getting ready to restore my cousin's 1988 kl100 , my entire family gave him this bike for his 50th birthday in canada fast forward 20+ years my family is getting ready to fix it as the dealership in canada had the bike for a year and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it and my father being a mechinc we are getting ready to see if we can get this restored and running along with a new paint job on it , so this is the new adventure ,as its currently sitting on a trailer that he drove down from canada to see what we can do on it , i think this is going to be a interesting project

Hi, I am looking forward to see how you get on with the restoration they are great bikes to work on lots of plastic bags needed for all the nuts and bolts etc... As you have probably seen quite a few of us have got our bike back on the road in a condition that befits the bikes

Which flavour of K100 have you got? LT, RT, RS etc?

its actually my canadian cousin's bike we are working on its a bmw 1988 kl100 rs

this is the first time we are working on a bmw motorcycle so im hoping things will go smoothly

Probably should start with a confirmation of the model so we know what you're working on. A kl 100 rs doesn't exist. A K100RS would be a sport version of the bike, the K100LT would be the massive touring edition, and a K100RT is the sport touring model. Waddaya got?

way too many papers to keep track of ,its a 1988 k100 rs the bike was bought in canada, we honestly don't really don't know what we have gotten ourselves in to

here's a picture of the bike its not the one we are restoring as we havent gotten it off the trailer its currently sitting on to really see what going on with it

http://motoprofi.com/imgs/a/a/f/x/y/bmw_k_100_rs_1988_3_lgw.jpg

The majority of the important wiring is under the tank, which will have to be removed. I would suggest familiarizing yourself with that procedure first. Not difficult, but worth searching the site for it before you begin.

Maybe the first thoughts should be to tell us the symptoms/issues. Are you convinced the wiring is mouse eaten? Fuel pumps pooch out on these bikes when they sit around, ignition and kill switches corrode if not used, injectors clog while sitting around...

Does it light up and turn over? BTW, if jump starting, do not jump it from a running car! You can use a car battery, just not a running car.

we honestly don't know what's wrong with it the story is that my cousin had it at the dealership in canada for about a year , they cleaned up the wiring and got it running again but not the way it should be , he said that it was running rough and he just about got it back to his place, he hasn't ridden it since then , he told us , my father is a mechanic by trade and actually teaches classes and my cousin figured that we would be the right people to do this as the dealership didn't really want to put the work in to get this figured out and the dealership only has two people working and they also sell cars and they were most likely more focused on that as well , , so we are supposed to get the bike off the trailer tommrow and with his tools see what comes out , and then we go from there , its a classic bike , he loves this bike my cousin is 73 and still rides but he hasnt been able to with the issues at hand so im hoping i have some more info to pass on in the next few days once we are able to get a good look at it

we are going to test everything on the bike as well , he left the battery charger for us and the keys so im hoping this is an easy job to figure out what is wrong as we really want to do this the right way and not rush anything on it , we already know we will need to do a new paint job on it in the original colors that it is ,

Rough running after sitting for an extended time is often caused by air leaking into the inlet system and causing excessively lean mixture. It's not always the case by any means but is a good place to start.
I would be inclined to remove all the intake system and reinstall it carefully making sure there is as little chance as possible to get an air leak.
As club c said the fuel system also suffers from doing nothing and it would be wise to inspect the inards of the fuel tank before trying to start it. The usual things like new filter and lines and make sure the pump is clean and working and not clogged with the remains of a dead rubber vibration damper (or a dead mouse) is always a good thing.
If after that it still runs like a hairy goat (an australianism for running rough) then we are always ready to help diagnose futher problems.