Hi all - a bit of a long post this but it might help someone in the future. To recap - K75 Ultima new to me, no history. Ign on and triangle light in binnacle always lit and ABS lamp lit. Bulb check feature and ABS not working.

Having taken in all the welcome help from the forum I started off by removing the Spyball alarm (u/s I thought it was the culprit) all its wiring , remade, soldered then put heat shrink on joints. Checked and repaired all the other damaged cables. Took off the binnacle and found burnt tracks in the wiring. leading to the Triangle bulb and a burnt motherboard in the Tacho part of the console. Taking every thing off in turn, found the wiring to clutch lever had been trapped in the past, probably with an over tight tiewrap and the exposed live wire had caused a dead short which seems to have caused the burnt binnacle wiring. Clutch switch cable, Motherboard and tacho board replaced.

Having got this working, I then removed the tail lamp wiring and replaced it with a less corroded part (Deoxit) and new bulbs and bulb holder. No change. Fitted a spare BMU but no change. Out of a further 4 BMU, only one was working!!!. One supplier I contacted said that he could not remember having sold one before. Borrowed another working BMU and this one also worked correctly. I wonder how many ABS systems have been removed because the BMU was faulty!

Trashed the faulty ABS test switch but repositioned the new switch into the relay box, then using the test proceedures (and the battery fully charged) - carried out all the tests on all the ABS components and found the small blue ABS relay was showing a very high resistance across the small terrminals. Another was tested - found ok and fitted. Went through all the tests again and found no faults, the Brain operating correctly and the ABS and other binnacle llights operating .

Having the rear wheel running in gear, applied a flap wheel on an electric drill to get the front wheel up to speed and found the self check had worked properly.

Took the bike out for a run and the ABS and the BMU were still working correctly after over 20 stops and starts. Once I get the bike away from traffic, I will try to see if it has "the chatter" though I am not hopeful - in 122K miles on my last K75 ABS, it only operated twice.

As far as I can now find out, this bike has been serviced by professional Bike mechanics and after what I have seen on this bike - like most on the forum, I would prefer the knowledgeable amateur to help rather than any alleged professional. I could write a book about the badly repaired problems I found.. I think if it had been my first K, at one point I would have gladly put a match to it..

Anyway - rant over - I hope the work is of interest to the forum and would be happy to answer any queries.

Now to start all the other jobs to do on it before the trip to Southern Germany!

Good to see you got things up and stopping well George, the ABS can be a big challenge.
I know what you mean about using the amaeture for the right info. I still do the occasional repair, mainly on Ks but some others as well and I usually find something in the precess of repairing/tuning that some idiot alledged mechanic has done at a bike shop and has charged a lot of money to stuff things.
I have said it before here but if you are taking your bike to a major deal for servicing then you are seriously neglecting it.
If it lasts out the warranty period then that will do seems to be the attitude.

Hi Rick and everyone - reckon it proves my point. I do not know what the conditions are in other countries but in UK it would appear that BMW Dealers will only have for sale, bikes up to 3 years old, because that is the maximum length of the paid extra for BMW Warranty. They will only work on it if sold by that dealer ie the length of time BMW will certify the part ( hide their dodgy work?), or a tourist breakdown. Any other bikes are sold on to the trade. The one near me actually stated to me that they did not have any staff that knew anything about working on the Brick and they were not prepared to work on my bike. An item in The BMW Club Journal about BMW Motorrad in UK said that each of their dealers should have a Master Mechanic capable of working on any Bike that BMW has produced. Apparently not true and also they are rarely willing to pass on any information even if they have had the experience. Further, given that the last K11 was built in 1999, it gives an indication how long staff stay at a particular dealership. A sad state of affairs.

Anyway thanks to all who have helped - I know a fair bit about the frame and mechanical parts and a lot more since I took on this job, having repaired a lot of bikes and cars in the past and even built a car from scratch, but I now know a lot more about the electrickery of a bike!!.

PS just to give you an idea what I was up against - when I first got it home I found I could not get full lock to the right. Strange. When looking down into the bottom of the steering yoke under the cables, found a 6mm x 18mm long Allen cap bolt between the frame stops stopping the full lock of the bike. Now where did that come from? Reckon someone dropped it, could not find it and got another bolt!! And so it went on.

No doubt I will be back on again when the next little surprise manifests itself!!