Lazy neutral light

Bike is a '95 R1100 GS. Neutral light comes on several seconds after gearshift is in neutral. During the out time the bike will not start. It sometimes works as it should, mostly not. It eventually comes on and all is well. Any ideas where to look for this problem Thanks all!

Probably the neutral light switch, which is on the back (exterior) of the transmission.

You should be able to pull the clutch lever and start the bike regardless of the gear. If that does not work, you have a lazy neutral light AND a faulty clutch switch (clutch switch is at the controls on the grip, and it can be bypassed by cutting the wires and shorting them together - but then you can also start the bike in gear WITHOUT the clutch pulled, and that's not fun).

Google lazy neutral light and you'll find lots of info.

Hey, KS!!

The neutral switch is the round black thing with the black wire coming out at the 10 o'clock position. That's the back side of the R1100S tranny in the pic. The switch is held in place by a wire snap ring. Squeeze the two ends of the snap ring together and it slips right off. EZPZ.

Another view - from the gear shift pedal:

Sorry about the crazy angle. The wire in the white sheath goes to the switch. That's the rear swing arm top right, left side of tranny in center, and starter in bottom left.

One more view looking forward from where the rear wheel would be. The top part of the switch is in the shadow of the swingarm unfortunately.

You may need to remove the rear wheel and bottom bolt of the shock to get to the switch over the swing arm. Once you get it off (wire still connected) I'd squirt a half can of WD-40 into the switch while exercising it to clean it out thoroughly and free it up. Probably full of road grit. Consider a rear wheel hugger to protect the entire back end (shock, spring, tranny, swingarm, seat bottom) from the road grit blast.

45 min driveway job.

Lowndes

Sadly, the trans on the R1100S is a six speed by Getrag.

The 5 speed owned by the OP Is of the John Deer design.

So apples and oranges as far as servicing/accessing the neutral switch.

You should be able to pull the clutch lever and start the bike regardless of the gear. If that does not work, you have a lazy neutral light AND a faulty clutch switch (clutch switch is at the controls on the grip, and it can be bypassed by cutting the wires and shorting them together

That exactly. All my oilheads have ended up with a bypassed clutch switch eventually.

Thanks all for your responses. Thank you Lowndes for the pics I will tear into this very soon. I will let you all know how it turned out.