Hi All,
I'm posting this mostly as a thank you to the folks past and present who make VFRD so awesome. From the very idea of adding a voltmeter to tips, suggestions, warnings, etc. I learned pretty much everything I needed to know for this project from reading on this site.
Quick background: My 1991 VFR 750 is my first bike and pretty much the only bike I've ever ridden (other than a Rebel 250 at a MSF weekend course). I've had it for coming up on three years. Over the years I've had a number of electrical problems that have left me stranded but I didn't really understand what was going on. Eventually I got fed up and replaced my stator, r/r, and battery all at once. Well... even that didn't solve my problem which as some of us know (thanks gll429!) is due to an insufficient wiring harness and poor grounds. After replacing the r/r again, adding additional ground points, and adding a VFRness I'm finally satisfied my bike isn't going to leave me stranded. However, now I'm extremely paranoid and check the voltage at the battery quite frequently (about as often as I check my tire pressure). So... a hard wired voltmeter was needed!
I jumped on ebay and purchased a $10 voltmeter rated from 4 - 40 volts. When it arrived I checked its readings against my (also cheap) Harbour Freight voltmeter. They matched perfectly!
Next was a quick trip to Radio Shack. I picked up:
1 variety pack of 20 gauge wire in red, black, and green
1 on / off toggle switch
1 variety pack of crimp on butt connectors
1 variety pack of ring terminals
1 variety pack of female disconnects
I already had the following at home:
electrical tape
crimper / wire stripper
heat shrink tubing
Here's what I did:
I pulled the lower dash panel (see pics below) and drilled a hole for the toggle switch and dremeled a rectangle for the voltmeter. The toggle switch had a self-locking mechanism so I just used this. To secure the voltmeter I added two long srews with nylon locking nuts. I taped a border around the voltmeter on the front of the panel and used black liquid electrical tape to fill the small cracks / scuffs from the dremel. ***warning*** the voltmeter I used was just small enough to fit between the panel and the plastic pieces behind it when installed. If you're following these directions take a close look at that area after you pull off the panel and before you start working to get an idea of the space you have to work with.
I wired the positive (red) lead from the voltmeter to the toggle switch using a female disconnect. I added another long piece of wire with a female disconnect on one end and a ring terminal on the other to the other male lead on the voltmeter.
I created a matching negative wire with a ring terminal on one side and used a butt connector to connect it to the negative lead on the voltmeter.
I taped up the positive and negative wires (to each other and then around the bundle for protection) and routed it with other wires from beind the dash towards the headstock then along the existing wiring harness to the battery. In my case I connected it to my Termin-8 but fuse block, battery, Termin-8, etc. is all the same.
And that's it!
I took my bike out for a ride last night and I can't even begin to express how comforting it is to see a solid 14.5 on the dash while riding! Frankly, I'm very proud that I was able to finally solve my electrical problems without getting screwed by a big box dealer and I've learned a TON along the way. Hopefully this post goes a little ways to "paying it forward" and helps someone else out!
Attached Images
- [image: dash.jpg]
- [image: back.jpg]