So you want
to fit a digital gear position indicator, now some people
might question the point in fitting one of these, and
believe it's more show than go, a bit too bling and if
you don't know what gear your in, you should just give
up.....
But !! I
feel it's a worth while modification if your a doing trackday's
especially, as it's easy to forget when your concentrating
on your lines and braking point's, but also it's good
for a quick reminder on the road when your coming up to
a bend.
Well then
where do you start, firstly you'll need some tool's a
cross head screw driver to remove the screen and a decent
soldering iron, solder and some insulting..... err I mean
insulating tape.
This guide
is pictured using a 954, but is pretty general to most
bikes with electronic outputs from the clocks and the
Digi does come with instructions on which wires to connect
to where, so as long as your pretty handy in the garage
your off and running, but and I cannot stress this enough
if you don't feel comfortable melting wiring covering
and connecting electrical bit's & bob's get someone
who knows what they are doing to fit it, as it's very
easy to cock it up, and you don't want to do that with
the wiring loom and end up having to buy a new one.
So take a deep breath and here goes......
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Pic
1
Start by
putting the bike on a rear paddock stand as you'll need
to run the engine to program the gear ratios later on,
also if you have an alarm put it into service mode if
you have a Datatool but for others you'll need to check
with the manufacturer if it has battery back up and then
disconnect the battery.
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Remove the
screen and you'll also need to remove the top fairing cowl
(pic 1) there are an assortment
of screws holding the top cowl on but you can remove it
without taking the fairing side panels off.
Now
you'll be able to get to the wiring block connector that
goes to the clocks, you'll need to remove a fair amount
of the wiring insulation covering the wires to do this job,
but it's fairly easy to do.
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Check the
Datatool instructions so you know what colour wire needs
to connect to which wire on the back of clocks, the Digi
comes with comprehensive instructions but if you need
them for the 954 it's below:
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Bike
Wire Colour |
Position |
| Tacho
pulse |
Yellow/Green |
Loom
to back of clocks |
| Speedo
pulse |
Pink/Green |
Loom
to back of clocks |
| Neutral |
Light
Green/Red |
Loom
to back of clocks |
| Ignition
supply |
Black/Brown |
Loom
to back of clocks |
| Earth |
Green
or Solid Black |
Loom
to back of clocks |
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I'd
recommend you don't just leave the Digi wires the length they
come, but measure where your going to put the Digi and shorten
all the wires (except the Orange programming
wire) to a more capable length before you start connecting
them as this makes for a neater installation, just don't cut
them too short as you might want to move it to another bike
in the future, you never know I did mine to about 8 inches,
and remember DON'T cut
the Orange
Programming wire.
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Once you've
done that, start with the earth connection from the Digi
& connect this to the earth wire on the bike, now
Datatool say that post 2000 Blades and the 954 has a solid
green wire which is earth, but it doesn't go to the
clocks it changes into a solid Black wire at the
block connector by the rad cap on the right hand side
of the bike, so check it before making any cut's or alterations
to the wiring.
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Pic
2
Now
get your trusty soldering iron and melt the outer covering
on the wires on the bikes loom going to the clocks, only
melt enough of the covering to solder/ connect the Digi
wire to the main loom wire about 10mm should do it, (arrowed
pic 2) do one at a time so you don't get confused
when the Mrs comes out with a cuppa.
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It
doesn't really matter which wire you do next, but I left the
Red positive till last, so then trim off the outer covering
on the Digi wire with your solder iron and solder the Digi
wire to the main loom wire, once it's cooled down wrap some
insulating tape around the new connection leaving some of
the Digi wire under the tape
(pic 3) also to stop any water ingress or the connection
getting pulled.
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Pic 3
Carry on
melting the covering on each loom wire in turn and connecting
each Digi wire till you've done all the connections, and
insulate each wire in turn individually where you soldered
the Digi wire to the loom wire (arrowed
pic 3) and
then re-wrap the whole loom with insulating tape to make
a neat job.
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And
then I suggest you test the Digi is working so you'll need
to re-connect the battery, turn the ignition on and the Digi
should burst into life, now you'll need to teach the Digi
how many gears your bike has and to do this you need to touch
the Orange programming
wire to an earth point use the fork leg or top yoke, until
the Digi is showing ' P 'on the
display, which will then change to a flashing ' 0
' and it's ready to start learning the gears, insulate the
Orange wire to stop it
touching metal, then touch the programming wire against the
earth point once for each gear, so 5 times for 5 or 6 for
6.
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Then you'll
need to sit on the bike start the engine and run through
the gears till you've programed the Digi, as you do this
the display will start to flash and a
' - ' will
appear which means it's learned that gear time to change
up to the next, so on and so forth until the Digi has
programmed all the gears.
Ok once you
done all that you can put the bike back together and pat
yourself on the back in a job well done.
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There that
wasn't so difficult was it !!!!! unless of course you've
made a complete hash of it, just don't blame me, I had difficulties
too, read about them on the Webmaster Blog page
5.
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