• Welcome Guest! If you are already a member of the BMW MOA, please log in to the forum in the upper right hand corner of this page. Check "Remember Me?" if you wish to stay logged in.

    We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMWMOA forum provides. Why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the club magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMWMOA offers?

    Want to read the MOA monthly magazine for free? Take a 3-month test ride of the magazine; check here for details.

  • NOTE. Some content will be hidden from you. If you want to view all content, you must register for the forum if you are not a member, or if a member, you must be logged in.

1100 GS Neutral Light,not working.

millcreek

New member
I just bought a 1997 R1100 GS,the first day every thing was fine.Turn the key to on,the green neutral came on then start it up.Now when I turn it on the green neutral light does not come on and it will not start unless you pull in the clutch, I have checked the fuses????
 
Either your sidestand switch (at the top pivot) is bad (easy to remove & replace, but many folks just bypass the silly thing rather than replace it), or the gear indicator switch on the top rear of the tranny is bad (potential PITA to R&R).
 
If your neutral light isn't coming on, and the starting circuit doesn't think the bike is in neutral, you probably have a bad neutral switch.

Paul's sidestand advice does not apply to your bike. It's not really accurate for his either.
 
Question, then: I had a '97 1100RT, with the switch as I described (and I bypassed it). The GS of that year does not? (We're not talking about my present 1150.)
 
The 1100 sidestand switch is like the kill switch: squeezing the clutch will not override it to allow cranking.

The 1150 sidestand switch kills the Motronic (if also in gear), so the engine will crank but will not fire. Squeezing the clutch won't override that, either.
 
...

The 1150 sidestand switch kills the Motronic (if also in gear), so the engine will crank but will not fire. Squeezing the clutch won't override that, either.

The cranking but not starting "feature" of the 1150 is annoying. It could be fixed by wiring the input to the start button to the output of the Motronic relay. Since the bike won't start unless the Motronic is on, there's no point to letting it crank unless the Motronic is on.

The other annoying feature is that the low beam light comes on and drains the battery a bit until you press the start button which then drops out the load relay. I'd rather that the headlights didn't come on until the bike was running. That could be fixed but it would take another relay energized by D+ from the alternator.
 
I just bought a 1997 R1100 GS,the first day every thing was fine.Turn the key to on,the green neutral came on then start it up.Now when I turn it on the green neutral light does not come on and it will not start unless you pull in the clutch, I have checked the fuses????

Most probably your neutral light switch. I can't tell you how many times I've had my swing arm off for this issue. Such a simple thing but a pain to get to. Gear oil has seeped into the switch causing a poor contact. I pulled the switch, cleaned with electrical contact cleaner, then re-installed... a couple times. Last "fix" has held up for a couple years now. Paralever re-install requires you to do some pivot bolt thread cleaning and proper torque settings, etc. I've gotten quite good at this over the years with my 96 GS.
P.S. I even bought a new switch once. It lasted about a month. Original switch is in now, working fine.
 
The cranking but not starting "feature" of the 1150 is annoying.

You ain't kidding. The best pre-CAN system was the 1100 with the RT-P sidestand harness. It worked exactly as one would expect. I've installed a few of them. And of course the new bikes get it right, too, including not energizing the headlight until the bike's running.
 
The cranking but not starting "feature" of the 1150 is annoying. It could be fixed by wiring the input to the start button to the output of the Motronic relay. Since the bike won't start unless the Motronic is on, there's no point to letting it crank unless the Motronic is on.Except when the plugs are out and you are doing a compression test! Coil is not energized

The other annoying feature is that the low beam light comes on and drains the battery a bit until you press the start button which then drops out the load relay. I'd rather that the headlights didn't come on until the bike was running. That could be fixed but it would take another relay energized by D+ from the alternator.YES! Very annoying! One day I might even do that mod! My HID's strike twice every startup which shortens their life by 50%

..
 
The other annoying feature is that the low beam light comes on and drains the battery a bit until you press the start button which then drops out the load relay. I'd rather that the headlights didn't come on until the bike was running. That could be fixed but it would take another relay energized by D+ from the alternator.

YES! Very annoying! One day I might even do that mod! My HID's strike twice every startup which shortens their life by 50%

So I think the way that might be done is to add a relay whose contacts were wired in series with the load relief relay's +12V in (or +12V out, don't think it matters).

Then take one side of the relay's pull in coil and ground it. Take the other side and wire it through a 1 Watt 30 ohm resistor (or two half watt 56 ohm resistors in parallel) to Alternator D+, and put a 10,000 microfarad capacitor across the pull in coil. That, I think, would mean that the coil (assuming a 90 ohm relay coil) would pull in about a second after the alternator came online.

Only three parts but a little bit of effort to wire up.

RB
 
The other annoying feature is that the low beam light comes on and drains the battery a bit until you press the start button which then drops out the load relay. I'd rather that the headlights didn't come on until the bike was running. That could be fixed but it would take another relay energized by D+ from the alternator.



So I think the way that might be done is to add a relay whose contacts were wired in series with the load relief relay's +12V in (or +12V out, don't think it matters).

Then take one side of the relay's pull in coil and ground it. Take the other side and wire it through a 1 Watt 30 ohm resistor (or two half watt 56 ohm resistors in parallel) to Alternator D+, and put a 10,000 microfarad capacitor across the pull in coil. That, I think, would mean that the coil (assuming a 90 ohm relay coil) would pull in about a second after the alternator came online.

Only three parts but a little bit of effort to wire up.

RB

Thanks. Another project on the list.:)
 
Back
Top