The ignition switch suddenly became progressively harder to turn on and off, without apparent reason. On the recommendation of a locksmith and fellow K12 owner, I sprayed a little WD40 into the lock, but without result. I decided to remove the lock barrel, assuming that it had somehow become damaged. I was going to replace it with one of the spare barrels I received when I bought the bike.
I went to page 51-10 of the BMW manual and went about removing the barrel as indicated. Problem is, the manual was printed before BMW added a hard plastic shell over the ignition unit in order to protect it from the elements and eventual thieves. I quickly ascertained that the plastic cover cannot be removed without destroying it, so I decided to drill a small hole through the front in order to access the lock barrel's safety catch.
Using the manual's photo for mensuration, I figured that I needed
to drill a 1/16" hole exactly 2.5mm from the bottom of the plastic
cover, as shown in the pic.
Once that was done, I turned the
ignition on and inserted a thin dental pick straight into the hole,
pressed gingerly on the lock barrel's safety detent, and pulled the
barrel out. I installed the new barrel, but the lock was still very
hard to turn. I took it out and then just reached down in the well
with a large blade screwdriver and moved the switch mechanism left to
right and back until the action got nice and loose. I reinstalled the
initial tumbler, and the action is smooth again.
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