'85 BWM K100 - Gas from tailpipe

Hoping someone can help...

I let my 85 K100 RS sit for about a year and the battery died. I
replaced the battery, but when I went to start it, it acted like there
was no fire (ignition) and it was spraying gas from the tailpipe.

I'm wondering if there's something simple to do or an adjustment that I
could make to get it started so I can get it into the shop for service.


Thanks in advance.

 

Sparks drowned in gasoline? Ain't fuel injection wonderful?

Is there something simple you could do? Take your left hand, reach
behind you and remove your wallet from your pocket. Holding your wallet
in your left hand, reach in and remove as many pieces of green paper as
you may have and count them or take one of the little plastic cards in
the side pockets and call up the 1-800 number on the back of the card
to see if you have any available credit left.

Then call Motorcycle Valet Towing and they'll send a very nice man out
to wrap your BMW in a baggy and whisk it off to the local BMW Emporium.
If your BMW is clean enough and they like you, they will fix it without
sneering scornfully at you...
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But there are solutions for us less fortunate folks who don't have
bushel baskets of money gathering dust in the corner... ;-)

Read your shop manual, if you have one. Every motorcycle owner should
have a shop manual to save massive amounts of money that would
otherwise be spent on silly little problems when you have to take the
machine to the $tealership to get it fixed...

Maybe you can get the ECU to reset itself if you just disconnect the
battery and reconnect it?

The ECU is the brain of the Frankenstein Monster. It take some
experience with cantankerous electromechanical systems to have an idea
how the damned thing is hooked up to work. If it's not an ECU problem,
maybe it's mechanical...

Could be one of the fuel injectors is stuck in the open position.
If that's the case you want to blow the gasoline out of the cylinders
so you can check for spark at the plugs with the plugs removed from the
cylinders...

(A new set of spark plugs probably wouldn't hurt, either.)

Maybe if you pulled the ECU's fuse out, the ECU wouldn't send a spark
to the cylinders, and it wouldn't open the fuel injectors, but it also
might not let the starter turn over either. Gawd only knows how the
Bosch engineers designed that black box...

The ignition pickup coil probably signals the ECU that the engine is
spinning and that probably starts the fuel pump running. The pickup
coil probably signals the injectors to squirt gas at the right time...

You could probably disconnect the plug coming from the ignition pickup
coil so the ECU wouldn't turn the fuel pump on, and crank the
engine over with the spark plugs removed to blow out any gasoline
remianing in the cylinders...

Then you could hook the pickup coil plug back up and cautiously check
for spark, with the spark plugs grounded as far away from the spark
plug holes as possible, because the fuel pump *will* start spraying
fuel into the cylinders again and you don't want to ignite those
vapors...

Look for some way to stop the injector pump from running or a way to
block gasoline from getting to the injector pump so you can blow the
gasoline out of the cylinders...

Maybe a simpler way to blow any gasoline out of the cylinders is to
jumper the starter solenoid. It may have two small terminals, it may
have one small terminal...

The shade tree mechanic's way of getting an engine to crank over if
there's a problem with getting the starter solenoid to close would be
to stick a screwdriver across the two large terminals. But that makes
big sparks...

A tricky electrician like me would use two small jumper wires, one from
the + terminal of the battery, and one from the - terminal of the
battery. If the starter solenoid has two small terminals, the solenoid
should close and the engine should crank over without turning the
ignition key on and that would blow the gasoline out of the engine
without making big sparks...

If the solenoid has only one small terminal, the solenoid coil might be
getting its power from the large +terminal that comes off the battery.
In that case, all you have to do is use a jumper wire to ground the
single small terminal and the solenoid should close and crank the
engine over...

It's nice to have a small fuse, say 5 amps, in a fuse holder when you
start probing around like that.

The starter solenoid might be internally grounded, and what you might
need to do is apply 12 volts from the battery to that single terminal
on the solenoid...

Whatever works, to get the engine to crank over with the electric
starter. It beats hell out of taking the whole motorcycle to the top of
a hill and coasting down the hill with the engine in gear and the spark
plugs removed to blow the gasoline out of the cylinders...

If you can get all the gasoline blown out of the cylinders and your
engine oil doesn't smell like gasoline, you can replace the spark plugs
and try to start the engine. If the engine will run, try putting some
fuel system cleaner that's designed for fuel injection systems in the
gas tank. Just a few ounces is all it will take in each tank. Use that
stuff until it's all used up.

Fuel sytem cleaners designed for fuel injection systems will say that
they are made of "petroleum distillate". That stuff is a little oily,
like kerosene. It lubricates the pintle of the fuel injector and lets
it work without sticking...

If your oil does smell like gasoline and you look at the oil level and
it seems to be rising, that's a bad thing. Gasoline will dilute the oil
and you can wipe out your bearings with diluted oil if you don't get an
explosion from gas fumes in the crankcase...

If your oil smells like gasoline, you'll have to change it. But I
wouldn't spend a lot of money on expensive synthetic oil for that
change if I thought a fuel injector was sticking and I might just get
gasoline diluted oil again...

No, I would just go down to the 99 Cents Only store and buy 4 quarts of
the 99-cent oil to flush out any gasoline-diluted oil...

 

Treat it as if it were badly flooded. Which it is. If you know how, do an
oil change first. Then pull the plugs and crank it with the fuel valve
turned "off". Let it sit for a few days with the plugs out or blow the
excess out with compressed air. Next time, drain the gas before you let it
sit for a long period and turn off the fuel valve.

Davehd

 

The injector pump will still pump whatever gasoline is in the system
into the cylinders because the ECU will tell the fuel injectors to open
when you crank the engine over with the electric starter...

Whatever fuel goes into the cylinders can dilute the fresh oil again...


What will a BMW fuel pump do, if you run it dry? Some fuel pumps will
be damaged by running dry because they are cooled and lubricated by
gasoline...

 

Just detach the FI wires before cranking. There is some evidence that
BMW pumps will be damaged by drying running for a long time, but here,
this bike is so old, there is no telling what's going on.