Installing an Acewell speedo/computer on an airhead --

S11. I got mine from Dime City

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...-speedometer-tach-tachometer-bmw-ace-s11.html

Your'e startin' to sound like a guru

...sounds like.... and BEING are somewhat different, the way I understand it..... always learning, always listening, it's all good!!

Hey guys, since you are all so helpful, can anyone tell me if my problem sounds familiar? It is not really acewell related except for the fact that I seem to have screwed up my harness while installing the acewell or maybe the ignition switch.
My Acewell is all wired up and all lights are working inside the gauge so far except the directional arrows. A multimeter meter shows me that I have 2 major flaws in the group of wires not connected to my actual lights though. (the real lights not the acewell read-out)
One of my positive leads, a gray/black wire meant to power the tail light, is shorted to ground.
Additionally, my positive lead for the right directionals, blue/black, has a continuity with green/blue which is a very common switched positive lead that runs all over the harness. But, when key is on I don't get 12 volts on this line.
Frankly, I am baffled that the acewell gauge is not totally burnt out. It seems to function just fine along with my headlight.

The harness was working fine on this 1981 R100RT before I unplugged all lights and stock gauge and then moved the key switch to the side of the headlight bucket. It is possible that I cross-wired the wires to the key switch but if I did, how is it that the headlight and acewell work?
Lastly, none of the wires going to the acewell are at fault, because when I unplug the acewell harness plugs that I retained in my install, these BMW harness wires remain as they are. Like many people, wire harnesses frustrate me, and I am hoping one of you has a fresh perspective or maybe something similar happened to you once.
Currently none of the postive leads to any of the lights, including the brake light when I step on the brake, seem to be putting out 12 volts. My voltages are in the milli-amp range.

/bill

You might try using a jumper from a known-12v (like the battery pos!) to the wires in question... if they light up, the "continuity" or resistance is what is normal. If it sparks and blows a fuse, well, then you have a short!

[/QUOTE]

Gee, while that sounds fun, I don't have any lights connected yet. All lights were removed to be replaced with after-market ones eventually. Anyway, I am sure my problem is impossible to diagnose over the internets... hopefully if I keep staring at it for another 48 hours just as I have been for the last 4 hours, it will fix itself!

....always a good strategy.....








PS... the answer will come to you at 0300 some random night......

Is there a good US source for this model of Acewell, I tried the link posted earlier in the thread but it came up bad. Thanks!

This thread has been going for a long time now... US sources seem to come and go. Last good one was Dime City Cycles, otherwise go direct to Acewell UK... They are just fine to deal with, very helpful, and shipping isn't wacko/crazy.

So I sat and stared for another hour, wondering why my lights all worked before I removed my RT fairing... opened up the headlight bezel to trace the very start of the switched 12 volt line from the board, and noticed both fuses were gone. They fell out when I shook the headlight around removing the fairing! The first thing IT asks you when your computer won't turn on is if you have it plugged into the wall...

:huh

Got all my wires hooked up to acewell and all my new directionals are working great. Question about charge light:
The two leads to the charge light are blue and a green/blue.
I believe the solid blue wire is the negative lead.
Is the green/blue striped wire a special positive lead?
I would like to use a green/black empty terminal male plug instead which reads the same 12.8 volts across the blue wire.

I am not an electrical expert and I don't fully understand the differences between some of the positive leads in the system.

Say, any one have a bit of an erratic speed?

I'm using the pick up on the transmission and at 70mph it shows the 7 ok, but the rest jumps around so fast you can't read them. Lower speeds are better.

As for the the post above this. I tried to wire up those wires to use the hazard light as a bat light as I have the Endurolast alternator.. No luck See previous posts on using a resistor/light bulb.

Without looking at a schematic, the 'green' part of the green/blue vs. green/black is that it is a switched positive (+).... and it would seem that either one would do... the "blue" is the key, as it is the "negative" (though not technically a (-)) of the two voltages that are being compared.... the theory is that one of the voltages is higher than the other, thus negating (turning "off" the gen light) the voltage differential... Try it, I think it should work!

If not, try looking around post 335. link:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=527749&page=23

thanks guys, for confirming my belief that the important wire for the charge light is really the blue negative that comes from the regulator. Depending on alternator RPM that wire goes from a ground wire to 12 volts. Therefore the other lead to my external charge light (incandescent) could be any switched 12 volt lead. Once the two wires equalize to 12 volts, the charge light goes out. For some reason my blue/green in the bucket didn't have 12 volts on it so I tapped into a green/black post.
Bottom line is that the charge light lights up when I turn the key. Now I just hope that the light turns off when the RPMs reach charging speed. That I haven't tested. My tank is at the striper receiving a custom paint job.

I have completed all the new wiring to the acewell, and I have installed 4 new directionals and new brake lights and even a new plate light- all LED. Just closed up the headlight bucket and was relived to find nothing shorted out. What a great feeling this was. I am almost completed with my first project bike which has now been going on for 14 months. Another week or two and I will post a bunch of photos once the painted tins are bolted up

Well said... that is exactly the case......

someone who has succesfully done this just needs to put up a 10 minute youtube video describing the process...

just spend 10 min reading the thread, the acewell instructions, and your bmw wire diagram - if I can do it, anyone can do it

I have the install fresh in my mind but I didn't stop to take photos along the way unfortunately. The hardest part is starting. I did every single thing I could on my build, procrastinating until there was nothing else to do. Finally I wired up the acewell 6 months after I bought it, in a period of 2 evenings. Your road map is Bpeckm's PDF chart showing the BMW color codes next to the color codes of the acewell. It helps to have that page side by side with the actual wire diagram that came with your gauge. The general idea is to cut off the cluster of wires going to the stock BMW gauge, and attaching most of the wires from there onto their corresponding wires on the acewell. However, first you should decide on what you are going to do if it turns out your gauge is faulty, or if it breaks down the line. You don't really want to solder wire to wire without plugs to remove the gauge when necessary. Some people use an after market system, but Chris from Boxer Metal informed me that the plugs that come with your acewell gauge will all fit hidden under the tank, and he was correct. There an added level of confusing complexity using the acewell plugs though- on the other end of each colored wire on the acewell plugs, the wires change color. Every damn time! That means that Bpeckm's chart has the wrong colors that you are actually going to solder together to the BMW factory wires. You will need to write down what each colored wire on the acewell turns into after the acewell plugs.
Additionally, his chart is for older airheads from the 70s. Mine was a '81 RT, and I had individual directional wires already on my BMW harness, which made my install less confusing than for earlier bikes that only have one wire for left and right directional signal going to the factory gauge.
I never had to open the headlight bucket once for the acewell install. Until I wired up the external charge light. The acewell doesn't come with a charge light indicator. I t has a hazard light some people want to use, but most people advise against it. I put a small charge light in a hole on my headlight. The wires to install that charge light are totally independent of your acewell install. You can do the charge light after. It was easy. I had to bring the blue wire lead into my headlight bucket to connect to one side of the charge light, and the other side of the light went to a switched 12 volt empty male pin on the back headlight board.
Maybe someone will do a DIY, but all you are really doing is sitting down and connecting your tach wire to the acewell tack wire, your oil pressure wire to the acewell oil pressure wire, your 12v switched to the acewell 12v switched, etc...
And before you start, you should own a soldering gun/iron and learn how to solder wires together and cover with shrink wrap. When done, all the wires do fit under the tank.
I can take pics of what all the wires look like at the end. But for now, here is the only recent pic I have. You can see my charge light to the left of the gauge.