SERVO GS 1200

[Gordyman]

Can anyone give me advice regarding the servo on my early 1200GS. I have had it from new with no problems, until now. When I start the bike I let it go through its self check sequence. sometimes all is good and brakes are fine. Other times the servo doesnt come in no matter how many times I go through the sequence. The brake failure warning light flashes, I have brakes but simply have to pull them a lot harder due to no servo. After about 20 or thirty miles it seems to right itself and all is well. Problem of course is it is unpredictable so on occaisions i give the brake lever a heave and bang the servo clicks in and it is 'attention focus time'!

I took it to BMW and they could find nothing wrong and the bloody thing worked normally. Any ideas out there? I am off to Austria for Garmish and want to get it sorted because my pillion finds it a little off putting going around with the brake failure warning light flashing. And for me I dont want a sudden restart of the servo on alpine bends.

Can anyone advise me please thanks for your help chaps n chappesses.
Gordyman

 

[dippy]

Only times I've had similar is when the brake lever is stuck, front on due to the hand guard being knocked off a bit and pressing on the brake lever but only a small amount and the rear brake when it the lever gets clagged up with crap but i have to restart the bike in these cases to clear the fault.

 

[DrFarkoff]

Make sure your handgaurd isn't fouling the brake lever

If teh ABS Controller doesn;t "see" two switches it won;t activate the ABS

 

[alex_rsa]

Mine is similar (2004 model with servo ABS). sometimes it finishes the check on its own and other times I need to pull the front brake lever to get the "all clear". Mine tends to happen on cool mornings so I figured it is low voltage not triggering the servo during the self-check. I would not be keen riding it without the servo working

Nothing showed up on the GS911 when I plugged it in either.

 

[patzx12]

Put a meter on the brake limit switches and check the fuction. the ajustment may be borderline.
Remember the switches are NO (normally on)
meter them, there should be a connection all the time, when you depress the brake lever the signal should go off. Ajust the switch if nessesary.

 

[Gordyman]

Thanks all for advice I will go through each one this weekend hopefully I will get lucky. I will let you know. Cheers chaps
Gordy

 

[Bem]

Can anyone give me advice regarding the servo on my early 1200GS. I have had it from new with no problems, until now.
Any ideas out there?
Gordyman

You don`t say how early yours is - mine was an 2005. My servo system started playing up at around 30k, with the rear circuit pump being the major problem - front pump worked fine. Decided to bite the bullet and got a 2nd hand unit from Motoworks which I replaced myself - problem solved.
I had toyed with taking the whole unit apart and trying to bring the pump back to life, but took the replacement option first as I am not a tekky!

 

[patzx12]

Let me know if you need a pump

 

[BlueBird]

I have more frequent trouble with my servos now at 75k,
although the rear disc and pads are shagged so will look atthem first, I will ask Pat for dibs on his pump if you don't mind.

 

[BlueBird]

I had enough

Im on shetland at the moment and my servos have stopped working altogether now,it was intermittant before and always cleared itself,

anyway im gona bypass the servos and abs pump so I have brakes,the bypass looks easy enough,I've searched everyware for info about doing it and can only find pointers about the pipework needed,nothing on what to do about the electrical/sotware side of it,

so I am going to bypass the pump and go direct to the calipers and empty the pump of fluid and leave the electrical connections on it,I realise the canbus will read that there are problems with the pump but hopefully I will still get speedo and brake lights this way.

I have reached the stage where I cannot trust wether I have brakes or not steaming into a corner,I can always fit a 2nd hand pump if it don't work out.

 

[Gordyman]

HI chaps
As I said before thanks to you all for your good advice. I am pleased to say that it was the easy option ie Jaythro and Dippy's suggestion about the hand guard. I checked this before but didnt look as close as I should have. It was barely touching the lever a gnats cock of adjustment. So thanks to all of you once again.
Gordyman

 

[BlueBird]

So I start looking at the pipe work to assess wahts needed to bypass abs pump,fairly straight forward, just remove loop to abs pump on front by connecting the 2 braided lines togther where it splits to go to pump just below top yoke,you can use either of the exsisting fittings to do this,

For the rear you can either use the exsisting pipe that goes from pump to rear caliper,just got to cut and shape to length and flare the end or get a replacement pipe.

As I was looking at this I noticed the brake light permanantly on,Now the first thing I checked was if the micro switchs were not being operated by the hand guard or shit or stones in the rear,they appeared to be ok not jammed and "clicking" nicely.

So pulled cover of the rear and thats clean as the day it come out of factory despite not washing bike for at least 2 years and riding in all weather,gave it a squirt of wd40 and brake light still on,

moved to front and dismantle hand guard and mirror to get switch out,switch appears to operate ok,turn on ignition and operate switch quickly and suddenly servos start whirring!!!

take switch of and look at where button goes in and you can see oily reisdue in there wipe it off and operate again and more shit comes out,get the wd40 and give it a good blast until it is clear and everythings ok.

I give all my levers a squirt of oil regularly and over the years it must have got into switch and gummed up the contacts,switch appears to operate but no conductivity,I will check with a meter next time I get a problem

In hindsight a lot of the intermittant problems that I have had with the servos sticking on must have come fro this switch being contaminated, a lesson learnt and a bit more patience instead of being quick to condem is what I will take away from this little saga.