Hello all, 

My K1100 has been a hangar queen for a couple of years due to family illness and a bad fuel pump. I managed to get a new fuel pump in (hope I wired it correctly) and also a filter. Battery was shot, so I ordered a new one-- much smaller than the original but if you can't trust Max, who can you trust?

Put battery in, wired it up and, well, the clock works. No brake lights for either the front or back, no instruments, no spinning up the fuel pump, etc, etc. Just the clock. Checked fuses-- all good. 

Don't want to pay to ship it to Essex and Frank's so I thought I would start here.

What time is it?  

Test your new battery's voltage. It should be up in the 13V range; never mind that it's new. At least you got M&Ms with it, maybe. Be certain the battery cables are tight at their terminals. Clean your battery's negative terminal cable connection on the transmission and tighten it. Disconnect the Motronic plug, clean it with electronic cleaner, reconnect then be certain the connection is snug.

Walk down to Chill tomorrow and get a mango or coconut gelato. It's going to be good weather.   The roads are clear because the leaf peepers have nothing to peep.

Check all the fuses with a meter don't just look they can be very deceptive and be open circuit without blowing, they're sneaky lil critters.

You might want to check the ignition switch.  I have had to go into two of mine so far. 

http://www.k100.biz/Electr/_NT/NT_Ignition_Sw.pdf

They can play up at inopportune times(my first one did it about 800 miles from home) so now I look at servicing mine as preventive maintenance.

I thought of that too, but would that kill all of my electrics? I don't even have a horn or lights or anything other than the clock.

Point-Seven-five wrote:You might want to check the ignition switch.  I have had to go into two of mine so far.

kbikevermont wrote:I thought of that too, but would that kill all of my electrics? I don't even have a horn or lights or anything other than the clock.

In this quote, you are describing the typical state of a K-bike when the ignition switch is Off. If an identical state is the result when the ignition switch is turned On, it would be fair to consider the condition of the ignition switch as a suspect.

I called Franks and spoke to Lester and he told me to check the side stand switch-- as they tend to stick for a while. 

Here's the problem-- I have no clue where this is! I know I am a neophyte at home maintenance-- and my Clymer's didn't help out much at all. I assume that it is "somewhere" other than right by the side stand.

Under the gearbox there are 4 Allen head bolts that hold the stands on. The switch is near the left front bolt and has a thin stainless steel finger that protrudes to activate the switch.
The plug for the switch is under the right side cover a 2 pin rectangular plug about 10mm x 20mm to make the circuit short the 2 pins on the harness side and that will do what the switch does when the stand is up.
It is unlikely that switch as it only cuts the injectors not all the power. Ignition switch is still the most likely culprit.

I'm in for checking the ignition switch-- that makes the most sense--- I described it to Frank's but we never talked that. I assume I have to pull the cover off of the handlebars and then replace it there?

The electrical portion of the K11 ignition switch is at the bottom of the lock cylinder shaft, held in with a tiny (3x5mm) screw, usually painted over. The modular plug at the other end sits under the petrol tank. Yes, first remove the triple clamp cover for partial access, but you'll be coming at it from the front and beneath. Good eyes and a magnifying glass help. The link will take you to the BMW part number and if you click back to diagrammes above the number you'll see the parts breakdown on ETK (electronic parts catalogue) from www.realoem.com/bmw, a valuable tool.

K11 Ignition Switch

Here are a couple of threads to use for guidance. The '90–'92 K100RS and your bike have similar setups.
https://www.k100-forum.com/t3810-91-k100rs-ignition-switch-question
https://www.k100-forum.com/t2391-ignition-switch