Author: Rudi Kiefer      Ride: VN1500D1
Submitted: 1997 May 26
   Rating: No rating available

    Just installed the Drag Specialties tach on my 1500D and I am very pleased.

PARTS NEEDED:
(This is from the "Dress Blues" list, issued by Parts Unlimited. I ordered through my Kawa dealer)

Part #	Description	Price
DS-243910	Mini Electric Tachometer	$58.95
D-101	Tach adapter	$12.95
DS-290607	Flat mini-gauge hotop(?) A chrome plated wishbone-shaped bracket comes with it and can be used for mounting, which I did. If you don't want to make your own clamps / brackets, you also need this part. However, I had no problem fashioning a simple but clean-looking handlebar mount using rubber-lined stainless steel clamps, cost $2, to go with the "wishbone".	$66.95

The instrument is very attractive, about 2.5" diameter, highly polished stainless steel housing with dial going up to 8,000 rpm.

You will also need some standard automotive crimping connectors (the fully insulated kind), and a pair of crimping pliers (autoparts store, Radio Shack, Lowe's,...). A few feet of 18-gauge black automotive wire is also needed.

INSTALLATION:
This works best if the bike is sitting upright on two jacks (or one large floor jack). I do not recommend propping it upright by putting a block under the side stand unless you have a darn good way to ensure it won't fall over to the right. However, you can do the work with the bike entirely on the side stand, it's just less convenient. Block the front wheel so the handlebar can't swing right or left! I simply put a heavy toolbox on each side of the wheel.

The tank needs to be removed so the ignition coils are accessible. Ideally the tank would be empty or almost so for ease of handling. Take out the bottom bolt from the instrument nacelle on the tank, gently push the nacelle forward then up. Unplug all the electrical connectors (they are all different so don't worry about being confused later). Unscrew the speedometer cable from the speedometer. (I used this opportunity to inject some thin oil into the cable with a syringe, the little rascal was dry). Take the nacelle off completely. Remove the seat, 10mm wrench, one bolt on each side. Slide forward then up. (If it's still stock!) Remove the bottom bolt of the tank, right where your crotch is when riding (12 mm wrench), remove the top bolt which was under the instrument nacelle.

Stop smoking right about now!

Now grab the tank on each side about where the "V" emblem is, pull up right about there, and the whole tank should lift upward. Underneath is another quick-connect for the fueld gauge, unplug that. You can leave the overflow hoses in place, simply set the tank backward one or two feet toward where the seat would be. Make sure it is seated firmly so it can't fall to the floor.

Now you will pay if you did not block the front wheel side-to-side as I recommended earlier. The fork will swing around on you, and the handlebar grip will make a very nasty dent in your tank. Again, block the wheel so the fork doesn't swing around!

Look between the frame tubes and you'll see two ignition coils (fat plasticky things). The spark plug wires come out the front, leave those alone. You want to tie into the negative primary wires, which are very thin black cables that plug into the top rear of each coil.

Unfortunately, the Drag Specialties adapter comes with ring terminals, and you need the blade type. I fashioned a simple adapter from 18-gauge wire to connect the primary wire as well as an end of the tach adapter wire to the ignition coil. This is less complicated than writing about it. The Drag Specialites adapter is then connected to the green wire of the tachometer. Surprise! Again they have the wrong terminal on there! So, it's crimping connectors and pliers again. (BTW, I recommend against soldering unless you solder and crimp. Solder connections alone, on a motorcycle, can vibrate loose and we're talking ignition here. In other words, if your connections don't hold, the engine can go to sleep on you.)

The red wire of the tach is its power supply. Instructions say "ignition on wire", which is a stupid way of saying "find a cable that carries power when the ignition is turned on". On the Vulcan 1500, that is usually a brown cable and you can pick it up at many places. I took it right behind the ignition lock and routed it into the headlamp, where I made a multi-connector for all sorts of electric accessories. Finally, the blue tach wire is for the instrument light... you can connect that to the red one, the tach light is then on all the time, but so's the speedometer anyway. The black tach wire is ground. Do not connect to the headlight body, that's unreliable... there's a good ground connector right next to the radiator fill cap, near the center of the frame.

I made a temporary hook-up of all this because I didn't have anyone to tell me which cable of the coil to tie into, and it worked the first time! So now, route all the cables ensuring that they don't get pinched under the tank, mount the tach securely near the handlebar risers, replace the tank (don't forget the fuel gauge connector), bolt and plug everything back together, replace the instrument nacelle (don't forget the speedometer cable... it's a bit of a manual dexterity exercise to put back on the instrument, but not too bad with some finger-twisting), put the fuel line back in place, hook up the clamp, open petcock and check for leaks, and you're done! Resume smoking as needed.

OPERATION:
This thing is fun! I didn't realize just HOW slow the 1500D turns over. At 65 mph, I register about 2400 rpm. At 75mph, it's still only around 3,000. These figures are from memory, so don't crucify me if you look it up on a gear chart and it's slightly different. In my opinion, this bike does not need a fifth gear or overdrive unless you like to cruise at a steady 95 mph. -- No, I did not go that fast to see how many rpms that would be. Accelerating hard, I got it up to 4,000 rpm which I think is still a long way from redline. Most of the time, the engine seems to run near 2,000 rpm.

OVERALL COMMENT:

Some fiddling with cables and connectors, but if you like instruments and "data" as much as I do, it's money and time well spent. I work very slowly on new installations but did the whole project on Sunday afternoon. A jpeg of the instrument will follow when I have the picture. Drag Spec's wire standards are goofy - - green for signal, black for ground, normally it's the opposite, plus the wrong connectors on the adapter. So follow the instructions carefully, and have a crimping tool and some connectors handy.