Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

I was taking my R90/6 for a little ride after installing a new brake hose last week and it died at a stop sign. Once I realized that I had forgotten to open up the fuel taps after replacing the tank, I opened them up and tried starting it again. Nothing. No click, no crank, just lights on the instrument cluster. Luckily, I was close enough to home to push it into the garage.

I have checked to make sure that there aren't any loose connections, and everything seems to be fine. The battery is new this season and is fully charged. Still nothing when I push the start button. I even tried engaging the clutch wondering if I had it in gear. Nothing.

I typically use the search feature of this forum to help me when issues arise. I wasn't able to find anything this time so I'm reaching out for advice.

Thanks,
Jerry

Jerry -

Welcome to the forum! Be sure and check the easy stuff...check the kill switch position. Also be sure that the battery ground is good as well as the other battery connections.

After that, I'd track down the starter relay...should be a black 1" cube on the left side of the frame under the tank. If the terminals get corroded over time, something like this could happen. Pull the cube up and replug...do this a few times and that will help scrape the terminals clean.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for your your welcome and prompt reply Kurt. I will give that a try. I had checked the kill switch earlier as I am prone to do silly things:)

I walked out of a restaurant years ago to ride my 78RS home only to find exactly the same thing, the lights were on, but no starter engagement. In my case, the relay just had given up the ghost without warning. It was the only time I ever had to use the kick starter as there was no hill to ride down to bump start nor a bunch of strong guys to push me fast enough.

As Kurt says, the connections could just be dirty and cleaning them will do the trick. Relays are available at different vendors online as well as BMW dealerships.

Good luck, let us know what you find out. St.

Kurt was 100% correct. Replugging the connections on the relay did the trick. Working great now. Thanks a million.
Jerry