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January 20, 2006

BMW Euro-switch Upgrade

I thought I would share this with my fellow K-bikers. I guess some older R bikes can do this too. If you are looking for a stock switch for extra lights or accessories on your bike, this is the way to go.

Last week the little green vinyl starter switch on my 87 K75s wore out, fell off and its spring popped out. The bike still started with the little piece left. You can't just replace the starter switch alone, a whole new right side switch assembly has to be ordered.

I thought this would be a great time to get the European right side switch that has the driving lights and headlight yellow switch on it. It can be ordered thru any dealer in the US and the part number is: 61 31 1 459 462. You'll notice on the US model there is a black filler piece where this swich goes. It also looks like they changed the green starter button to a harder type of plastic.

I removed the tank and took out the old switch and harness. The American switch has three prongs in the connector that are all connected together with a gray wire that hardwires the headlights to ON all the time. I carefully pried out the three prongs in both units and moved the bypass wires to the new Euro switch connector. That freed up the 3 wires that were controled by the two headlight switch positions. One wire (blue & gray) is shared by both switch positions. I soldered on some wire to the 3 wires and ran it to the electrics box and used the first position (driving lights) on the switch to turn my Autocom on and off. The second position will be used for something in the future.

Posted by stephen at January 20, 2006 3:07 PM

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