+1 for the new Smiths Electronic Gauges

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MexicoMike said:
Installed my Smith's e-gauges today...well, that is, I tried to install them but some minor parts that I need are not included in the gauges. The screws that stick out of the back of the gauges are too short to reach the holes in the "cups" that hold the gauges. My original speedo has screws long enough to reach; the original tach has two "extenders" that screw onto the gauge screws and reach the cup holes. No extenders were supplied for either of the gauges and the extenders that are on the OEM speedo won't fit the screws on the new E-gauge because they are a different thread! It's a niggling thing but annoying. I'll have to go out tomorrow and see if I can locate some extenders that will work. If I was in the US, I'd go down the street to Lowes. But I'm not... ;)
Click to expand...

Isn't the part that you require the 'stand-off mounting kit M6' that is listed on their accessories page?
 
Yep, that's exactly it! It didn't occur to me to even look at that page when I ordered the gauges. I ordered them for a 1973 Commando so I ASSUMED (incorrectly, obviously) that the gauges would come with whatever it took to mount in a 1973 Norton...which would include those "stand offs." I checked locally today and they have none in the size I need. :(

I have a friend here in town that has a fairly extensive machine shop and assorted Norton parts. He may have what I need.

If not, I have another plan...it's embarrassingly Jake-leg to but I think it will work with no problem at all. All I will say at the moment is that it involves safety wire! ;)
 
Received a reply from Tom at Smiths gauges. Turns out it's the previous owner's fault (and mine for not knowing any better). He advised the the 73 Commando should have had shorter cups for the gauges. My 73 has '74 (deeper) cups. As they say, you learn something every day. ;) So the extenders are necessary anytime you have the longer ('74) cups. If you order the gauges for a 74, it will come with a pack of 4 extenders.

The resister is used for the Trispark ignition to knock down the RF signal; it is not needed for points and most other E-ignition systems. It is installed in-line in the blue/red signal wire.

I have another plan that does NOT include safety wire! :)
 
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Well it's good to know that my '73 does NOT have '74 cups! Er, well, I guess it does since they're the same! Thanks Lab!

Also, I found some correct extenders and the gauges are now installed so all is right with the world!

Forgot to mention, Tom (at Smiths) said he has two original 73's and they both have the shorter instrument cases. Wonder if there was as running production change sometime in 73?
 
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MexicoMike said:
Well it's good to know that my '73 does NOT have '74 cups! Er, well, I guess it does since they're the same!
Click to expand...

The longer cups were needed for the deeper-bodied Veglia gauges that the factory began fitting that year so Veglias fit straight in but Smiths need extenders.

MexicoMike said:
Also, I found some correct extenders
Click to expand...

What size/thread are they (as the previously mentioned M6 would be somewhat larger than the original 2BA thread)?
 
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They are M5 couplers/bolts and look just like what's on the Smiths accessories page as the M5 kit.
 
Today I've been working on getting the new E-smiths working. As others have stated, the instructions could be a bit better written. ;)

Both gauges are working in the sense that when I turn on the ignition, the needles swing up to max and back in the manner of most modern electronic gauges. The speedo needle increases speed appropriately with the bike on the C-stand and going through the gears though, of course it has to be calibrated. However, I haven't managed to get a reading from the tach. The needle just stays at the rest position. I did the tach calibration per the instructions - set it for 2 cyl and then reset it for one cyl since it's a wasted spark (Trispark) and also tried attaching the sender wire to both coil terminals of one of the original style twin coils. Instructions recommend attaching the sender wire to the minus side of the coil but says the plus side is OK as well. In any case, I tried both. Am I missing something obvious (or not so obvious) here? Bike starts/runs so there IS power/signal to the coil.

I will admit that after futzing with these for a while I started asking myself why I'm replacing perfectly good, functional OEM gauges with "modern" gauges that have to be calibrated/wired. My only answer at this point is, "It seemed like a good idea at the time!" ;)
 
Mexico Mike
Once they are callibrated it,ll all be worthwhile, excellent, accurate instruments with awful, confusing instructions written by people who think customers are psychic mind readers (like alot of CAD drawings we come across at work, done by those who never actually build from them)

My tach (from AN) was set on twin cylinder by default and I left it at that but use a twin lead Dyna 3.0∅ mini coil on my Trispark rather than your twin coil setup, lightweight, compact with plenty of spark and cool appearance.

A big caveat with these electronic tachs, all wiring and connections must be 100%, including the feed from the ignition switch or you will have problems.
Some people use a relay but extra complication not necessary if everything is in good order, I solder and heatshrink all my wiring and use Superseal connectors if required.

The red/blue tach wire to the coil was soldered and heatshrunk to the female tab on the Trispark black/white wire, fitting to the negative coil terminal.
Until this was soldered rather than crimped, the tach needle use to occassionally flicker or drop back to zero when running but no further problems in the last 5000 or so miles.
 
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MexicoMike said:
I did the tach calibration per the instructions - set it for 2 cyl and then reset it for one cyl since it's a wasted spark
Click to expand...

I haven’t got the instructions in front of me, so I may have this all wrong... but haven’t you got that the wrong way around? A single cylinder only sparks every second revolution, but your Tri Spark sparks every revolution. I think you need the twin cylinder setting?
 
Thanks, Kiwi, I'll recheck all the wiring and ensure it's wired as yours is.

FE, I tried the twin setting first than tried single just to see. But even if it's set wrong the tach should still register, just not the correct RPM. But I got nothing. It acts like maybe a different wire should be the sender wire. I used the red/blue wire specified in the instructions as the tach sender and connected it, in turn, to each of the right side coil primary terminals. I guess I could try some of the other un-connected wires to see if one of them will trigger the tach. I suspect it's something very simple... ;)
 
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It works!!!!!! Thanks Kiwi! Per your instructions I moved the sender wire to the left-side coil where the white/black Tri-Spark wires connect and it works correctly.

The instructions mention the Tri-spark and other wasted spark systems but it doesn't mention using the OEM dual coils. I ASSUMED that either coil would produce the necessary signal but not so. It would have worked on either coil with the OEM points but since the coils are now in series for the TriSpark (and, I think, all other electronic ignitions) the appropriate signal is obviously not there for the sender on the other coil, which happened to be the one I chose for no particular reason. In any case - the gauges are now working though speedo has to be calibrated. I hope to do that tomorrow using the "roll the bike one wheel revolution" and measure the distance/plug in the formula on the Smiths instructions and then input the number into the speedo setup. I used the existing headlight toggle switch - which is not connected to anything on my Commando, as the switch to toggle the speedo between trip and total miles and to do the setup stuff. I'm not connecting the tach toggle-wire to anything since once it's set at the correct number of cylinders, there's no reason to periodically toggle it.
 
I did the wheel diameter calculation method both times I’ve fitted these clocks and it’s worked fine both times.

When they’re working, the pain of the installation will be forgotten. Almost !
 
Congrats on getting them fired up. Soon you can sell off your oem's to recoup some of the costs. Functioning originals seem to fetch a pretty penny on the fleabay.
 
Today we're riding to a motorcycle club holiday party and I will calibrate the E-smiths speedo. Nothing too scientific - I'm going to ask my wife to set her Africa Twin's trip Odo to zero while we're stopped on the side of the road, have her ride ahead one mile and stop. I pull along side of her and that will be the calibration. I changed from using the switch on the headlight shell as the toggle switch to using a push-button momentary switch that I mounted unobtrusively below the steering head within easy reach.
 
Went on a 120 mile ride today - the Speedo was resetting constantly - needle to max/back to zero - while riding but pretty much ONLY above 4000RPM/top gear. It would do this 4-5 times in a minute. Didn't seem to do it at all at lower speeds. I'm assuming it is an intermittent electrical connection so I'll be checking that out but seems odd that it only occurred at higher RPM and not related to bike vibration. Anyway...I was missing my OEM speedometer which worked fine. Also, the digital tripmeter on the E-Smiths is very difficult to read in the sun where the stocker was no problem at all! Ain't upgrading wonderful? ;)
 
"The enemy of good is better"
I borrowed that from a poster here years ago.
It's surprising how often it fits the circumstance.
I've put many, many hours into sorting out the Smiths electronic " Chronometric" tachometer on the Vincent.
It was a quite a bit of work to wire in but then it worked perfectly for two weeks.
After that it did crazy things.
Tom thought it had to be something to do with the install so we got busy trouble shooting.
I even remounted it on another Vincent which has a totally different ignition.
No luck .
About this time I was contacted by a fellow Vincent owner in OZ who was having the same problem, different ignition than either of mine.
Eventually the tachs went back to Smith's UK for repair. Both had burned out components.
I've just gotten around to reinstalling the tach recently. This time around I've added a resistor that Tom sent along with the repaired unit.
It's all working perfectly at the moment.
Somewhere in the middle of the trouble shooting I recall thinking, why did I think I needed a tach anyway??

Glen
 
worntorn said:
"The enemy of good is better"


Somewhere in the middle of the trouble shooting I recall thinking, why did I think I needed a tach anyway??

Glen
Click to expand...

And this is why when my good ol' Smiths tach started playing up recently with wild fluctuations and not zeroing out when the motor was off, I took it into Robinson's for a clean, lube and calibration...
 
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