K11 Owners Group

[stpenroute]

Hi all... this is my first posting as I've been lurking for quite some time - actually reading and digesting for about a year before I joined as I knew I would once again buy another BMW and was convinced a K-bike was for me after reading the list. My first Beemer was an 1986 R80 that I crossed the country on twice about 11 years ago. I've had 27 different bikes in my life which included 2 Kawasaki Pro Comp/Pro Gas dragbikes, a 1992 Concours, an FJ1200, an 1100 Katana , and two Hondas; a Hurricane and a Blackbird. (YES, I enjoy haul-ass touring bikes.) I've ridden ALOTTA' places on ALOTTA' bikes in my 31 years of riding - much as I'm glad to see alotta' folks here have - but I have to say, my first K bike (It's a 1994 K1100LT), despite it being an older one, is certainly amongst the top of the list to ride - what little I have ridden it, that is. Comfort, power, great handling (for such a big bike), and real cool looks!

Here's my problem with a little bit of history thrown in. I sincerely hope someone has had either a similar problem, or advice which way to go. I took the plunge and purchased the KLT in Newport News, VA in the beginning of July. It was cheap ($3000) and appeared in good shape. It has 40,0000 miles on it and I purchased it from the original owner. From the stack of service receipts he gave me from Adventure BMW, it appears this bike has had rough running issues for quite some time. When I got there it looked great, but despite a decent test run before the purchase, as luck would have it, it started missing as soon as I left for home. I figured it was in need of a tune up, or it just sat around too much collecting dust in his garage. Riding it home was a bummer as it felt like it was running on 2 or 3 cylinders the whole way back to Long Island, NY. When I got it home it barely idled. I pulled the plugs and they ALL looked very dark brown with cylinder numbers 1 and 2 looking wet. I changed plugs to the NGK Iridiums and tried a set of Magnecore wires. A bit better, but still missing. At this point I knew that with no experience with these motors, I'd just be replacing pieces at random in a sort of 'poke and hope' sorta method. I decided to take it to a local dealer (not so local anymore) in NJ - Cross County BMW. Thankfully, the service guys and mechanics there were AWESOME and treated me like I was an old customer. I left it there with them and they had a look at it ultimately discovering a disintegrated/leaking vacuum line as the culprit for a nominal charge. When I picked it up it ran great, but on the trip home it missed a little bit here and there throughout the rev range. I figured it needed a good run to clear it out. That was a week ago. This past weekend I rode it two-up both Saturday and Sunday and here's the symptoms it now regularly exhibits: smooth and pulls HARD to about 3000 RPM where it sounds like 1 or 2 cylinders stop firing. Then around 4000 RPM it again fires on all 4 cylinders, pulls hard, then goes back to missing at about 5200 RPM. Any higher RPM after that is simply a gamble with it sometimes pulling as hard as hell (all cylinders firing) or it pulling like a limp-wristed fairy on about 2 or 3 cylinders. I changed the fuel filter this morning - no change. From experience with cars/bikes/boats and snowmobiles, I figure it to be a fuel problem: either a fuel regulator (not sure if there is one), fuel pump, or something else fuel injection related. But, there have been times in the past with other machines where I swore I had fuel problems, when it was in fact ignition-related, such as a bad coil, burned wires, or bad crank trigger (HES in this case). The only reason I believe it to be fuel related is because if I putt along at 60 or 70 and whack the throttle open, it pulls hard for a bit, then starts to miss if it isn't missing already. If the problem was ignition based, it would misfire all the time - or at least under a load in all gears. Then again, other parts such as a Throttle Position Sensor does some weird things as well symptom-wise.

Let me know what your thoughts and experiences are regarding this situation. I think this bike is severely underrated and just needs time and patience to sort out the bugs the original owner didn't want to take the time to do. I understand though where he was coming from as a stack of service receipts with totals of $1450, $1200, $850, and never less than $500 where the norm. (OUCH!) Once again, I'd like to approach the problem in a methodical manner as opposed to buying out the local BMW dealer's stock of old K-bike parts in an effort to solve the problem.

I apologize for rambling and thank all those in advance for their suggestions and/or experiences.

Scott
_________________
STP

1994 K1100 LT
2-wheeled Barco-lounger - "Blue Suede"


1984 Harley-Davidson XLX-61
Flamed Chopper - "Ole Reliable"

[SugarHillCTD]

Scott,

First of all, WELCOME from out of the gloomy depths of lurkingdom(?)

We live in northern N.H. but are both originally from the N.Y. metro area and Cathy grew up in Huntington.


Anyway- before you get too far in, be sure to check all the ground wire connections- at the battery, down by the shifter, one that is buried at the back of the engine (hard to see, even harder to get to), even under the fuel tank where several brown wires are bolted to the frame (brown is ground on these bikes).
I mention this as one of the first steps due to a (bad) experience with my departed '93K-RS. After I replaced my clutch last summer I had neglected to fully tighten a ground wire- it gave me fits with missing, cutting out and some very poor running.
While I also thought it was a fueling issue, apparently the different engine speeds would produce various vibrations that would cause an intermittent connection at the semi-loose ground.

This is just one possibility but pretty easy to rule out. Others will be jumping in here soon to give further guidance. Good luck.

John
_________________
John & Cathy

'92 K100RS4V Pearl White SOLD
'04 K1200GT
IBA Several-SS1k, BBG, 50CC NYC to S.F.

[whyoldbill]

[jarnbak]

I was helping with a k100 with the same problem.A new battery helped
for a day.Everything was replaced with parts from a doner bike without
luck, until the generator was replaced as the last thing.It was the rectifire
that was partly us,the result was some kind of ac as output.It turned the
charging light off, but did not charge the battery.Try to check the voltage
with and without the engine running.
Regards Palle.
Denmark

[Off the grid]

Hey Scott I currently reside in Huntington.

As a former KLT owner I can help you DX some stuff, plus it would be fun to dig around the guts of another brick. (so long as it's not mine)

I also know an extremely good BMW trained mechanic out in Seldon. Shoot me a PM for more info and good luck.

Might be going to cruise night down in Oyster Bay tonight...I'll keep an eye out for a motobrick.

-Dave
_________________
Bane of your existence since July 2006
2007 Triumph Tiger ABS. "Sabertooth"
2009 Husqvarna TE610. "The dirty Italian mistress"

[Flying Duck]

Don't let OTG anywhere near your bike. He'll just F it up like he did his own when he had one.



















(I'm just kidding. )
_________________
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

[jr'sbmw]

Couple of thoughts:
For fuel testing, I installed a permanent fuel pressure gauge on the left side of both my K bikes. I had a situation where the bike would miss, act like it was running out of gas when hot. Turns out, I had a worn fuel pump that would lose it prime. Drove me nuts, till I watched the fuel pressure dropping while driving down the road.

Also, I had a coil go bad once, causing a miss. Check the secondary coil windings with an ohm meter from both spark plug wire holes. Don't know the specs., but most are 5-10k.

Were you able to pull any codes?

[stpenroute]

Thank you all for the fast responses and good wishes! In the spirit of expediency, I'll answer everyone in this post.
I'll check every ground connection as well as all other connections when I pull it apart tomorrow night paying particular attention to the battery area as I know the previous owner just had a new battery installed just before I got there.
I'll check the battery voltage before, during, and after running it. I have a T-fitting and a fuel pressure gauge to check the fuel pressure - It's supposed to be around 35-36 psi I believe. And, I didn't get any codes out of it... is there a way other than hooking the beast up to a BMW dealer computer to get codes out of it like we used to do with the old 2.2 turbo Chryslers by counting the amount of red flashes the engine lite gives off? The dealer never mentioned anything about codes... strange now that I think about it.


_________________
STP

1994 K1100 LT
2-wheeled Barco-lounger - "Blue Suede"


1984 Harley-Davidson XLX-61
Flamed Chopper - "Ole Reliable"

[Flying Duck]

[robleyd]

Have a look at http://k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2110 for lots of info on Motronic and ABS diagnostics
_________________
David, owner of:
1996 K1100 LT

[Flying Duck]

Beat you by 1 minute.
_________________
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

[stpenroute]

Update...

I spent about 4 hours last night after work checking just about every single electrical connection that's possibly running-related. Everything appeared tight, in good condition, with no corrosion. I even noticed what appeared to be small amounts of dielectric grease on the insides of the spark-plug wire boots. The battery had only one large negative cable (possibly somewhere between 2 - 4 ga.) without another one in sight - anyplace. Despite the rampant missing, all the plugs looked ok -light coffee brown in color.

Thanks to a link that was posted by one of the crew here steering me to a link explaining the on-board-diagnostics, I retrieved code 2341 - "oxygen sensor at limit." I'll be picking up an O2 sensor on Saturday and hope for the best.

The only thing I couldn't figure out, was what rectangular mechanical item was housed in this black rubberized cup attached to the upper right frame tube (see pic). There was what appeared to be a vacuum tube that is plugged, leading to it. If anyone has any ideas, shout 'em out! I sincerely hope it isn't/wasn't anything too important!

Thanx in advance!
Scott

Shite! I don't know how to post a pic here... talk about a newbie, eh?[/img]
_________________
STP

1994 K1100 LT
2-wheeled Barco-lounger - "Blue Suede"


1984 Harley-Davidson XLX-61
Flamed Chopper - "Ole Reliable"

[robleyd]

If you haven't already seen it, http://k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5894 might be helpful for adding images.

If you have seen it, ask for help on anything that doesn't work for you
_________________
David, owner of:
1996 K1100 LT

[Ted]

I think that cup is the "air accumulator" aka the shed cup (#5 in this image), it takes any gas overflow from the tank and routes it through a hose down from the cup to behind the right footpeg.

I found out a prior owner had removed the one on a K75 I had bought when my newly filled-up K75S burst into flames while I was heading up an onramp back in 1996
_________________
Ted
KOG#1

[stpenroute]

I wanted to wait until my findings could be considered valid, consistent and what appears to be a final fix!

My last posting regarding help for what seemed an impossible fix for my KLT missing was about 3 weeks ago. Since then I've tried everything the gracious members her suggested from tightening grounds and checking every vacuum line, to reading codes from the computer, adding bizzarre amounts of Techron, to changing the fuel filter twice with very little or no tangible results. At wits end, I went over to an old friend's house I used to race with about 20 years ago who now wrenches for Mercedes Benz in Smithtown, NY. This is the second time I've asked him for a clue. He seemed taken a back at the fact I was so stumped. He said, "dude, let's pull the plugs and take a look." We did. He said, "it's a fuel thing. Period. Take all the plastic crap off." I did. He looks for a moment... then pulls off the electric connector for the rearmost injector. He says, "Take it around the block." I did, it ran even worse. He puts the the connector back on and pulls the next one off. I go around the block, now it misses like it did before, only all the time and at all rpms. He says, "BINGO! That was easy! Ya' got at least one with either a bad coil or it's partially clogged. Change 'em all - all the injectors are prolly fer shit or close to it!"

I go to the IBMWR page, get the part numbers that cross reference to a Mustang and order up a set of injectors at the local NAPA. The next day they come in, I install 'em inside of 15 minutes.

INCREDIBLE! The bike now pulls relentlessly up until red line in all gears! (4th actually... there's not enough room around here to test the top pf 5th!) No stumbling, missing, burping, hissing, NOTHING, but silky smoothness - for the past 2.5 weeks! Believe it or not, the damned thing is actually FAST! At around 4500 rpm it comes on like a turbo! Honestly!

I call him back to let him know, and his last mention of the topic was, "dude, they're all the f***ing same... don't let anyone tell you that because it's a BMW or a Kawasaki or a Harley that anything is ever different between 'em. The basics apply to 'em all! ...and stay the f*** away from dealer! You know better!" (I'm not so sure I agree with the last part of advice)

Got it.

Done.

Thank you all once again!
Scott
_________________
STP

1994 K1100 LT
2-wheeled Barco-lounger - "Blue Suede"


1984 Harley-Davidson XLX-61
Flamed Chopper - "Ole Reliable"

[Flying Duck]

Awesome. Good to hear you got things sorted out.

What's the part # of the injectors you used?

By the way, this guy has quick turnaround and does an awesome job of rehabbing injectors for only $16 each: http://www.mrinjector.us/
_________________
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

[Stoked Steve]

From their website,

[Flying Duck]

Yes, on the pintle caps. Go for it.
_________________
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

[stpenroute]

I wanted to include the part numbers of the fuel injectors I used as suggested by 'Flying Duck,' I believe. I would have done this sooner, but I've been riding the piss outta' this baby in an effort to flush out any other mechanical flaws (without success) and haven't checked back since. I figured this has GOTTA' be a fluke (the bike finally being fixed and all) ...but I truly find this K1100LT to be pretty damned solid, hearty, and reliable!

The 4 new injectors I used were for a '90-'94 Ford 4.9 (6 cylinder) with a part number of "MICM4347" from http://www.autopartswarehouse.com. They were about $75.00 each with free shipping. The manufacturer was stated as Motorcraft. with a manufacturer number of "CM4347."

Hey... I also bolted on a 18" RS rear wheel with a 160 Dunlop Sportmax radial, and a 120 Dunlop Sportmax radial on the front stock rim. The 120/80-18 front looks like it came from the factory like that - or at least should have. Out with the skinny skins and now in with a little beefier look. Does it handle any better? I really can't tell the difference honestly, but then again, I really don't push it all that hard in the curves.

Life is good for this "K" dude... for now, that is.

Thanx again all!

Later!
Scott
_________________
STP

1994 K1100 LT
2-wheeled Barco-lounger - "Blue Suede"


1984 Harley-Davidson XLX-61
Flamed Chopper - "Ole Reliable"