cruisin
05-18-2004, 09:39 PM
Just discovered that you can replace the front brake light switch on an RT with one from Radio Shack and save yourself some $$. My RT brake lights were staying on without me ever touching either the foot pedal or front lever. Upon listening closely as each lever was actuated, I did not detect the normal clicking sound coming from the front switch that I heard from the rear. (Also one you would normally hear on a new switch) I did a little tracing of wires and decided that replacing ONLY the switch would be much easier and probably much less costly than buying the BMW switch and wiring harness that accompanies it. I found the needed switch at a local Radio Shack for $2.69 + tax. The install is fairly straight forward by soldering two wires to the switch then using spade connectors to tie it back into the original wires that are cut to remove the bad switch. There are only two wires involved (green with black stripe and grey). The new switch is not an exact match to the OEM but only in the aspect that it does not have the harness with it. It is rated for 5A and 125/250VAC so should be quite durable for this application. The holes in the Radio Shack switch line up exactly with the mounting holes of the old switch. The contact lever has to be bent slightly away from the switch(toward the brake lever base) to make proper contact; easily done with just your fingers. The Radio Shack switch has three solder points, one is ground and marked "G" the other two are marked "NC" for normally closed and "NO" for normally open; you will use the NC and G points with the green/black and grey wire respectively. Entire job only took about 40 minutes and I never had to remove any tupperware. I did all of the wiring about mid-way between the lever and the triple-tree and protected all the connections with black heat-shrink tubing then tied it all back in place with black zip ties. Unless you inspect it very closely, you cannot tell that it is any different from the factory install. The Radio Shack product number is: 275-016A "Submini Lever Switch" is the name on the package label. Called a dealer today to get a quote on the switch with wiring harness--$26.95 and it would have involved removing dash panel and probably the right side tupperware maybe more. Glad I planned it out a little before just jumping in and ordering and OEM replacement part. I was able to get the part on a Sunday afternoon and had the bike fixed and ready to roll without having to mess with waiting on ordering from a dealer and shipping time and charges.
Hope this helps someone else out there.
Hope this helps someone else out there.