Hi guys my K100lt has recently developed all kinds of weird and wonderful electical probs. Lights seem to come on and of when they feel like it somtimes my indicators work sometimes they dont and sometimes when i try to start the bike i just get a buzzing noise from under the tank

Also with the indicators when i push the turn button both the indicator lights on the dash come on at once but again only sometimes.
Would it be something to do with the starter motor brushes etc? and if it is how does a novice with Ks get to it and do the clean out?

Thanks in advance

Maggot

Yes it sounds like a problem with the starter.
You have to remove the battery and the battery tray. Then you can access the 2 screws holding the starter. When the screws are removed, just pull the starter from the engine (slide the starter toward the back of the bike).

Open the starter, check the brushes and clean the whole assembly.

Bert

Welcome Maggot. Here are a couple of links that should help. This is one of the first things I did on my bike after purchasing it last summer, and once you get the little bugger out its a fairly simple job.

www.ibmwr.org/ktech/starter-cleaning/starter-cleaning.shtml
www.ibmwr.org/ktech/starter-cleaning2.shtml

OG

Ok Bert thanks for your advice i had gleaned it might be the cause by being a avid reader of these great forums pretty much everyday not from prior exp as this is my first k and im still getting used to riding it.
In this harsh financial climate and with a 3 month old son im going to be attempting to do as much work as i can servicing and attempting to fix problems etc
so wish me luck! lol

Maggot

Thanks for the great links Oldgoat i will attempt to get it done soon as there is a dry day which seems to be rare atm lol

Maggot

No worries Maggot. What year is your bike? I really like that color and I believe that was the original color on my ol girl.

OG

Wow! I gotta go get some coffee. I just now say the info on your bike in your Avatar. My bad, lol!

The bike is a 1990 one with only just over 19k miles atm




And all orginal even the scratches >.<


Maggot

Nice Maggot!

Well i attempted it today and it went well all electrical probs are gone it now also starts much quicker. One question though would it also effect the power and smoothness of the engine? as it feels much quicker and smoother since and i wasnt exspecting anything like that so i wasnt looking for it

It's always sweet when a repair comes off smoothly and you see a nice improvement in performance. Not sure about the smoothness Maggot, I didn't see that kind of bump when I did mine, but hopefully one of our expert gents will come along and enlighten us.

OG

Your K is exactly the same year and model as mine Maggot, and mine is having exactly the same problems with indicators.
(see "K100LT indicators playing up" thread)
I am inspired that your starter-motor clean-out went so well and has cured the problem. I will be getting mine done too asap.
I still don't understand how the starter-motor can effect the indicators but I'll do it anyway.

Grand job maggot, the things you learn here I would never have traced it to the starter myself, forwarned is forarmed things to keep an eye on and the bike sure looks good.

BIG D

BladeBaiter wrote:I still don't understand how the starter-motor can effect the indicators but I'll do it anyway.

The load shed relay has an effect on these functions and a dusted-up starter motor (due to excessive wear of the carbon brushes - think of it simply as feed-back through the system) can cause all sorts of gremlins in the electrical system. We know it does this, we don't like it, but we understand it, and we live it. I think you will find that it really is an easy fix. Have a look through the forum for the various comments, complaints and remedies. I reckon that half of us have had this issue. It was the first thing to go 'wrong' with mine.

Good luck and let us all know how it turns out for you.

Without all the great info on this site i would not have known where to start I havent tinkered with a bike since my teens and im now 37! but there is so much info on this forum form great people i thought to myself right! im going to tackle it lol.

Im glad i did i took my time to make sure it was done right in the end it took me ( a complete novice with Ks and tinkering really) 2 hours start to finnish and now The beast as i call it >.< runs 100 times better just generally tighter and better

I will now be doing more work on the K when needed services repairs etc and hoping to be able to give back to the forums with usefull info

Thanks again TWB.

I have managed to fix the problem.

I went for the easy option to start and changed all of the fuses for new ones.

Job done!

Back to "Plan A": MOT tomorrow; get tax and put the R1200S back in its box .