Triumphrat

gatortiger · 11-28-2006, 09:08 AM

Howdy!

Yesterday my 2001 955i Tiger started quitting on me. The bike would just go dead randomly and in an instant. No stalling, just off like turning off the ignition.

Troubleshooting:

- clock still running
- turned the key to P => light was on
- horn was honking
- battery connectors were tight
- sidestand switch not loose or what not

After about 45 mins I had the fault narrowed down to the cables that go into the bottom of the ignition lock cylinder. Once I hold them a certain way the ignition would stay on. Move the cable and the bike turned off. I ended up taping the wire in a position that would hold contact and at least made it home ok.

Anyone here have any insights for repairing that connector (easy vs. pain)? It looks like the bottom (wire) section can be detached from the upper (key) section. Any problems if I did that?

Any other tips/inputs?

Thanks in advance!!!!!! I will post pics of the repairs when I get to them...

Cheers,
HG

gatortiger · 01-02-2007, 08:35 AM

Well, last night I finally took the time to get the ignition cylinder out... Here is the j-riggin' that I did back then:

Different angle:

Yet another one:

gatortiger · 01-02-2007, 08:43 AM

When the whole part comes out it looks like this:

I'm not going to comment on how this looks!!! :-D

Anyways... the whole thing is the ignition lock assembly (as above) on one end, a cable tree (about 18" long) and a plug on the other end.

After unsnapping and sliding the rounded end-cap off the lock this is what I saw:

and

Close-up:

One can clearly see the white cable having snapped out of its soldering spot and also having a broken insulation. I'm surprised the riggin' worked and I got home like that!!!!! :wow:

So tonight i will heat up the good ole soldering iron and get that baby fixed!!! More pics then!!

Cheers,
HG

gatortiger · 01-04-2007, 09:04 AM

So last night I soldered the wire back in place. Did I mention already that I don't like re-soldering? :roll: For some reason when I deal with plumbing I always have some leak somewhere and when I re-solder it doesn't look pretty and I'm always worried that the the spot turns out cold or brittle.

I tried to limit any cable-movement (and consequently stress on the solder spots) by wrapping some electrical tape around the cable to make it sit a bit tighter in the whole of the bottom cap. But one round of tape almost made it too tight to even move the cap back in place.

Guess I will add a multi switch to my spares list so that - should the spot break again in the middle of nowhere - I can at least hot wire the ignition and get somewhere for repairs.

Oh yeah, I was so eager to get it back together that I forgot to take pics of the repaired spot... And I'm not gonna take it apart again...

Ride on!!!!

Cheers,
HG

pineygroveshop · 01-04-2007, 10:26 PM

Bravo!

mikey · 01-07-2007, 11:38 AM

Hi HG nice work M8 :-D To me it seems like there must have been vibrations for it to break of like that?
On a positive note I worked as a parts guy at my friends bike shop 2 years ago and remember that ignition locks from
EMGO can be had for around $25

EMGO makes a lot of spares for bikes ie mirrors oil filters ,ignition locks and more.
Since you mentioned buying a switch,you might as well just get a replacement iggy lock and keep the fixed oem lock as a spares

Mikey

gatortiger · 01-08-2007, 12:32 PM

Hi mikey!

Took my first ride in 5 weeks on my ole cat and the day started of nice!!!! :-D

I looked at the EMGO parts but couldn't find one that fit the tiger. In any case, the switch is not broken. The wire came off due to a bad solder sport I think. The bike has 62k+ miles and it just now happened.

I zip-tied the cable in place such that there is no more movement of the cable on the ignition lock itself any more and made up a little card with 'hot-wire' instructions juuuuuuuust in case!!!

Don't want to get stranded again because of it...

I hope my 'solder job' holds up...

Cheers,
HG