Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Tach connector

Can anyone point me to the tach connector underneath the console? There is a two-wire (green & red) male connector with a large plastic sleeve under there which according to the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual 'should' be it but I'm really not sure. I want to tap into the connector for the tach on my Acewell.

Btw, I did try tapping into the aforementioned connector on the red side and nothing happened. The green side powers up with the ignition.

hope this helps

http://www.bonnevilleamerica.com/forums/...true#Post261776

"There is a 2 wire plug under the dash the red wire is to the coil and the green and read wire is hot with the ignition on. The tach has 4 wires. You wire it Green to the Red coil wire, Black to ground (I used the Brown ground wire for the clock), Red is hot for the tach and Blue it hot for the light I wired them both to the Green hot for the tach."

Thanks for that Jim, but I'm still confused. You see, I have this Acewell speedo with tach. It has one lead that Acewell says can be wrapped around a spark plug wire and you're done. Or... for more accuracy it can be connected to the CDI. I have it wrapped around a spark plug lead but the tach jumps around a lot. So I figure, connect it directly to the available connector for Triumph tachs. I tried connecting it to the red wire on the two-wire connector (one red, and one green/red stripe wire) under the console. Nothing. That's what I'm trying to do... get a direct signal from the CDI to connect my Acewell tach wire to.

Try a wire to pin #15 directly from the CDI, that's the take-off point for the tach. You ought to be able to slip a wire next to the pin from behind and get a test reading and then you'll know.

Keith,

This came with my non-oem tach when I did the install...
Hope this helps:

That wire that gets wrapped around the spark plug wire gets triggered by the magnetic field rising and collapsing, can that get hard wired???? sorry no help

I realize what the post is about, electronics isn't my strong point and was wondering(trying to learn) if the instructions says if it can be hooked up either/or? to me it seems like different kinds of current????????

The 2 wire connector is for a clock. the tach cable has 3 wires, ground, light and signal.

Keith,

There are a number of misprints in the Triumph Manual also. The clutch switch and horn button are reversed and incorrectly marked (numbers 36 and 37). the Neutral warning light, oil pressure warning light and instrument connector (clock??) are also mixed up (#49, 50 and 51).

BTW, the "instrument connector" is the 2 wire connector you are referring to that might be messed up in the Haynes manual. It has a red wire going to the ignitor and green and red wire splitting between the ignitor and alarm unit. I don't imagine these wires would be used in a "clock". Reading Moe's link above seems to solve the problem where portions of both connectors (2 wire and 3 wire) were used to get Ronnie going.

If I get a chance this weekend, I'll pull my dash and see how mines is wired.

That 3 wire connector that we're not sure of(#46 in Triumph manual) appears to be a genine clock connector. It has continuous power on the purple wire (to keep the clock running when shut off), intermittant power on the red/blue to turn the interior light in the clock on through the light switch and a ground brown wire.

Just to illustrate Gregger's point, here's a screen capture of the America/Speedmaster schematic from the factory book where #46 is identified as the clock and #49 as the tach:

Thanks Ed,

I was too lazy to scan my book.

Don't know if this has already been mentioned here yet Keith, and I don't know if this is pertinent here either, but if you were thinkin' about using the wires for the "plug and play" Triumph tach for your aftermarket tach, well, the 2002 model BAs were not wired for the tach at all. The "plug and play" tach wiring first appeared in 2003, and you have a 2002 model, don't ya?

If I recall correctly, years ago I wired my Drag Specialties tach on my 2002 model pretty much onto the power feed off one of the coils and another aft of that coil.

(I just remember pretty much following the instructions that came with the tach which looked pretty much like the one Jeff[perceval] posted a pic of above)

Misprints, eh Greg? Does shed light on the issue. Thanks for the wiring diagrams Jim...Ed. And Dwight, my bike is actually an '03 so the not-there-in-the-first-place-on-'02s scenario probably doesn't apply. Since I opened this thread I haven't pulled the console yet (hey... I'm a busy rock 'n roll dude) but I should get at it in the next couple of days.

Thanks everyone... I'll let you know when I make the right connection!!

Okay, today I had a chance to work again on the direct-wire connection for the tach. And again I got nowhere. Here's what I've concluded. The 2 wire connector under the console really is for a tach. And the 3 wire under there is for the clock. This I say after going over similar threads where others talk about connecting to the red wire in the 2-wire connector, and after my own investigative prowess with a tester and volt meter.

However, the red wire on that 2-wire connector didn't bring my tach to life. The wiring diagram shows that red wire as running back to the ICU. But on my bike, the red wire seems to disappear in the wiring harness and does not show up back at the ICU. Hmmmmm....

Another way of looking at this is to (perhaps) connect the tach to one of the coils. The coils have 2 wires, a red and a striped yellows. The red is hot while the striped yellows come from the ICU. The instructions that came with my Acewell speedo/tach say I can get a tach signal in one of two ways. They are;

1. to wrap a wire around a spark plug lead (this I did but it produced a very jumpy read out bouncing from 2-6k RPMs). Or..

2. Connect to the ICU side of a coil.

With a voltage tester I get 12 volts from BOTH terminals on a coil. And I'm thinking, is it okay to pump 12 volts into the tach wire? Because the 1st way of connecting would send mere millivolts to the unit. Based on this concern, I didn't try hooking it up to the ICU side of a coil. However, I ask... would it hurt to give method 2 a try in spite of it being 'hot.?'

I hope this makes sense... it's just a tach. There's got to be a way to direct-wire it!!

Phoned Acewell about hooking the tach up to coil on the terminal that goes to the CDI. They said any voltage in that line is harmless. I tapped into the coil connection (yellow wire) and the tach works perfectly now.

were is the PDF of the manual? Looks like a good thing to have!
Thanks!

Good to hear!! I myself is leery of electronics that's why I questioned you about the current difference,I hate the smell of burnt wire insulation!!!

Jeeze I gotta tell you it's nice having a tach. I found out today that at 4000 rpms I'm doing about 105 km/h, which is around cruising speed for me (well, sort of not really but kind of). It's cool to know that... it just is! I'm really starting to like that Acewell.