tachometer dropping out intermittently

[CaseyJ955]

G'mornin' friends!

 

I covered around 500mi yesterday. I have noticed the tach dropping occasionally, also if I pull the clutch in and give it a rev the needle races down rather than up. It seems to be acurate when enjoying a steady cruise other than the occasional slight dip. Its running well and this is not accompanied by any missfire or lack of power/smoothness or I would have suspected the Ignitek. I would be more nervous if there were a missfire with it. im still 4-5 hours from home.

 

It does have ignitek and COPs. Also noticed it starts hard with a knock and backfire through carbs if I even think about touching the throttle while cranking. I thought I cured that by setting dwell on short, but nope. Aside from these it runs strong and smooth.

 

Figured I would get some house hunting done but other than admiring some small towns I got very little of that done. Once the bike is completely sorted Ill do a weeklong search.

 

Im about to get under way, I found some awesome rural open roads, its fantastic. All of yestarday and much of today.

[gaj1917]

G'mornin' friends!

 

I covered around 500mi yesterday. I have noticed the tach dropping occasionally, also if I pull the clutch in and give it a rev the needle races down rather than up. It seems to be acurate when enjoying a steady cruise other than the occasional slight dip. Its running well and this is not accompanied by any missfire or lack of power/smoothness or I would have suspected the Ignitek. I would be more nervous if there were a missfire with it. im still 4-5 hours from home.

 

It does have ignitek and COPs. Also noticed it starts hard with a knock and backfire through carbs if I even think about touching the throttle while cranking. I thought I cured that by setting dwell on short, but nope. Aside from these it runs strong and smooth.

 

Figured I would get some house hunting done but other than admiring some small towns I got very little of that done. Once the bike is completely sorted Ill do a weeklong search.

 

I'm about to get under way, I found some awesome rural open roads, its fantastic. All of yestarday and much of today.

 

Re tach - I'm on my 3rd tach assembly on my '84! Prone to failure and really hard to get lube into. If your '89 is same as my '84, it's strictly a mechanical assembly driven by a cable from the front wheel. Before disassembly of the tach, I guess I'd check the cable to see if it's broken. If that's okay, then something amiss in the tach assembly. You could try lubing it. If that fails you can generally pick up replacement units on eBay.

 

Re misfire - have you checked valve clearances lately?

[Freebird]

I don't think that is correct. I think you are thinking about the speedometer. The tach get's it's signal from the right front coil if I remember correctly.

[gaj1917]

Re tach - I'm on my 3rd tach assembly on my '84! Prone to failure and really hard to get lube into. If your '89 is same as my '84, it's strictly a mechanical assembly driven by a cable from the front wheel. Before disassembly of the tach, I guess I'd check the cable to see if it's broken. If that's okay, then something amiss in the tach assembly. You could try lubing it. If that fails you can generally pick up replacement units on eBay.

 

Re misfire - have you checked valve clearances lately?

 

Roger that. Not sure where my head was on that one!

[Yammer Dan]

TCI woes coming next.

[bongobobny]

Yup, your Tach is just an analog AC voltmeter, strictly an electrical device that uses the number 2 coil primary signal from the TCI to trigger it. If you are NOT experiencing any kind of miss or power loss, then maybe the issue is a ground problem as the Tach has to have the ground as well as the input timing pulses. There could also be an issue with the gray wire going to the tach, like maybe at the input connector to the dash...

[snyper316]

Yup, your Tach is just an analog AC voltmeter, strictly an electrical device that uses the number 2 coil primary signal from the TCI to trigger it. If you are NOT experiencing any kind of miss or power loss, then maybe the issue is a ground problem as the Tach has to have the ground as well as the input timing pulses. There could also be an issue with the gray wire going to the tach, like maybe at the input connector to the dash...

 

I sedond bobs opinion, also mine even after I replaced the TCI I still had issues with Tach being all goofy, I replaced it and havent seen anything wacky happening since. It could just be a bad tach..... I would crack your dash and see whats up make sure the nut is tight....

[CaseyJ955]

It stayed consistently goofy but the engine never missed a beat for the whole trip of around 800 mi.

 

I'll set the dwell back to auto in case a short dwell is messing with it's ability to read the signal. If I still have a problem then I guess I'll have to get in and see if it's the signal to the tach or the tach itself.

 

On a side note, the 85 heading south down WY is amazing all the way down, I came back up through NE, took the 71 all the way into Hot Springs and dayum that was a fantastic ride. Cant say the SW corner of NE was very impressive but from around Kimball north it was pretty awesome. Nobody on the road, it was pretty vacant and the scenery went from some rock formations/trees, wide open farm land and rolling hills to the Oglalla Natl Grasslands. The vastness of it is awesome, weather perfect. People in NE seem to be about as nice as they come.

[snyper316]

something else I also did was made myself a better ground behind the dash, It was still factor so I took the ground and grounded it directly to the frame behind the dash. But my guess it would be loose connection...

[cimmer]

Casey,. We found that we needed to have the dwell set to auto with the Ignitech system to make the tach not bounce around.

Once I set mine to auto, never had an issue with the tach again.

Sounds like a nice ride to me.

Rick F.

 

 

It stayed consistently goofy but the engine never missed a beat for the whole trip of around 800 mi.

 

I'll set the dwell back to auto in case a short dwell is messing with it's ability to read the signal. If I still have a problem then I guess I'll have to get in and see if it's the signal to the tach or the tach itself.

 

On a side note, the 85 heading south down WY is amazing all the way down, I came back up through NE, took the 71 all the way into Hot Springs and dayum that was a fantastic ride. Cant say the SW corner of NE was very impressive but from around Kimball north it was pretty awesome. Nobody on the road, it was pretty vacant and the scenery went from some rock formations/trees, wide open farm land and rolling hills to the Oglalla Natl Grasslands. The vastness of it is awesome, weather perfect. People in NE seem to be about as nice as they come.