red ligth on insterment panal

[E.L. Buff]

Hi all
have 1985 K100rt the red light for the brakes comes on each time the bike is started is this normal? riding last night it came on while riding on interstate ,
just started out off and on with fading and going out then on touch brake lever
and it went out 10 miles later came on again .
I have no owners manual so I don,t know what light is for.
One other thing speedometer stops working now and again just tap it on the side
next to the trip reset and it jumps right back and works for awhile then another
tap is needed any help would be great
Thanks E.L.Buff

 

[pglaves]

Hi all
have 1985 K100rt the red light for the brakes comes on each time the bike is started is this normal? riding last night it came on while riding on interstate ,
just started out off and on with fading and going out then on touch brake lever
and it went out 10 miles later came on again .
I have no owners manual so I don,t know what light is for.
One other thing speedometer stops working now and again just tap it on the side
next to the trip reset and it jumps right back and works for awhile then another
tap is needed any help would be great
Thanks E.L.Buff

The light is really a bulb/switch monitor. It comes on with the key, and is supposed to go out as soon as you have activated both the front and rear brakes - with a good brake light bulb.

It will also come on if the brake light or tail light is burned out or not working. From your symptoms it would seem an intermittent bulb - caused by either a bad ground or positive connection to the bulb, or by a defective bulb.

That is where I would look.

 

[Bobmws]

The light is really a bulb/switch monitor. It comes on with the key, and is supposed to go out as soon as you have activated both the front and rear brakes - with a good brake light bulb.

It will also come on if the brake light or tail light is burned out or not working. From your symptoms it would seem an intermittent bulb - caused by either a bad ground or positive connection to the bulb, or by a defective bulb.

That is where I would look.

I seem to recall there is also a potential issue with using brass base socket bulbs as opposed to the silver base bulbs that are OEM. Something with more corrosion build up causing the sensor to 'trip'.

 

[GILLY]

Just to clarify, this is a red indicator in between the speddometer and tachometer, right? Or is it one of the 4 on the tach? The one Paul is referring to is just above the green "N" indicator, which is just above the clock, the one with the triangle.
http://www.paspeedo.com/bmwcompletek.htm


Here is an article on K Bike speedo's, one of many:
http://skylands.ibmwr.org/tom/tech/speedo/speedo.html

 

[E.L. Buff]

Thanks

Thanks for the links pictures are great just what the doctor ordered.
Will start on it today after work , Thanks again guys . I will let you know how I make out.
E.L.BUFF

 

[E.L. Buff]

great tip

Went out riding today everything worked great speedometer did not stop working
no more taps on the side , even my clock keeps the right time now it used to lose
time about an hour everyday .What a great tip Thanks
E.L.Buff

 

[GILLY]

What tip, did you actually DO something to fix it??

 

[E.L. Buff]

Speedo post

I went to the speedo post you listed for me and took the speedometer apart
just like it said,the post needed cleaning and put some plumbers grease on them
it does not take much corrosion to stop low voltage. Same with the break light
the bulb base had corrosion on it, cleaned it up also and all is well now no more red light .thanks again
E.L.Buff