How to unlock inline electrical connectors?
 

Hi all, while on a weekend trip it rained heavily and had to ride the r1200s through a flooded causeway to get home. The water line was above the cylinder heads and the bike began to misfire shortly after the crossing. I suspect the cause of misfiring is wet wiring harness connections. I cant figure out how to disconnect the various inline connectors to clean them and don't want to break anything in the process. Can the group give guidance about how to unlock inline electrical connectors used on BMW motorcycles? Thanks in advance Will http://forums.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/confused.gif

The first thing I would do would be remove the high tension wires from the plugs and let them dry thoroughly.

Low voltage wires are pretty tolerant of moisture (unless it has time to cause corrosion)

Electrical connectors can be infuriating. The trend these days is away from friction fit "bullet" types and instead for the connector to have some small tab that interlocks and prevents the connection from opening unless you release the tab. Usually, but not always, you push on something that unlocks the tab, but occasionally you find one that requires hooking a fingernail on something or a twist. A small screwdriver or other probing tool is sometimes useful. Good light and a careful visual inspections before you start tugging and swearing is the best bet, but lots of these connectors are often not very exposed or visible.

Having said this, as the previous poster said, I suspect your trouble is on the HT side, not the low-voltage side.

- Mark

Huh, isn't it all low voltage right to the coil, which plugs onto the spark plugs?

Some of the connectors have a little wire you either pull out our push in. What all are you looking to disconnect, were your throttle bodies under water? Sometimes when I wash my R1200S it misfires for a bit afterwords. Hopefully you didn't trash a coil. I would take it for a ride on a hot dry day if it runs well enough to ride. Does it run on both cylinders now" WD-40 might be your new best friend.

[edit]

I get it, you are saying remove the coils from the plugs and let them dry out, good advice.

Yea, you got it, Water makes flash over much more likely for 30,000+ volts, that exit the coils, and is someone pulled them off before, they might mot have seated the boots fully.

Thanks for the advice guys, AZ-twin yes the throttle bodies went under water too. If i could refer back to the diagram in my second post. I found moisture in connectors 6, 7 and 10 on left side, 7 on right side. Have sprayed all with a electrical contact cleaner and will leave to dry out over night. regards Will

+1. They seem to be different depending....so hard to say which method to use for which connector.