Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I have a 1982 R100RS, with the fuses buried in the headlight shell and fairing. Does anyone have a clever way to relocate these outside of there somewhere?
Thanks!
Nonsense!
This change can be easily changed back if wanted.
Besides, its the "Germanic je ne sais quois" that you WANT to get rid of, along with thousands of others who have improved these great bikes so that they are better than they were.
People and businesses selling all those accessories for these machines (check your latest ON magazine) are doing so for a reason: because they (the machines) need improving!
There is known HUGE problematic, convoluted engineering in these machines.
So . . . unless you plan on selling your bike to the Smithsonian or plan on keeping it in your garage just to look at . . . . by all means, change it to make it better to suit YOUR wishes!!
Others have! NO, thousands of others have!
Now, now, now. I was just being facetious. I'd be the first person to put a handlebar master cylinder on my R90S if I could afford it and make it fit without doing something ugly to the fairing.
Automotive electrics was essentially invented by Bosch, of course.
Germans seem to do best when they have a good budget it appears. VW is the company trying to be both German and cheap and it's a combination that doesn't always work out. Airheads are pretty old school German electrically and I had little problem with mine. I never gave the ignition system on my '84 RS a thought in the time I owned it and never had a problem. Of course I live in a really pristine climate, no humidity, no salt, etc., so that helps. Anything can wear out, and problems with 30-year-old stuff are not really a reflection on the initial design any more.
There was a movement that swept the auto industry in the late 1990s to early 2000s to really squeeze suppliers on price, and German vehicles suffered significantly, especially with Bosch. (See Jose Ignacio Lopez.) Oilhead BMWs, for example, have all kinds of wiring quality problems never seen with Airheads. In this same timeframe, too, there was a "green" movement to make things like wiring harnesses more biodegradable, and the first attempts weren't so successful either.
Still going strong, I think, are German light bulbs. My RS that went away after 27 years ownership still had its factory-installed turn signal bulbs. I shudder when guys on forums talk about "1157," etc., as in comparison these are junk.
It's a great idea, but don't do it. You'll end up with a bike that has lost some of its BMWnes, some of its Germanic je ne sais quois, some of its complexity for complexity's sake.
Be careful how you do it. A PO had moved the fuses on my RS to the dash using those screw-in holders like you see on electronic equipment that use glass tube type fuses. He soldered wires to the original fuse connections and brought them out to the dash. When I checked the fuse to see why the lights weren't working the metal ends of the fuse were so corroded to the holder that the glass broke. Both fuse holders were corroded beyond use. I replaced them with blade type fuses the way Jimmy described. They're still buried in the headlight bucket but as Kent said, how often do you have to get to them? In my case, the moved fuse holders were the cause of the problem. And now I have 1/2" holes in the dash to fill.
Well I suppose, but the one time I blew a fuse inside the headlight bucket, behind a frame mounted Luftmeister fairing and had to remove the fairing, in the rain, in a motel parking lot, I relocated the fuses when I got home from that trip. Each to their own!
Thanks for all the replies!
I found some all weather, in line, sealed fuse holders for the common blade-type fuses. I have some adhesive-backed plastic clips I figured to stick up on the inside of the dash, to slip the new fuse holders into.
As I recall, there is an extra hole or two in the headlight shell for the 4 wires.
I am a very technique challenged, horrible solderer; if I have to do that, I want to solder to the nonfuse side of the stock fuse holder, so it can be returned to stock. I am concerned about hot solder drips in there too.
Or, is there a wiring terminal which will clip to the ends of the stock fuse holder?
A conductive adhesive/goo I can use?
Or should I be tapping in somewhere else?
As I recall, the fuse relocator was essentially a fuse replacement that had wires that shunted outside to an external holder. So I sacrificed two fuses to make two. I cut the fuse metallic element, soldered wires to each end, wrapped the things to provide mechanical strength, and ran the wires outside to external holders. So the relocators act just like fuses, and can be removed, and replaced with fuses if you like. No mods to the machine, no soldering, and very servicable.
I believe the old relocators were this principle. Any geezers like me out there care to chime in?
I have a 1982 R100RS, with the fuses buried in the headlight shell and fairing. Does anyone have a clever way to relocate these outside of there somewhere?
Thanks!