Dodgy Ignition Barrel Lock - Help

[JonnyB]

Hi, I'm having trouble with the ignition barrel of my K1100RS. When switched on at the 12 O'clock position, no lights come on; just the clock is showing time. Battery is fine; when I wiggle the cable at the back of the ignition barrel, the instrument lights come on, until I let go and then they're off again. Also, if I press the green button when I'm holding the wire of the barrel, the engine will turn over, but it does not run. Mechanics are all fine as it was running fine only 10 mins ago, so maybe the ignition is not providing power to the spark plugs.

I found this guide on this forum for a barrel rebuild, but I hope I do not need to go this far:

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,10504.0.html

The bike is in another neighbourhood; bit awkward to get the grinder out on on the snap bolts really. It might look slightly suspicious!

Is there a likely quick fix to this? Could it be the connector, or just a spray with electrical contact cleaner? Or just require a bot more of a wiggle? Any experience on this matter would be a big help. It has been rained on recently, so wondering if that has anything to do with it.

[johnny]

greetings...

you can do it at another neighbourhood... or you can do it along the side of the road... either way you gotta do the work...

j o

[Laitch]

. . . when I wiggle the cable at the back of the ignition barrel, the instrument lights come on, until I let go and then they're off again.  Could it be the connector, or just a spray with electrical contact cleaner?

It could be the connector. You'll need to lift the fuel tank to clean it and check it for tight contact. Bring ownership documents with you while you do it and have a bowl of sweets at curbside for the police and onlookers.

[JonnyB]

Thanks. With a some help from my dad, we actually pushed it home in the end, good exercise on a Sunday evening.

Drilling out the shear bolts was actually surprisingly easy. Just a pilot hole followed by 8mm takes the head off. Luckily the top joke is not threaded so it just slides out.

I can see 2 possible problems now:
The plastic casing of the electrics is cracked

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And the side plate was loose with the little pin sticking out

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Not sure what is responsible for the ignition/fuel injection.

Does anyone know how to go from here? I will try approaching with caution as I don’t like the idea of springs flying out and not being able to put the thing back together. I might try a spray of the internals with electrical contact spray, and then see if that helps before any dismantling.

Cheers, Jon

[JonnyB]

Had a clean up and opened up the window. Just the cam and steering lock mech in there. All seems fine. I guess I need to push the pins back to keep in place, although I’m not sure how they came out in the first place as the ignition has never come out of the bike before.


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Connector Contacts look ok but will give them a spray anyway. By the way, can anyone explain to me why an ignition switch needs 5 wires? And any idea which one does what?

Thanks.

[JonnyB]

All fixed now. Glued up the plastic back of the ignition barrel cover with a slight excess of epoxy resin, seems solid now and still works. Turns out the no starting was because the Motronic connector was not in propperly after I removed it to get to the battery terminals. So all back together.