I just thought I would pass along my experience adding all these gauges to my bike. I really dislike idiot lights. Alot. I started out wanting an oil pressure gauge because I'm running the plastic oil pump gear and want to know that oil pressure at a glance. But then I found a nice three-gauge enclosure on eBay that would fit above the handlebars and help keep the gauges out of the weather.
I bought all the gauges off eBay. The volt meter was a panel mount unit that came with a dual USB outlet.
I removed the volt/usb from the panel mount and installed them in a new fabbed panel to replace the one on the tank where the idiot lights (hate 'em) reside as I was going to eliminate the turn/oil/temp lights.
I also put in a mini rocker on/off switch. This allows me to turn off the volt meter but keep the USB ports hot with ignition off. Handy for charging phones while parked.
The only downside is that the eBay merchant sent me a red display gauge instead of the blue one I ordered. He is supposed to send me a blue one so I can swap it out.
The tach, oil pressure and coolant temp gauges are all "Dragon Gauge" brand digital 2" gauges from various eBay merchants. They all came with the required sending units and mounting hardware.
For the temp sensor mount I ordered a 24mm temp sensor adapter, also from eBay.
I put it in the center of the top radiator hose. The size was perfect for a snug fit. I sprayed the inside of the hose with wd40 to help assembly. The adapter had metric threads and needed a 1/8 npt tap to the sensor mount threads then a little extra Teflon tape to get a good fit. The gauge displays Celsius but I'm OK with that.
I had some trouble with mounting the oil pressure sending unit. Gadget's page says Kawasaki tapped the sensor hole with 1/8npt thread. I found the original switch sensor for the idiot light was actually M10x1 which is very, very close to 1/8npt but the OD of the metric thread is around 0.06" smaller. I couldn't get the new sensor to thread in. After tracking down a M10x1 die to resize the new sensor threads I came to realize my problem was not so much with the metric vs npt but simply some debris in the mounting hole. But even after blowing the debris out I found the metric thread does fit a tad better.
I originally used the same signal wire at the sensor end and tapped into to 5 pin plug under the tank that operates the idiot light (grr) to attach the signal wire from the gauge. Mistake. The gauge didn't register. I had to run a new wire from the gauge to the sensor.
The oil pressure and temp gauges both have warning lights built in. If the oil pressure goes below 10psi or the temp goes above 100*C a red led comes on in the gauge face.
The tach offered some challenge as well. I was using both negative leads from the coils with diodes installed but was only getting 1/2 actual rpm reading with the tach set for 4cyl and it didn't matter whether I used 1 or both coil leads I still only got 1/2 rpms. Then I finally found a thread on a Vstar site that worked for me...
"Time to make the tach adapter. While at RS go ahead and buy two 1N4004, 1N4005, 1N4006, or 1N4007 or equivalent diodes. Also buy two 100K ohm resistors. 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt is OK.
Lay a diode and a resistor side by side on your table and twist the leads together. The diode and resistor are now in parallel. You can now either add a short length of wire to one end of each diode/resistor or you could solder a terminal (RS #64-3058, etc.) directly to the pair.
Last thing to do is to connect the tach wire to the other end of both diode/resistor pairs.
The end of the diode with the silver band must be the end that is connected to the coils - not the tack lead.
This ensures the diode is connected properly. "
Even though it seems wrong to reverse the diodes and add a resistor to each line, it worked! Tach is working great! And the diodes and resistors all came from an old computer power supply I had lying around.
Update... when the rain finally stopped long enough for a true road test instead of idling in the garage I sadly have to report this tach mod is not working to my satisfaction. It seems to read correctly at idle but as soon as I hit the road I noticed when the throttle is applied the tach first shows lower rpms then as engine speed increases it appears to be reading 1/2 rpm again. I think there is something about the signals coming from the two coils that the tach is not seeing as two separate signals. So for now I am back to using one coil signal wire and doing the doubling math in my head until I can find a solution. It is going to be some sort of 'filter' made of electronic components to clean up these two signals so the tach can display correctly.
There are two small clear leds mounted at the bottom corners of the gauge enclosure. These light up orange and are the new turn signal indicators. I cut off the 5-pin plug and used those connections under the tank for the turn signals and a switched 12v source for power to all the gauges except the volt/usb. They are always hot.
The whole thing is mounted to the risers using a 4"x6" plate of stainless steel. I drilled holes in it to line up with the two forward handlebar clamp bolts. Using the housing as a template I made a base plate from sheet metal and screwed that to the stainless 'mount'.
I wish my phone camera would take better pics of the gauges because they are much clearer than the photos show. They are visible even in direct sunlight which surprised me a little.
All together this mod cost me around $90. But I had the sheet metal, wire, terminals, etc. in my shop.
I bought all the gauges off eBay. The volt meter was a panel mount unit that came with a dual USB outlet.
I removed the volt/usb from the panel mount and installed them in a new fabbed panel to replace the one on the tank where the idiot lights (hate 'em) reside as I was going to eliminate the turn/oil/temp lights.
I also put in a mini rocker on/off switch. This allows me to turn off the volt meter but keep the USB ports hot with ignition off. Handy for charging phones while parked.
The only downside is that the eBay merchant sent me a red display gauge instead of the blue one I ordered. He is supposed to send me a blue one so I can swap it out.
The tach, oil pressure and coolant temp gauges are all "Dragon Gauge" brand digital 2" gauges from various eBay merchants. They all came with the required sending units and mounting hardware.
For the temp sensor mount I ordered a 24mm temp sensor adapter, also from eBay.
I put it in the center of the top radiator hose. The size was perfect for a snug fit. I sprayed the inside of the hose with wd40 to help assembly. The adapter had metric threads and needed a 1/8 npt tap to the sensor mount threads then a little extra Teflon tape to get a good fit. The gauge displays Celsius but I'm OK with that.
I had some trouble with mounting the oil pressure sending unit. Gadget's page says Kawasaki tapped the sensor hole with 1/8npt thread. I found the original switch sensor for the idiot light was actually M10x1 which is very, very close to 1/8npt but the OD of the metric thread is around 0.06" smaller. I couldn't get the new sensor to thread in. After tracking down a M10x1 die to resize the new sensor threads I came to realize my problem was not so much with the metric vs npt but simply some debris in the mounting hole. But even after blowing the debris out I found the metric thread does fit a tad better.
I originally used the same signal wire at the sensor end and tapped into to 5 pin plug under the tank that operates the idiot light (grr) to attach the signal wire from the gauge. Mistake. The gauge didn't register. I had to run a new wire from the gauge to the sensor.
The oil pressure and temp gauges both have warning lights built in. If the oil pressure goes below 10psi or the temp goes above 100*C a red led comes on in the gauge face.
The tach offered some challenge as well. I was using both negative leads from the coils with diodes installed but was only getting 1/2 actual rpm reading with the tach set for 4cyl and it didn't matter whether I used 1 or both coil leads I still only got 1/2 rpms. Then I finally found a thread on a Vstar site that worked for me...
"Time to make the tach adapter. While at RS go ahead and buy two 1N4004, 1N4005, 1N4006, or 1N4007 or equivalent diodes. Also buy two 100K ohm resistors. 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt is OK.
Lay a diode and a resistor side by side on your table and twist the leads together. The diode and resistor are now in parallel. You can now either add a short length of wire to one end of each diode/resistor or you could solder a terminal (RS #64-3058, etc.) directly to the pair.
Last thing to do is to connect the tach wire to the other end of both diode/resistor pairs.
The end of the diode with the silver band must be the end that is connected to the coils - not the tack lead.
This ensures the diode is connected properly. "
Even though it seems wrong to reverse the diodes and add a resistor to each line, it worked! Tach is working great! And the diodes and resistors all came from an old computer power supply I had lying around.
Update... when the rain finally stopped long enough for a true road test instead of idling in the garage I sadly have to report this tach mod is not working to my satisfaction. It seems to read correctly at idle but as soon as I hit the road I noticed when the throttle is applied the tach first shows lower rpms then as engine speed increases it appears to be reading 1/2 rpm again. I think there is something about the signals coming from the two coils that the tach is not seeing as two separate signals. So for now I am back to using one coil signal wire and doing the doubling math in my head until I can find a solution. It is going to be some sort of 'filter' made of electronic components to clean up these two signals so the tach can display correctly.
There are two small clear leds mounted at the bottom corners of the gauge enclosure. These light up orange and are the new turn signal indicators. I cut off the 5-pin plug and used those connections under the tank for the turn signals and a switched 12v source for power to all the gauges except the volt/usb. They are always hot.
The whole thing is mounted to the risers using a 4"x6" plate of stainless steel. I drilled holes in it to line up with the two forward handlebar clamp bolts. Using the housing as a template I made a base plate from sheet metal and screwed that to the stainless 'mount'.
I wish my phone camera would take better pics of the gauges because they are much clearer than the photos show. They are visible even in direct sunlight which surprised me a little.
All together this mod cost me around $90. But I had the sheet metal, wire, terminals, etc. in my shop.