"Atari Box" madness

So, I have the very distinguishable 1982 XJ 750 Maxim... Probably the ugliest front end ever

I LOVE my bike, I really do, so all square headlight/fog light jokes aside...

I am having fits with the "Atari Box" electronics. When riding on the highway the other day, my side stand warning indicator on the fading LCD came on, accompanied by that stupid flashing red idiot light.

Now, no way, at 65mph was I trying to park this thing, LOL.

The box also makes dumb mistakes, like going through the "test" sequence at random RPM's

Sounds to me like a connector, ground or other electrical related issue, or is this common on these old over-designed idiot box systems?

Questions:

1. Can I use dielectric grease on brush-cleaned connectors? (the 100 wires inside the headlight case)

2. anyone else with an 82 have this problem with your "box"?

3. Any cures, like testing/replacing a voltage regulator?

4. Anyone know of an OEM or aftermarket Speedo (cable)/Tach (electronic)/Idiot light combination?

5. Anyone replace the glass in the box? I get an AWFUL glare at varying sun angles, so bad, it's unsafe...

Thanks Guys!

 

I don't think the sidestand indicator coming on is the fault of the OBD itself; it's more likely a problem with the sidestand switch, for real.

The sidestand switch lives in a very inhospitable environment and is prone to failure. Start there.

 

X2 on what Fitz said - if the issue was in the atari box, it more than likely WOULDN'T come on, even with the sidestand down.

Good luck

 

Thanks guys. After re-shimming a couple valves today (I THOUGHT I did a good first-time job, LOL)

I'll have a peek at the switch, maybe it's loose or bad contact.

 

The box is still erratic, it randomly goes into test mode showing in succession all of the possible LCD warnings and alerts at varying RPMs (basically everytime I cross 4kRPM, it's malfunctioning I guess.

 

Yeah, I replaced the glass in the box with acrylic. Not by choice, mind you. I put a speedo from a different Yamaha in mine, it fit, basically.(lost my trip odometer, since that did not fit)

But turns out the needle was sticking out more than the original and touching the glass, so when I tightened the screws...CRACK...so much for the glass on the instruments. Sigh. I went to a plastic shop and found some scrap acrylic, and very painstakingly cut out a matching piece. It's thinner and lighter, so no clearance issues with my non-standard speedo, now. Only drawback, I was worried about seal, so put RTV Black all around the edges, and it scratches easier than glass, obviously.

I dinged it a little bit just cutting the thing, buffed it as best I could, but I've never mastered removing scratches from plastic. I'm on my third helmet visor in two years, everything that touches them scratches 'em, I have no tolerance for a scratched visor.

 

Nice! Acrylic, never thought about that and great that you can replace the glass. I can't stand the reflections in my eyes. I wear glasses inside my helmet and not wanting to get sunglasses, I just never liked them.

 

Yeah, at the time, I got creative and painted that piece of metal that frames the speedo and tach with some chrome paint. Because I thought it would look cool. Actually, it did look hella cool. Only problem, it also reflected like crazy. So I re-painted it black again. It still seems to me that that piece should be like a brushed aluminum look, or something, it needs to stand out, it is metal after all, and there's so much black already, in those gauges.

If I get a chance, I'll take a picture of my instrument panel. Showing my homemade lens, or whatever you call it. The whole thing is not as pretty as I'd like, but the lcd screen polarity is reversed, to make it black instead of grey, so that's kind of cool. Only right now I have "HEAD" and "BATT" warnings going off. The head is because of my custom relays, the battery...? Makes me kind of not want to show my instruments, because of my OCD I guess

I have debated about scrapping the whole thing, but I like the fact that the square lights and weirdo cluster makes it easy to identify, plus it's just so damn weird. And mine pretty much works, once I do the workaround for headlight relays, and maybe lower the resistance in my BATT warning bypass, which used to work, but with the new battery it never turns off.