Adding Aftermarket Tachometer

I bought the bike without a cluster, and am wiring an aftermarket tach.

Has anyone here done it? I'm confused about where I'm supposed to attach it on the coil side due to having two. The connector in the headlight has four terminals.

 

The grey coil wire is used to feed the tach.

 

Hi K-moe
just hooked my after market tach up
couldnt get it to work and then just seen this post and hooked the green feed line to the grey and the engine would crank but woudnt fire. disconected the green and she fired straight up.

any ideas mate?

 

ok checked the grey wire with the multi AC and that is working great.

the other 2 wires coming off the tach (not including the normally lighting) are a soild black and a black/yellow stripe

any idea where i should join these

 

you are the second poster with this problem got a brand name or wiring diagram for the tach

wiring diagram for you
http://members.tripod.com/dave_jack/wiringdiag/d7a.jpg

http://members.tripod.com/dave_jack/wiringdiag/d7b.jpg
component key
http://members.tripod.com/dave_jack/wiringdiag/d8.jpg

shows orange wire in connector as tach feed
you should ohm it out to be sure
as well as the other wires for voltage and ground

 

Hey XJ550H brought the tach off ebay and this didnt have any diagram
But I found this from another selling with identical tach
The grey wire was showing the tach reading on the multimeter
but if I connect straight ignition power to the solid black it will crank over but not fire

Unsure what to do with the solid black and the black/yellow stripe wires

 

geern is negitive
black is positive
black yellow is tach siginal wire connect to gray wire (orange on diagram)

I was unsure of the wiring diagram colors being correct to the bike colors

 

XJ550H you're a legend
worked exactly as you said, thanks for that mate

 

....maybe in my own mind, i'm still in the wax on wax off class here.
always happy when i can help

 

Had same problem and found a youtube video that showed right wiring. Problem is it's out by 1300 rpm.shows 2400 rpm at idle.Know this by hooking up old tach and it shows 1100 rpm. If anyone knows of a fix for that it would be appreciated.

 

Is there a switch, or a wiring choice, for the number of cylinders?

 

got a link to the tack and video?

 

I've put a seca 750 into my maxim 650 bike and now am wiring up a tachometer, where would I hook the tach up to if the previous tach was mechanical and the wiring for my bike isn't fit for an electric tach?

 

this could be foolish and embarrassing for me, but I have never dealt with an aftermarket tach on a bike. but aren't these machines wasted spark? each coil drives 2 cylinders, and when cyl 1 fires cyl 2 is also sparking but just has no fuel to ignite? (or however the pairs are wired I forget what cylinders share what coil) so wouldn't it read double the speed, which is basically what scratch is seeing? so how would you account for that? its not 1 pulse per cyl?

on an older car with tradional distributor and single coil aftermarket tachs have switch for how many cylinders, but thats is still dealing with a single pulse from a single coil so that makes sense to me. I cant figure out wasted spark.

 

You have two choices:

Wire it for an electronic tach (easy, and has been done by many).

Have the head machined to accept a mechanical tach drive from the 650 ( not so easy, costly)

 

You are correct, which is why most aftermarket tacs of any decent quality are switchable/ wire able for wasted spark applications ( very common in motorcycles).

 

my acewell has a .5 setting for number of cylinders, and works just fine.
stu

 

I've decided to go with the new Tach. Where on my bike would I hook up the new tach wire?

 

The grey wire on the right hand ignition coil.

 

Thank you!

 

Hi Myck,

I have just bought an aftermarket Tacho to put on my XJ650 , sounds like similar wiring to the one you did, see attached
I havent tryed to install yet ... trying to make the mosy of summer in NZ before it gets cold
Did your one show the correct revs?
cheers
Jeff