BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

I recently purchased a 97 R1100RT from an uncle that took excellent care of the bike (put 140K miles on it) - up until he could no longer ride it about 2 years ago. He has impecable records of the maintenance of the bike. It had been sitting garaged and covered in those years.

When I got the bike, I drained the fuel, changed the oil and the plugs. It ran quite well for about two weeks but when I got down to the bottom of the 2nd tank of fuel, the bike suddenly just quit. The engine would turn over but not start up.

Since then, here is what I have done. Cleaned the K&N filter. Removed the fuel tank and replaced both the fuel filter and strainer on the pump. Checked the output of the fuel pump at the injectors - plenty of fuel pushing out. Pulled the injectors and gave them a light washing with clean fuel.

The bike turns over freely but just won't seem to start. I can get it to "run" for up to 15 seconds or so by rapidly turning the throttle - but it's quite rough, the rpm never gets over 2000, and it eventually quits. I have added BMW injector cleaner to the fresh tank of fuel to try to clean the injectors.

I have not checked for spark yet - but other than that, I am at a loss. I would appreciate any ideas anyone out there may have.

Thanks!!

T. C.

To me it sounds like water contamination from condensation...

what i would do...

1. remove spark plugs reinstall lead on plug, place plug on top of cylinder and crank over checking for a spark

2. i would then crank engine over to remove any possible contamination without spark plugs connected

3. then i would get a small funnel with a hose and insert it into the cylinder and pour quarter a cup of petrol
in each cylinder install plugs and try & start it, even a bad engine will start after confirming spark, whether it
continues or cuts out determines what the fault is..

Boy, I'd be careful pouring fuel into the cylinder... Two ounces equals almost exactly the entire volume of the combustion chamber at top dead center. Go over this volume, and you'll be trying to compress an incompressible fluid, usually ending in a bent connecting rod. If you put in just one ounce of fuel, you'll be raising the effective compression ratio -- for the first stroke, until a valve opens -- to twenty, which will probably ignite even without a spark, due to the diesel effect. Sounds dangerous.

But I'll bet it's the spark.

I have done this method for 30 years on all lawnmowers motorcycles & cars and never had a problem
as a cranked engine will open a valve before firing, thats the practical explanation

the theoretical explanation (yours) is possibly also correct,
but sometimes theory and practice dont line up together.

If the bike still doesn't run correctly after you have checked the coils and plug leads with a DMM, check the HES wiring, which is a known issue on the earlier oilheads!

To get to the Hall Sensor you need to remove the Alternator and the associated lower front panel. The job is a PITA but doable and there are folks on the Internet that have R&R'd their sensor and/or have wiring kits, just do a search for BMW Hall Sensor. They aren't cheap from BMW but you can also get used complete assemblies from Beemerboneyard and, if the sensor itself is shot, non-BMW replacements are available. The Honeywell 2av54 available from www.newark.com plus there are articles available on the Internet showing the R&R, http://www.ebbo.org/2av54.php being one of them.

I had a similar problem with a Yamaha a couple of years ago. New spark plugs took care of it.