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Using a universal all in one gauge?

15K views 34 replies 12 participants last post by  MobileAZN  
#1 ·
TL;DR: How do I install and mount a cheapo universal all in one gauge?

Hey guys, so I took my cafe racer out for a ride trying to diagnose several issues with my carbs and pods, I was riding on the freeway at the pace of traffic (about 65 mph), I glance down at my speedo and it says I'm going 100mph. The needle of the speedo is bobbing around and not being accurate so I think it's time for a replacement.

In trying to keep things inexpensive (trust me I want to splurge 500 bucks on a crazy gauge) I found an all in one gauge on ebay and was curious how I would go about installing it. There is no input for tach or speedo cable that I can see, the only "cable" is one that looks like it wouldn't fit into the current system.

Link to the gauge
http://m.ebay.com/itm/322163858969?...rk=4&rkt=29&mehot=pp&sd=282194103567&_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_mwBanner=1
It doesn't even have a name and I've found it all over the place. The only thing that the sellers say is "it will work with any 12v system"

Do I need an adapter, new plugs, or will it just flat out not work?

Bike is a 1980 cx500c rebuilt as a cafe racer 2k miles
 
#32 ·
The oil pressure light is controlled by a switch in the ground side of the circuit. To work your gauge needs to have a light that is connected to power and lights when you connect its wire to negative.

In my cheapos I used the parking brake light for that because they didn't have oil lights. It worked OK but I always wondered what they were designed for that has a parking brake but not an oil light or neutral light.
The Danmoto has an oil light and a neutral light that work perfectly.

Did I mention that almost every wire on the Danmoto matches Honda's colour code? The cheapos had different colours between otherwise identical looking units...
 
#33 ·
Ok then it looks like this gauge won't be able to detect an oil light in that configuration. The only ground coming off of it is a main ground and to I interfere with that would interfere with the rest of the gauge. Luckily I can simply attach a bulb that takes 12v and bada boom not fancy but works, right?

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#34 ·
If it has an oil light it should work the way I described. That's a pretty standard way for them to work....

The switch finds ground by being screwed into the engine block so it wouldn't need aseparate ground wire.