Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Oil Pressure Guage review

Got the Bonneville Performance Oil Pressure Guage and installed it yesterday. The guage itself and the hardware included are of excellent quality and befitting a place on the beautiful bike parked in my garage. The install was a little of a pita for me cause I could not get the 16mm nut off that held the oil feeder pipe on the case and the rear of the motor. It is aluminum and due to it's position I had to first remove the cam chain tensioner complete assembly to get a wrench on it. Of course the soft aluminum bolt head soon became a gouged up round aluminum shaft with sharp shards protruding everywhere. Of course this led to quite a bit of blood all over my motor and the surrounding area. That's ok, it's fresh oil so it acted as an antiseptic. My dad used to say, "It ain't a job till ya bleed on it." I guess this was a job then. I finally managed to get the bolt out and the install took about 10 minutes after that. I followed the pdf directions on Bill's site and it was breeze. But beware that if you do one and you do have to take the cam chain tensioner assembly off, be sure to follow the manual directions to reset the ratchet prawl first when you reinstall the assembly. Once you remove the tensioner spring, you MUST remove the prawl and reset the ratchet.! Not doing this can lead to having the cam chain too tight and cause premature wear of the chain and the tensioner guide blades.
Ok, the actual review: I fired the bike up and the guage went instantly to 50psi at idle. I revved the motor and the pressure follows the rpms and went up to about 80-90psi as I revved it. It is an almost instantaneous response with increasing/decreasing rpms and the psi readings. I took it out for about a 25 mile test ride and it seems to work just fine. While cruising or under hard accelleration the pressure gets up to about 90psi and stays pretty mush there, dropping down as I decellerate.
I like it, it's very nicely made and works great.
The only thing I figured I would rather have now is guages up where I can actually see them when I'm riding. How hard would it be to make a pressure/temp combo set that works with electrics instead so we can have the guages up on the handlebars or next to the speedo somehow? Just a thought.
They work well, both guages, but they are kind of out of the way to be looking at while riding, not the best situation at all.
But, two thumbs up for both Brent's temp guage and bill Gately's pressure guage. Thanks for the great products guys! Keep em coming.

Thanks for the review. My guess is that several of us will be right behind you --- Jim

If I ever get mine I'll chime in... The mail man was at the mailboxes when I got home, so I should go check in a few...

Got the gauge. Not sure when I'll have time to do it, will keep you posted...

Matt,
What I was thinking about the lectric guages was to use pressure sensative sending units, not actually have an oil line up on the bars. Yowzer, that could really mess you up if it broke in your face while riding. With 90psi it would practically knock you off the bike, plus the hot part is a whole nother story. My face hurts thinking about it.
There is no light on either of the guages either, too bad, it would be a nice feature, but they still function fine.
As for seeing them, well, you have to move your leg out of the way to see the temp guage but the pressure guage is right there and very easy to see with a quick glance down, while sitting at a stop for safety reasons of course. You can take a quick peek down while going straight too, not hard to see since it's a good sized dial too.

I don't get the easily stolen part. I would not worry about it myself since the only one that might want it, or know that it does just unscrew easily, would be members here, like Yota, you gotta watch him all the time.

Another point, I got a reply from Bill Gately, the maker of the pressure guages, and he tells me that since we have two oil pumps the 90-100psi is fine, the idle should vary between 30-50psi depending on the temperature and type (dino/synthetic) of the oil. So i guess mine is working perfectly as designed.

And they sure are nice looking. I took a couple pictures and will post them later.

Here's the shot of both new guages

that looks like a lot of dirt/dust around those gauges looks good tho

Frank

Yep, there is tons of grime there. That ride around Lake Ontario is still being a badge of honor on her. She'll get a nice bath this weekend (wed/thur) when I have time between brews.

By the way, just three more ball breaker remarks and you get to be a designated newbie in the Nad Buster's Association of America.

Hmmm. Pat, carefull, your oil pressure looks a little low from the picture.
Looks like a great setup. Thanks for the picture.

When ya gonna paint the bracket flat black?

Naw, I'm gonna put on chrome covers instead. The chrome and black set each other off so nicely.

If I could find a set of standard bonnie brushed covers, I'd get em. I love that satin look!! That looks nice against black too.

Well I got it installed. I ended up using the vicegrips on the stock banjo bolt because I didn't have a 16mm open end, and that thingie in the middle of the motor was making it hard to get a socket on there. I assume that's the cam chain temsioner assembly you were talking about. I must say, the oil line itself is quite firmly pressed down against the motor, not much room for error in there! But it's a nice, clean, simple setup. Haven't ridden it yet, I'll let you know how it goes!

I see, I just replied over in the Rat forum to ya about it.
By the way, I forgot to mention that my temp was the same when I went from dino oil back to the synthetic. So it appears that the Valvoline MC specific oil cools as well as the synthetic by these readings.

Hey Pat, what pressure are you idling at after it's warmed up?

Idle after warm is down around 20-30psi. 40-50 when cold and first started.

Ok I feel a little better... I have a small leak, thinking of getting some new copper washers for that banjo bolt stack. I also need to figure out a way to CLEAN in there!! There's literally gravel stick in the corners behind my cylinders. I'm thinking maybe a small pebble got in there causing the leak, ya know? I tried to clean it out at least around that fitting, but I might have missed some.

The little washer's center holes are bigger than they needed to be, I reused my two stock ones and only one of the new ones. You need to be sure the washers are "centered" or else they can leak around themselves. You also need to get it pretty tight too. I had a small leak at first but loosened, readjusted the washers and retightened and all is good now. It might not be a bad idea to get a spare banjo bolt too, it is easily stripped as we know.

Yeah I noticed there was some slop in the system. The new banjo bolt seems to be smaller in diameter above the threads than the original. I think I'll pull it in the morning and take it to some audo parts stores and get some new stuff. I also re-used the two original, and then the biggest of the new washers. Hopefully cleaning and re-aligning everything will do it. Then I still need to call Bill Gately about some new upper oil cooler lines, get that cleaned up too. Still ran up around 220 deg today on just a 20 min ride...
BUT! It's all gotta wait till tomorrow, time to go see BB and Kenny Wayne

Well I finally found a multi-pack of copper washers. I found two that were the same size as the originals, only a smidge thicker, maybe 25%, and one that had the same ID but slightly larger OD which I used on the bottom of the stack. Took some time to line it all up, get it snug, center it again, and tighten it down good. Took a 10 or 15 min ride, no leaky. Gonna ride up to Port Jeff with the GF in a few and see how it handles under load, and constant cruising. Like you said, pressure around 20 psi at idle after getting warmed up.

does this gauge fit the speedmaster and the BA also

yes

Frank

has anyone tried to modify a wrench by grinding the box end thinner to get it on the feeder bolt and not have to mess with the tensioner???? I like the gauge but the tensioner part scares me

Duane

I got mine on without touching the tensioner. Opene end wrenches work pretty well...

Why does every photo, including the ones on their website show somekind of hokey looking line at the top of the gauge?

I got mine on using a 5/8" deep-well socket. It is a 6-sided socket, so the walls are thin. I got the whole thing installed in about 30 minutes, fired it up, and oil gushed from the banjo fitting stack. I re-installed it at least 20 times. I finally deduced that it is critical for the banjo fitting stack to line up correctly. I got some crush washers at AutoZone with the same inside diameter as the ones in the kit, but with a slightly larger outside diameter. That makes it easier to see the edges of the washers, to help line things up. I had a mirror behind the stack, and a spotlight, and I used a small screwdriver to nudge things around. I had some problems in that when you get them lined up they move when you tighten them. I went for a 100 mile ride, and when I got back I took a paper towel and swiped it around the banjo stack. There was only a slight smudgeon of oil. I thought about installing it again, but I believe I will leave well enough alone -- at least for a while!

Danny, not sure what you mean... theres a line from the bottom of the gauge...

As for lining it up, that is THE biggest thing, and hardest thing. I also got some new washers, used a screwdriver, etc. Finally got it tight. Found that getting it snug to where u can still poke the washers a little is best, adjust, tighten a 6th of a turn, adjust, etc. Sounds painfull but it's not bad.

DB,
The line is the bubble in the liquid filed guage. If it wasn't liquid filled, the needle would bounce all over and be unreadable. The temp guage has one too, but the bubble is huge in them. Much smaller in the pressure guage.

Same method used here.

And, don't sweat the tensioner assembly, it really is easy to remove and reset if need be.

Oh and find the snuggest fitting wrench/socket you can, 6 sided if possible, too easy to strip banjo bolts cause they already have rounded off corners!!

Have it, love it, easy to install. No leaks.

Thanks Pat, that makes sense.

Does the oil temp guage reach all the way to the oil, or does it read the temp from the oil that gets splashed around? I've been wanting to look into using a real dipstick instead of crawling about on the ground to check the oil level, but I'm not sure if a stick would fit past the alternator assembly.

The guage is basically a metal threaded cylinder with a rubberized top that has a small dial thermometer stuck in the center. The probe is about 1/8" longer than the entire cylinder and barely sticks down further than the bottom of the threads. It is measuring the "splashing" oil. But with the pressure and the large flywheel, it is getting a good amount of splashing done to it. I don't know how practical a longer probe/dipstick would be though. The clearance is pretty tight in there and if by any chance the probe gets snagged ....big trouble is possible I would imagine. I would not risk it. But who knows. I took my brand new big bore out and beat the urine out of it right away to break it in.