Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

I have done it with a smallish C clamp and also with a largish vise grip. It's necessary to use a few small pieces of wood to bridge over the metal strip on the bottom of the circuit board, so as to avoid bending it. Be gentle and be careful not to crush anything.

Darryl -- Just to close this out - - here's what I wound up doing. Got the switch assembled and in place along with the terminal board. Made sure the mounting tabs were sticking through the board; held the whole thing in place with my left hand; took a Quick Grip mini bar clamp (made by Vise-Grip) with my right hand and very carefully tightened the assembly to the headlight pod. Then I had two hands free to bend the locking tabs over. The beauty of this particular clamp is that it's pistol-styled, meaning that it can be operated with only one hand, plus it has rubber-faced clamping faces making it gentle on whatever it is you're clamping. My only caution is to make sure that you're not tightening up against something on the board that can get bent or broken. In any case, the switch works like a champ and all electricals are in order except the horn.

Richard

Congrats! That sounds like a perfectly adequate solution.

I'm trying to get the ignition/light switch and the switchplate back in the R27. I've got all the parts, everything looks good, and I understand the sequence of assembly. The problem I'm having is keeping all the switch parts lined up correctly while I depress the spring and try to line up the switchplate to bend the tabs. Just finding it very hard to do. Smaller hands might help. Is there a trick-of-the trade? Maybe use a sliding bar clamp to hold it all in place while bending the locking tabs over? Even that has not worked because I can't seem to keep the switch assembly compressed and lined up correctly while I get the switchplate in place. Any suggestions?

Richard