82 Maxim XJ1100 Dark Knight Build

You are the man good sir. Bought new bulbs thinking the same.

Long story short the ground built into the bulb contact was rusted out. A quick Dremel and solder repair, along with connection to the black wire and everything works !!!!!!!

Now onto completing wiring my new gage. The tach has me confused with its 3 wire setup. My new gage has rpm input and I've got the white brown and black. Which wire of white or brown do I need to route elsewhere ?

Thanks for all your input, you guys are all awesome

 

New gauge? As in, not the stock tach but an aftermarket one?

 

Not the stock one haha. I've kept the computer, its grown on me just like the big goddy signals have.

I picked up the universal speedo tach combination I mentioned earlier in my build blog. Might be a little trial and error making the wire combination pick up properly.

So I will be making a bracket to fit the speedo tach combo above the computer in a little gage stack. Atleast that's my thought for now....

 

That's something I'm really interested in. I've looked at a bunch of options, as I want to fully replace my gauges. They're old, crusty, and look terrible. Just going to print a console for LED indicators, but I've yet to find a set of gauges that I'm happy with (sadly, mikesx's tachs are all mechanical but one, and it's one I don't want)... And aftermarket gauges get extremely expensive very quickly.

 

For $50 this gage sweet. Making the speedo sensor bracket took 20 minutes. Even fuel gage is compatible !

 

I looked at these on eBay. Apparently it's tough to get the tach reading correctly. Some use the pickup for the stock tach, others wrap a wire around a spark plug lead.

At least at $50 if worst comes to worst your not out a lot of money.

 

When we ride we shall see how mine works

 

How is your parameter setup screen? Do you have the multiple "screens" to go through, or is everything displayed on 1 after you enter 123 in the cc?

 

I printed a mount for mine, hopefully be wiring it up soon!

 

What are all the holes for?? 2 for the original mount but what about the other 3?
Did you keep the factory computer or did your bike not have it like the XJ1100?

 

I have not connected it yet. that image is a google download. I am super curious how you wired the tach though with the 3 wires, brown white and ground. How did you route them all?

 

Gray wire is the tach signal wire.

 

the other holes are to mount to the underside of my top clamp. factory computer.

 

My bike doesn't have an electronic tach. So I took the signal from 1 of the coils to feed into the tach signal of the gauge. I have some info on the wires and setup in my build thread. I plan on doing a full write up of it once I get the speed callabrated. And I'd love some feedback from you so I can include additional info and help out others here.

 

Beautiful!

 

Also, maybe I need a 3D printer

 

They're cheap. I've got a MP Mini Select, it was $200 and has worked pretty damn well for me. Sadly, the 120mm³ build volume limits it's practicality. Still, a buy I've never once regretted.

You need some know how to get the best out of them, but it'd be trivial being an engineer. Much less difficult than messing with old XJ's

 

I've been toying with buying a 3D printer for some time. I think it's the final motivation I need to pull the trigger.

What software did you use to design that mount?

 

how long did it take to print that?

 

As a rough eyeball estimate, it'd take my mini probably two hours or so, assuming printing in PETG or ABS for strength and temperature resistance. Time is heavily dependant on printer and settings though.

Could prototype substantially faster in PLA, if you felt you where likely to iterate on the design, but I wouldn't want to have PLA parts on my bike.


Desmotom, what material/settings did you use?

 

3D printing.. yea. Printed a bunch of stuff since I built my printer this spring. Nothing for the bike yet, but only a matter of time. BTW, PLA is great for a lot of things. Just don't put it someplace critical.

 

Well I finally have in the mail the final pieces to get the bike running and my seat mounted properly. The only thing left to do is figure out how to get my rear brake pedal spaced out enough. All the used brake levers online are cheap and then $50 to ship them to Canada without the duties ugh

 

drifting way off topic here, but yeah: I love PLA for random stuff, but I wouldn't put it on a bike at all for a few reasons. It's got very low temperature and weather resistance, and tends to warp/deform even if just left in direct sun on a hot day. It's great for toys and stuff that lives inside, but PLA parts, even totally non-structural ones, aren't going to last long in the weather/subjected to rising engine heat. With that said, I totally would use PLA to prototype parts cheaply.

 

God, so much this. I've literally spent about twice as much covering shipping and duties than for the parts themselves - and that's not even a little bit of exaggeration.

Worse, you never know if you're going to get dinged for duty/customs fees or not from a given seller. It's just a surprise bonus charge when the postal guy/courier arrives at your door. Good times. I got a pair of grips that cost me $5 and somehow cost another $12 to receive - and that wasn't counting the shipping cost. Paid, because I was already into them for a few bucks for the purchase cost+shipping... and never used them because they ended up feeling weird. *sighs*

 

Hey team, so tonight I began wiring up my universal gage. The first issue I run into is that I need to wire up the flashers for the blinkers.
The gage has one wire for each indicator and with the green or brown connected the left or right come on but no flasher. Is this a case of I need to attach the flasher wire with an extra resistor to get load so it will flash ?

Also with yellow and green wires for the previous high beam indicator, and now only a single wire, what do I do here ?

Thanks !

 

Do you have a copy of your wiring diagram for your bike you can post?

 

I'll get it on here in the am. My no load flasher fixed the blinkers and hopefully you can help with the headlight when I post tomorrow!
Thanks

 

You have a current high beam indicator bulb, right? From the stock gauges? Turn on the high beams, find the positive lead to the old high beam indicator bulb, and use that.

That's of course without having a wiring diagram to look at, as I'm at work.

 

Thanks ! I do not envy your work schedule !

 

I always get dinged with duty when buying from the US. Never once when buying from China!

We (Canada) have the NAFTA free trade agreement with the US but the trade is not free. I always try to buy from a Canadian supplier first but a lot of things are just not available here.

Maybe Trump will sort that out for us when he renegotiates a better deal.

 

The best deal!
(Trump voice)

 

Hey gents,
So I've got my signals working perfect but that's about it haha. I need help with the high beam as previously mentioned. The headlight indicator is inline and is either always on or not at all, wiring diagram attached.

My neutral light also seems to be a little moody, is not working period. However for now I can live without it, I just want to ride.

I'm also curious what did everyone else who used the gage hook up to the marker light wire ? There's no low beam high beam I can sort out. My switch works for low and high beam however like I said if I connect the wire it's just the high beam indicator always on.

I'm waiting on new air box parts before I turn the bike on so rpm and speed will have to wait however they are simple enough.

 

So without the speedo gauge, your headlight works as expcected? You can switch between low beam and high beam? The issue with the headlight is when you plug in the gauge, the high beam indicator is always on?

 

I can switch between low to high beam using the handlebar switch. However the gage when connected to the headlight indicator just reads high beam always on. Regardless whether I'm on low or high. I also can't make the neutral indicator appear at all. Likely a similar wiring issue I think.

 

What color wire is hooked up to the blue gauge wire? (Headlight)

 

But the neutral indicator works w/o the gauge, so you know it's a wiring issue with the gauge and not a problem with the neutral switch?

As to the headlight - if the indicator is always on, you've got it wired to the wrong input. Use whatever is normally connected to the stock indicator light (the positive lead). To the best of my knowledge (I've looked into that gauge a fair bit) the indicators are simply bulbs that turn on when supplied 12v on their respective lead, then ground to the main ground on the gauge. So, an easy way to track it down is get your meter with the negative wire grounded, and check the pins from your left handlebar switch, look for which goes +12v when you turn the high beams on.

 

I tried yellow, green and both twisted together. Nothing happened with only single wires. When both were wound together it was constantly lit.

 

I haven't been able to light the neutral light yet in its original form or with the new gage.
As for your idea behind tracking the headlight indicator, I like it !
I'll be testing tomorrow and I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

It looks like it should be yellow/green or green and red as those are the wires going to the light. Coming out of the computer monitor.

 

The computer monitoring systems are unique in that the high beam indicator bulb the low side is grounded through the headlight low beam filament. This is done so that the indicator bulb does not interfere with the CMS filament check on the headlight.

The green wire is always 12V, hook to there and your high beam indicator would be always on.
The yellow wire connects to the low beam filament, hook to there and the indicator will be on in low beam. I am a little iffy on this one, as the reserve unit complicates things.

Anyway, I suspect you will not be able to use you existing wiring, but instead will have to splice into the high beam connecting your new gauge wire to the Y/G wire for the high beam filament.

 

Thanks ! Once I traced the wires and saw how the yellow and green and lighting unit were both utilized I thought that might be the way.

 

Update time !
So I put my white headlight indicator wire into the Y/G junction of the headlight plug after trying every other option. SUCCESS

I haven't stumbled over how I will get the neutral light on as it didn't work in stock form. So it's either a wiring issue or the neutral switch itself.

I also mounted the new speedo sensor with the bracket that did a number on my finger making it haha.


I also spliced the fuel sensor wire into the green white wire that feeds the fuel sensor into the computer.

I'll post a wiring map when I've got everything working at the end of this.

 

How'd you attach the magnet to the rotor to trigger the speed sensor? How many magnets did you use?

 

I bought the strongest JB Cold Weld I could find. I'll take a pic for you. Picked it up at Princess auto for cheap. And because I fried the backlight of my last gage I have 5 magnets. But I'm going with 3 as for some reason it just appears aesthetically pleasing to me at 120 degree separation.
I think the combination of the Cold Weld as well as just placing the magnets so they are pulled to the rotor to begin with should be plenty. Worst case, I'll lose my speedo reading temporarily I guess.

I arbitrarily picked 3, also the new sensor and gage don't seem to care about magnet polarity which is great, I think haha. I tested both sides of the magnet and they both register, has anyone else had polarity issues or lack thereof ?

 

Nah, the sensor doesn't care about polarity, though I'd put them all the same way just because.

Realistically, it'll work fine even with one but I suspect the more you use(within reason), the smoother and more accurate it should read.

Just remember to account for the number of magnets when inputting wheel circumference.

 

Update: Ugh now for some reason the computer will not display anything. This wiring may be the death of me.
Too much else to do around the house so I will get back to the bike later in the week.

 

Computer issue fixed !
Next question for you gents. The neutral "switch". Is this internal to the engine ?
I traced the baby blue wire from the indicator, through the harness and it appears to branch off and go into the engine on the bottom end.
Is this correct ? As the indicator hasn't worked in its stock form I want to see if I can remedy this. Neutral indicators are super nice to have.
Thoughts or help on what is the next step ?

 

It should be noted I wore gloves !

 

Cruised forums all afternoon and found out where that screw resides. As expected it was filthy, tons of grime and dirt. Some degreaser and scrubbing later the indicator works perfectly. The only thing that makes me sad is that all of the indicators on the gage are green. I'm used to the N being blue to stand out, cest la vie.
On ward ! Now I just need to get my mount made so I can connect the gage and finally get my headlight back in place.