New modern gauges on a GS1100G

[Indiesol]

Hello all -

I know the site is generally in favor of the stock bikes, but I'm hoping you'll all still give your advice to someone not going that direction with their GS. If it makes you feel any better, I wrecked the bike and loved it so much I just had to put it back together.

I'm in the process of upgrading (in my opinion) the gauges on my 1982 GS1100G. I purchased a 2.5" speedometer with built in LED lights for oil pressure, neutral, winkers and high beam. The unit is fairly simple, and has only the inlet for the speedo cable, and then positive and negative wires for each of the indicator lights and the back light. The 2.5" tach I've purchased along with it does not have any indicator lights, so it's just the inlet for the tach cable and the positive and negative wires for the back light.

The speedometer in question:


However, in the factory speedometer, there are also two wires (black with a red tracer and blue with a red tracer) going into the back of the speedo. The wiring diagram shows that they go to the back of the bike to the turn signal control unit, and it just shows that they go up to the speedometer light, but the diagram also clearly shows that the two bulbs in the speedometer are powered by a grey wire and a black one with a white tracer. That has me puzzled.

The blue and red and black and red wires attach to a black piece on the back of the speedo that pops out when pulled. The device they are soldered to is not a bulb, but looks similar to a glass in-line fuse. I hooked both wires up to my volt meter in both directions, and show 12v in only one direction. I think this makes this piece a diode?

The thing I'm rambling about:


In schematic form:


Do any of you know if I can just cut and cap off those wires, or should I leave the unit in place and just tuck it away behind the headlight (if so, I will make a small enclosure for it). My concer is that if I remove it and cap off the wires, my turn signals will all blink, not blink at all, etc.

Also, the unit with the gear indicator lights. Can I just unplug those wires inside the headlight bucket and call it good?



Thank you for your time.

[Krunk_Kracker]

I don't have input, but I'm sub'd to this thread. I've been considering doing a gauge swap as well.


Where did you get the gauges?

[Flyboy]

I think the two wires you are refering to are for the automatic canceling function on the indicators that is triggered by speed, I would assume you can discard them and be done with, that is if your auto cancelling no longer works anyway, chances are it doesn't.
Unplug them an see what happens, if the indicators still work, then you know you can dicard them, if not, just plug back in again and stash it in the headlight housing.

[Indiesol]

I think the two wires you are refering to are for the automatic canceling function on the indicators that is triggered by speed, I would assume you can discard them and be done with, that is if your auto cancelling no longer works anyway, chances are it doesn't.
Unplug them an see what happens, if the indicators still work, then you know you can dicard them, if not, just plug back in again and stash it in the headlight housing.

Ah ha! I hadn't even thought of the auto-cancelling device. I think you're right on the money. Incidentally, it does work, and is kind of annoying in very low speed turn situations, as it often turns off the blinker before I've completed and some times even started the turn. As it does work, though, I'm going to leave it in place.

I'm going to fashion an enclosure out of a tic tac box.

By the way, I checked your 1000G build so far, Flyboy. I can already tell you're going to rebuild that thing to better than new. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress.

Krunk - I happened to pick these up at Dime City Cycles out of FL, though they are both widely available. The guys at DCC are members of another site I'm on and I just flat out like them, which is why I bought from them. If you go to www.froogle.com and do a search for "2.5 speedometer LED" you should find plenty of deals on this exact one. The speedometer I purchased has a 2240:60 ratio, and the tach is a 1:4. They are both mechanical.

I'm more happy with the speedo than the tach. The speedo is backlit by several blue LEDs and is quite nice looking lit up. The tach is lit up by what appears to be one halogen bulb and does not look very nice lit up (pictured below). I have since ordered a 1' long section of blue micro LED strips. I'm going to adhere them to the inside of the right and left sides with 3 LEDs on each side (the speedometer has 8 LEDs for the backlight). I'm hoping this will make the two look more similar.



The fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsPkgOovO14&feature=player_embedded

Thank you for the input, Flyboy, and good luck Krunk!

I'll post pictures, as well as what I find with the install, back here for future reference.

[Flyboy]

Cool, can't wait to see it when it is done, should look really nice.

[tkent02]

I'm thinking your new speedometer won't have the speed switch that the canceling unit needs, so you may not have the self canceling feature after all.

Those gauges look great anyway, methinks me needs a set for the 550/650 hybrid/clone cafe racer... Where did you say you got them?

[OldVet66]

[PHP] I think this makes this piece a diode? [/PHP] Looks more like a reed switch for the self canceling feature. It won't work without the spinning magnetic unit in the old speedometer. Might as well leave it out of the circuit.

[Krunk_Kracker]

I'm thinking your new speedometer won't have the speed switch that the canceling unit needs, so you may not have the self canceling feature after all.

Those gauges look great anyway, methinks me needs a set for the 550/650 hybrid/clone cafe racer... Where did you say you got them?

I found some at Dime City Cycles, LED's for $65 a piece, bulbs for $50 a piece.

Pages 6, 7, and 8.

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/cafe-racer-parts/vintage-universal-cafe-racer-caferacer-bobber-brat-chopper-custom-motorcycle-parts.html?p=6

The white face's are sick.

[Indiesol]

Thanks for the tip, guys. Man I feel like an idiot, but I've got one more question for you all. Should I cross the wires if I'm not going to use that piece or just cap them off? My not knowing that was probably a bigger reason for leaving it in place than the fact that it worked.

I think they look pretty slick too. I'll post a picture after wiring my own blue LEDs into the tach. I think it's going to be a worthwhile mod, and the LEDs were only 12.50+ shipping for a foot long strip so if it doesn't work out I won't feel too bad.

I'm having a bit of a clearance issue with the headlight bucket causing some worrisome bends in the tach and speedometer cables, but I have some new aftermarket headlight brackets on the way which will allow a bit more adjustment and take care of that.

The Oregon Vintage Motorcyclist swap meet is on the 22nd, I hope to have this done and the tins pinstriped before then.

[OldVet66]

Cap them off or remove them. I know unplugging the reed switch in the headlight connections removes the self canceling unit from the circuit. I never went further than establishing that the turn signals still work manually without it, but I'm assuming shorting the wires together will cancel the signals.

[ChicagoBob]

Do the stock GS speedo and tach cables fit the new gauges? And how's the accuracy of the speedo?

[Krunk_Kracker]

Led us know how the mod with the LED strips goes.

[Indiesol]

Bob - The stock cables fit perfectly, and the accuracy should be spot on. The stock speedometer ratio is 2240 front tire RPMs = 60mph. The new speedometer is designed for exactly that ratio. I will say that I'm concerned about the bend in the speedometer cable caused by the headlight bucket. If it's off at all, it will be caused by binding in that bend. I think I'm okay, but if not I'll have to try heating the y-brackets and bending them, bringing the gauges more parallel with the ground. I'll create templates before hand so I can custom make new ones if I'm unable too, but it shouldn't be too difficult. I've already lowered the headlight bucket with some universal brackets to straighten it out a bit, but there wasn't a lot of downard room to move..

I haven't gotten the Tach / LED mod taken care of, Kracker. It's going to be a "if I have time before the show" thing. I briefly tried taking the housing apart, but it was a little tougher than just removing a couple nuts and screws so I put it back together to get my wiring and mounting sorted. I'm excited that I have the LEDs, now I just have to figure out how to cut the damn things without screwing them up.

My tins are out at the pinstriper's right now, to be picked up Friday. So, I won't be able to fully test the units until Friday night at the earliest. I planned the timing of the pinstriping based on what was supposed to be terrible weather, but the sun is out and it's quite comfortable. I'm bitter.

[Indiesol]

The results are in....Well, some of them.

The speedometer and tach are both spot on accurate. However, due to a bend in the cable, the tach lags just a bit when coming back down to idle RPMs. The speedometer does not have the same problem, despite having the same type of bend. The speedometer cable is OEM, and the tach cable is Motion-Pro, which may or may not have anything to do with it. I had to lower the headlight bucket. Without doing so, the bend in the cables would be much more severe.

There are some wiring issues. The backlights, high beam and oil pressure lights all work as they should. Unfortunately, though, there is something going on between the neutral and signal indicators. The neutral light stays on all the time, unless the left blinker is on, in which case it flashes with the signal. I'm not sure if the light staying on has anything to do with the fact that I've removed the gear indicator lights, but I'll look into that possibility. Anyways, I'm confident I can sort that out. I was told a diode may need to be wired in also.

I have not yet finished the LED mod on the tach. I will do that next week.

They sure do look good, though.

Before


After