Acumen DG8 Gear indicator install Qs

So we have one of these leftover from her F4i that I'd like to get installed on the WR. I don't have the plug and play setup and I've looked over the wiring diagram- thanks, Shewolf- but I can't seem to definitively find the crank position sensor.

I think it is on the left side of the motor, but it is covered with a slew of electrical tape and shielding and I don't want to cut it open unless really necessary.

So I guess since I'm asking, what about the neutral switch wire and the speedo wires. Any guidance as to where they are located? I've found them in the wiring diagram but am getting a bit lazy to scour the service manual for the physical location.

Thanks!

May have answered my question...

http://keysdog.com/YamahaWR/Motoscope%20Mini/Motoscope%20Mini%20-%20WR250X.html

So based on what I read in the above, I might use the coil wire that gives a tach reading from the ECU as opposed to the crank position sensor.

This brings me to a couple more questions:
1) In the article, he mentions concerns of getting into the speed sensor. Would this pose a problem if I do a simple tie off of it?

2) Can I take that reading from the coil wire and split it off such that I not only have the gear indicator, but also use it for a tach to be installed later?

The coil wire can be tapped into, but only with CERTAIN tachs. IIRC, Mark has that tach, and he tapped into the ORANGE wire coming off that coil plug. There is a red and an orange. The tach I use won't work like his does, so I had to go below the coil plug because it interfered with the signal. AFAIK, his doesn't interfere with the speed sensor because it's coming right off the plug of the coil.

There is no crank position sensor on this bike. I think the wires you are looking at on the left side of the engine are coming out from the stator. The speed sensor is located centered behind the head and below the starter motor. The neutral switch is located near the shift lever on the lower left side of the engine.

My tach is made by MotoGadget who also makes a shift indicator similar to what you are talking about. If you go to their website and click on Products on the top right and then click on Sure Shift, you will see how they connect their shift indicator. MotoGadget.com

When I installed the Motoscope Mini tach I chose to install the optional speed sensor instead of cutting into the stock speed sensor and playing with different resistors to make it work. The tech guy at MotoGadget, Heiko, was very helpful answering my questions on how to connect the speedo portion of my tach. I really wasn't too keen on cutting into the stock wiring any more than needed, so I went with the add-on speed sensor on the rear wheel (as you can see at the bottom of my article you linked to above).

The tach signal is taken from the orange wire going to the ignition coil. I tapped into it and ran a wire to the tach. That was the only part of the bike wiring I cut into. The add-on speed sensor goes directly to my tach, which has a speedo build into it. The factory speedo still works as normal and nothing else is connected to the stock wiring, except for power connections to my tach from the brown wire on the back of the stock speedo cluster.

I had thought of installing a shift indicator as well, but the more I rode the bike the more I found I didn't need it. With the tach I can pretty much tell what gear I'm in. Adding one now would only be eye candy IMO.

SheWolf wrote:

The coil wire can be tapped into, but only with CERTAIN tachs. IIRC, Mark has that tach, and he tapped into the ORANGE wire coming off that coil plug. There is a red and an orange. The tach I use won't work like his does, so I had to go below the coil plug because it interfered with the signal. AFAIK, his doesn't interfere with the speed sensor because it's coming right off the plug of the coil.

What is the tach you are using?

Mark, I really like that solution and saw it was pretty cool. However, I just can't justify $400+ dollars for this. That and I'd prefer an analog one.

The primary reason for it is for my fiance, whose bike this is- I just get to ride it.

So I have the orange wire down and know the location. Now I'm trying to find the speed sensor. Again, I've found it in the service manual wiring diagram, but don't know the physical location.

Finally, any insight if I can use the orange "tach" wire for both a tach and the shift indicator?

I'm running an EDT 8 tach made by Stihl Chainsaws.

mwakey wrote:

There is no crank position sensor on this bike. I think the wires you are looking at on the left side of the engine are coming out from the stator.

Not to be a smart alec, but there is according to the service manual (page 8-75 for reference). Also, there pretty much has to be a crank sensor at the very least to keep the timing correct with fuel delivery and such.

mwakey wrote:

The speed sensor is located centered behind the head and below the starter motor. The neutral switch is located near the shift lever on the lower left side of the engine.

Didn't notice this in the first read. Sorry. So is there a problem splicing into the speed sensor? By splicing, I mean using a vampire clip like this:



Based on different stuff now, I'm thinking about just doing this indicator and then a Vapor eventually to replace the stock cluster.

longtallsally wrote:

Not to be a smart alec, but there is according to the service manual (page 8-75 for reference). .

My bad. I was looking at the list on the wiring diagram and it doesn't show one there. I thought that was kinda odd too. Guess they forgot that in the list.

longtallsally wrote:

Finally, any insight if I can use the orange "tach" wire for both a tach and the shift indicator?

I don't see why not. They both would be using this wire for the rev signal, and wouldn't draw much power away from the coil, so I doubt it would hurt to use the orange wire for both. But then again, I have never tried to run two things off a tach signal, so I wonder if the signals might interfere with each other with a tach and shift indicator on the same signal wire.

Using the Scotch lock (vampire clip) like you mentioned would be an easy way to tap into the wiring without actually cutting the stock wire. Although those clips are not waterproof at all, so you may want to wrap it up good with some electrical tape. I prefered to make my connection watertight so I cut the orange wire and spliced into it and then soldered and shrink tubed the connection.

Ya, the Motoscope Mini tach was not cheap, but it is a great little unit. What you could do later if you didn't want to splice into the stock speed sensor is just get the add-on speed sensor like I did, and use that instead. Like I said, I wasn't sure about the voltage of the stock speed sensor and if it was compatible with my tach. And I didn't want to mess with trying different resistors to make it work, and then end up with a wiring disaster. The add-on speed sensor I used is a dry reed type sensor and puts out a 12 volt signal, which is compatible with my tach. MotoGadget sells them seperatly if you wanted to go that route. You would need to find out what type of voltage signal was required for your shift indicator to use this add-on sensor.

Me again. Okay, I'm back from a trip and have another one planned this weekend, so I'm trying to get this done before this weekend. Geez, living and riding in CA really sucks, huh?

So then, my latest question is this. I've found all the wires I need: Neutral, Speedo, Tacho, and ground. However, The speedo sensor has 3 wires coming out of it. Which on is the winner?

Thanks!

Well as I think about it more, I am getting to think like Mark; I don't wanna mess with the OEM speedo wire. When I look at the wiring diagram and how to diagnose if the speed sensor is bad, it actually is not giving a reading itself, but rather is taking a voltage difference and sending it to the ECM.

As such, I think the only way to comfortably do this is to get the wire going into the cluster. And I don't know which wire it is into the cluster. If I can't find that out, I'm going to scrap the whole idea and just wait until I get a magnetic speedo sensor.

Sorry LongTall, I can't help you with the stock speed sensor wiring. It confused the heck out of me too, which is why I went with the magnetic dry-reed type sensor on the rear wheel. I mounted it in the rear bolt hole for the caliper cover and used a grommet for a spacer so I could still use the caliper cover. Then i used some blue hose to cover the speed sensor wiring and ran it up the swing arm.

Yeah, I think that idea is a better way to go. So what did that cost and where did you get it?

It came with the Motoscope Mini tach I got from MotoGadget. But they sell it seperately on their web site. Although shipping from Germany is not cheap! I would hazzard to guess you could do a Google and find a similar one on this side of the planet. This one puts out a 12 volt signal.

Go to MotoGadget.com and click on Products on the top right of the page. Then click on Accessories and then click on Sensors.

Sorry for not giving a direct link but their web site works weird. I couldn't do it.