K11 Owners Group

PHIL1601UK · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:31 pm Post subject: K1100LT Bulb Monitor Unit

How to test this bulb monitor? Someone said "jump a hot to it", but I don't know which terminal. Has anyone got a diagram of the terminals on this unit, and what they're for? My parking/tail lights have packed in. I took a feed from the battery to the +ve terminal on the tail light and both lights and autoswitch (feed taken from the front parking light) were fully functional. Any ideas would be apppreciated.
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1996 Aspen Silver K1100LTSE - acquired 23/03/07

Flying Duck · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject:

Not sure on testing but here's the wiring:

Gray/Red - Front Brake Switch
Gray/Green - Rear Brake Switch
Brown/White - Power - #1 Fuse
Gray/White(2 wires) - Parking Light and #2 Fuse
Gray/Black - Tail Light
White/Blue - Triangle Lamp in Instrument Cluster
Gray/Yellow - Brake Light
Brown - Ground

I'd check the number 2 fuse first since your parking light isn't getting power.
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93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

John Clauss · Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:05 pm Post subject:

Test the line coming from the switch to the bulb monitoring unit. Use Ducks list above. If the switch is good its the unit. I just replaced mine, it was $71 from a dealership.
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1997 K1100LT
1975 R75/6

It will bring you so close to nausea, it will make you sick! - Big Al

1Snowbum · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:14 am Post subject: bulb monitor

Just a note on the K1100 bulb monitor boxes. There are two known versions. One uses three reed relays, the yellow colored reed relays are made by Clare, type "CUP S 10008"....no longer available, but they are very reliable....not so the solder joints...read on...
The other monitor box is very different, and has internal straps that I think the circuit measures voltage drops across, to monitor current....and the circuitry is very different. I have now repaired two of the reeds models; one my own;....by re-soldering the reed relays pins to the board....they get overheated. The reed pins are made of some sort of metal that does not like to be soldered, no matter how carefully scraped and cleaned. It can be done, however. When re-soldering, I also scrape the coating off the solder pad to a larger diameter, to enable better heat-sinking. What is really interesting to me, was that both models of these relays look absolutely the same on the outside, and are both printed with the EXACT SAME part number!
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Bob Fleischer, AKA Snowbum
dba Fleischer's Service,
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info

bmwmick · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:02 am Post subject:

Hi Bob,
I was just about to relate the exact same story. Smile

(As a little background, Bob and I were 'politely disagreeing' about the internals of the lamp test module a while back)

We each had a '93 Model bike and they both had the same P/N module but the internals were vastly different.

Mick
_________________
Mick McKinnon
KOG#175
'93 K1100LT, '96 R1100RT, '84 R100RS, 2010 Kawasaki C-14
Tucson, AZ

1Snowbum · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject:

Hi, Mick! I did not mention your name, out of Internet etiquette! Yes, Mick and I had some E-mails flailing back and forth, over this same numbered bulb-monitoring unit....he was sure I was wrong or an idiot, and I had the same feeling about him (well, not really...but you all get the idea).
I have very seldom run into a similar situation where the same part number is so different.

I have a sidecar on my K11, and with the extra lights, did not want the bulb monitoring lamp on all the time...and wanted things to work correctly, no matter the load. I ended up not only repairing the reed relay solder joints, but making a couple of simple modifications that kept the bulb monitoring function (and, how F and R brake activation extinguishes the lamp) working properly. Have not looked into whether this would work with LED lamps.

and....just thought I'd mention, that when I got my K a few years ago, Mick was quite helpful in explaining a few things that I had newbie questions about. Being an Airhead nutcase for many decades only partially prepared me for K bikes.
'bum
_________________
Bob Fleischer, AKA Snowbum
dba Fleischer's Service,
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info

Flying Duck · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:17 pm Post subject:

I just got rid of the BMU in order to run LEDs by shorting across some of the terminals in the socket. I gave up the switch monitoring functionality but since I use both brakes and don't think the switches will fail at the same time it's not an issue to me.

I've ordered the parts(a few different kinds of simple relays) and will be replacing the flasher relay in a few weeks too.
_________________
93 LT (x2)
94 RS
86-97 K75F(K75/100/1100 Frankenbrick)
86 K75C w/paralever, hi perf cams,TURBO!
91 & 92 K75Ss
91 K1
86 custom K100
14 WR250R
IBA #17739 (SS1K, BBG, 50CC)
Buy parts HERE

PHIL1601UK · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:25 pm Post subject: