlight bracket so can't be accessed with a screwdriver.

 

So, headlight glass out, headlight shell removed, both handlebars off, left dangling, and finally instruments/headlight bracket unit removed and hung out the front.

 

The grub screw came out easily, no sealant on it.

 

I had to undo the gas tank and slide it back to unclip the switch harness to get it over to the workbench. 

 

The switch itself came apart okay, and there was a bit of green goop in a few places. Main thing was the centre contact, it had burnt areas on, that I removed with some fine emery paper. I used a fine wire brush on the other green parts. 

 

Everything was cleaned with contact cleaner, then given a good squirt with silicon spray. 

 

The whole job took maybe two hours.  And it went back together, fired up, and I did 30 miles with no problem. That's doesn't mean it's fixed, as it was a very erratic issue, I could go 50 miles without a problem, then get a couple of 'dead spots' within minutes of each other. So, fingers crossed that was the issue. 

 

I should have taken some pics, it looked tragic at one stage,  with all the handlebars and headlight shell and clocks hanging out like roadkill....

 

And again, thanks to DR for the advice earlier. 

[Jim Moore]

Not to jinx you, but has that bike had the HES replaced?

[King Herald]

40 minutes ago, Jim Moore said:

Not to jinx you, but has that bike had the HES replaced?

Yes, I installed a new one 30,000 miles ago. It had dumped me at the side of the road....

[RK Ryder]

I once had a similar problem to yours which was caused by the wiring to the side stand becoming worn. 

[RPG]

13 hours ago, King Herald said:

Well that was an adventure. I decided to tackle the job today, after a couple of total power cuts that lasted a long second or two out on the highway yesterday. 

 

I could see the grub screw easily enough, but it's directly in line with the headlight bracket so can't be accessed with a screwdriver.

 

So, headlight glass out, headlight shell removed, both handlebars off, left dangling, and finally instruments/headlight bracket unit removed and hung out the front.

 

The grub screw came out easily, no sealant on it.

 

I had to undo the gas tank and slide it back to unclip the switch harness to get it over to the workbench. 

 

The switch itself came apart okay, and there was a bit of green goop in a few places. Main thing was the centre contact, it had burnt areas on, that I removed with some fine emery paper. I used a fine wire brush on the other green parts. 

 

Everything was cleaned with contact cleaner, then given a good squirt with silicon spray. 

 

The whole job took maybe two hours.  And it went back together, fired up, and I did 30 miles with no problem. That's doesn't mean it's fixed, as it was a very erratic issue, I could go 50 miles without a problem, then get a couple of 'dead spots' within minutes of each other. So, fingers crossed that was the issue. 

 

I should have taken some pics, it looked tragic at one stage,  with all the handlebars and headlight shell and clocks hanging out like roadkill....

 

And again, thanks to DR for the advice earlier. 

Glad you got it sorted out. I had similar issues with my RT and with D.R.'s help, a little internal cleaning was all that was needed.

[King Herald]

11 hours ago, RK Ryder said:

I once had a similar problem to yours which was caused by the wiring to the side stand becoming worn. 

First thing I checked, and it was playing up, and let me start the motor with the stand down, which it shouldn't. I removed it and bypassed the wires...... but it wasn't the real problem. 

One less thing to worry about in the future though. 

[Balibeemer]

Same thing happened to me so before I started wrenching, I came to this forum and when checking the ignition switch, discovered that the red wire to the switch had come loose. Enter a small screwdriver and my trusty soldering iron and I was up and running in 15 minutes, 10 of which were spend reading the posts on this forum😀

[King Herald]

After 300+ trouble free miles it took a couple of turns to get power to come on last night, so I thought I'd definitely order a new switch today.

 

Our local U.K. BMW store wants a gut dropping £165 for the switch part, and that's on back order at the moment. $US200 or thereabouts. 

 

https://www.motorworks.co.uk/ignition-switch-electrical-part-with-wiring-ela06743-1.html

 

Anybody know of an equivalent part or source a bit cheaper? 

 

ETA, just seen these are all the same switch unit, according to Motorworks. 

 

 

 

 

[dirtrider]

46 minutes ago, King Herald said:

After 300+ trouble free miles it took a couple of turns to get power to come on last night, so I thought I'd definitely order a new switch today.

 

Our local U.K. BMW store wants a gut dropping £165 for the switch part, and that's on back order at the moment. $US200 or thereabouts. 

 

https://www.motorworks.co.uk/ignition-switch-electrical-part-with-wiring-ela06743-1.html

 

Anybody know of an equivalent part or source a bit cheaper? 

 

ETA, just seen these are all the same switch unit, according to Motorworks. 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning  King Herald

 

In the U.S. here E-Bay usually lists a number of decent 1100 ignition switches for sale, prices are usually not too bad. 

 

 

 

 

[King Herald]

3 hours ago, dirtrider said:

Morning  King Herald

 

In the U.S. here E-Bay usually lists a number of decent 1100 ignition switches for sale, prices are usually not too bad. 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning DR,

I've  just had a look on U.K. ebay and the cheapest used unit was the equivalent of $100 from a 35,000 mile bike.

 

However, Motorworks got in touch with me a second ago and said the original unit is no longer produced, but, there is an identical switch with a longer wire, that happens to be nearly half the price of the original. I now have one ordered. I shall report back once it arrives and is fitted.

 

[King Herald]

So, the old switch seemed to carry on without a problem until today, when it took 3 tries to turn power on. Back home, broke out the tools, spent a half hour trying to get the fiddly little screw out without tearing the bike apart, to no avail. The screw is dead centre in the pic, all but covered by the headlight bracket when it's all together. 

 

 

 

The new switch is exactly the same as the old 'obsolete' one, that costs 30% more, but it has  maybe 8" more length on the wires.