I Consulted the K100 Forum for broken post solutions

To anyone doing a repair or restoration on K bikes (actually any BMW) I highly suggest looking into and joining the forums. These people are the unsung heroes of home bike repair. Thanks to all the folks at K100 Forum. The link is here: http://k100rt.aforumfree.com/forum.

After posting my issue on the broken coil post, and qualifying a solution that didn't include new coils due to the high cost, $239.

I got varieations on two answers, buy used from ebay and fix with epoxy.

The folks went so far as to actually search and find me the coil(s). That's nice. I usually have no patience for people who don't do searches. I am a firm believer in the internet and google searches, not so much on ebay.

I've never been stung on ebay. I used to confine my purchases to esoteric large format cameras and lenses. After searching the used parts outlets, beemer bone yard and k bike parts, I had to consider ebay.

The first link was for a set of 88' coils for $65 and $20 in shipping. The shipping is kind of a rip off. Ebay sellers don't pay ebay for shipping charges, so many of them mark up the price on shipping. The second link I was sent was for a set of 85' coils these looked as bad as mine. The price was $40 plus $13 in shipping, a better deal and a truer value for shipping. I decided to order the 88's.

The other solution was really the answer I was hoping for "Charlie99" told me the design of the coil and how it might be repaired. I couldn't see how the post was connected to the interior of the coil. He told me there was a thin copper wire that was soldered to the post. He said if I could drill away the plastic/epoxy shroud I might be able to solder a new wire to it and the post and then use an epoxy putty to rebuild the shroud.

I did find the copper wire, and was able to drill around it. I didn't feel that I could free up enough wire for a good solder connection. I think I may invest a few dollars in some JB Weld (I think this is the product that is a metal epoxy putty for fixing engines) to try and do a chemical/mechanical fix. My thought is to put a dab of the metal putty around the piece of freed wire, place the broken post in it's old position and let it cure.  The next step would be to use a standard plastic type epoxy putty to form the shroud and insulate the system.

As Charlie99 suggested, you want good insulation because these are high voltage charges flowing though the coils. I'm not a mechanic or electrician but my understanding is that the 12V charge is sent to the coils which "amps it up" to send it out to the plugs/injectors. The charge coming off the coil is much more dangerous than the standard 12V charge. No matter, you don't want stray charges jumping around all over the bike, it might blow out the brain or other electrical systems.

Someone might ask, "why fix it at all if you're getting new ones?". It's really just an exercise in homegrown repair. If you travel the world you will see people in less affluent places making all kinds of repairs and products that would be considered "medieval" and highly improbable.

In my days of living on my boat in the keys I met people who had been down to Cuba. They commented on how the Cubans were able to keep the 50's era US cars running all these years. In China I saw people repairing leather shoes and belts on hand turned heavy duty sewing machines. In the US we would hardly ever consider repairing some of the items other people around the world fix. I figure if there is some guy in Tibet can get an old motorcycle working so can I.

Of course there is a problem. As we get highly industrialized and products become more and more electronic and computerized our ability to repair becomes an impossible solution. Impossible because very few of us have the ability to chip level diagnostics and then de-solder and re-solder a new chip, ic, or relay.

It would be interesting to see a Kbike with a fried computer converted into a carburated working bike!