Well, the adapter worked! No leaks. Now just gotta hook up some wires and whip up some kind of temporary bracket to hold the gauges. No need to watch all of this. First 4.5 minutes and everything looks good all the way to the end. Doubt I will have a problem running the engine at higher rpm if it seals at idle.

Phase 2 of project Glow-Shift is nearly completed. I spent the last 3 days (pretty much from the time I woke up til when I went to bed) measuring, making mockups and testing the fit and position of the temporary gauge brackets. It will be longterm temporary so I want the gauges to look as good and be as useful as possible. At the last minute, I figured out some rubber vibration dampers and that was half a day in itself.

I'd prefer if the gauges were turned in a few degrees more but after all of this, I'm calling it close enough especially since they will not be positioned on the handlebars permanently. I got them just about as snug to the handlebars as possible. You see the gauge with the cardboard mockup bracket has very liitttle clearance with the clutch fluid reservoir. I could just pop a 1/8" spacer under the reservoir bracket if I need to.

To finish the brackets project off, I plan to make a figure 8 strap with a bolt at the center to tie the gauges together but that will have a to wait. Phase 3 is hooking up the wiring and I hope that will be pretty straightforward. I'm using the LH headlights connectors for power and ground. I was planning to remove the headlights some day and block the holes with plastic covers anyway.

Here they are bolted up. It's really stuffed in there having as little clearance as ~1/16" marked with the grey circles. At this point, I see that I could have made this all one piece and have it fastened at the same locations which are marked by the grey arrows. I also could have built in a bracket to reposition the clutch fluid reservoir to opened up a little space. I needed to use an 1/8" spacer under the stock bracket and that allowed everything to fit but the clutch fluid hose now has a little tension in it. It's not kinked or stressed or anything but it should only be lightly flexed. When I do the other side, I think I will go for a one piece bracket with a reservoir repositioning bracket built in.

Got my oil temp and oil pressure gauges to light up and they look AMAZING! The lights come on, the needles sweep and then the gauges blink until start up.

Problem is that the tiny electrical connectors have no lock on them at all. Nothing. When you see the guy in video just pop the connector into the port holding the wire----that's how you do it. So I was not getting power from Gauge A to gauge B. I whittled down a match stick and used that to push the conectors in harder and I got both of them to light up but gauge B is intermittent. If bend the wire a touch, it lights up which is telling me those connectors are not connecting too good.

Another problem to solve. I'm pretty sure I'm pushing the connectors in all the way. These gauges might work in a hot air ballon on a calm day but No way this is going to work on a motorcycle. ---I mean my bike isn't even moving and the power is still losing contact. Maybe I will need to make some kind of plate to screw down over the back so the plugs stay in.

Everything I am learning is triggering memories of that thread I read 9 years ago. All the good things and all the problems.

Get some conductive epoxy, should help out the retention

LOL THANKS, rudy! I considered real glue as a last resort but I did not know they made conductive! Might be a good choice....but there are 2 to 4 pins in each port. Seems like conductivity would be something I'd want to avoid unless I could get it on just the pins. These are tiny connectors though. Like the size of an aspirin.

I would try RTV around the outside first. I emailed GlowShift so we'll see what they have to say.

I AM STOKED about my GlowShift gauges! I test routed my sensor wires to figure out how much PET to cut and I guess I accidentally plugged the oil temp sensor wire into the gauge. Earlier this evening, I had set the LOW warning signal to ~125° (because the gauge starts at 120) and enabled the audible alarm.

I switched the key on and I was simply DELIGHTED to hear a loud BEEP_BEEP_BEEP and the warning light flashing. Everything I've tested works. The display is downright impressive! Normal light mode is way brighter than the stock gauges. You WILL see the colors in the day. I have the dimmer set up but the bike has to run to get power in the high beams. It's too late in the evening to fire the 14 up now but tomorrow morning for sure. I would consider trying to fit a GlowShift speedo and tach to the stock instrument cluster but both are much too low for a sportbike. Fortunately, I have Illumiglo clock faces waiting to install someday. All joking aside, I'd be ashamed to have a speedo that only went to 140 even if it did have all the cool functions and beautiful display.

This connector problem is nothing. We've tackled MUCHO bigger problems than that so far.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/28/2017 @ 10:43 PM *

Looking forward to the pics and the videos Rook

I'm charging up the GoPro right now. Unfortunately, it died on me in about 15 seconds. The connection problem with the connectors in the gauge ports may have been temporarily solved by zip tying the wires. They were hanging loose before but now they have some tension in them and that seems to keep the connectors in place. Doesn't seem like a good reliable permanent solution but for now, it will do.

The oil pressure ran at 60 psi when I started it up and then dropped back to 40 which is what I guessed it would do. Then it dropped down to 25 or 35 at idle when it was quite warmed up maybe 3 bars. 3000 rpm is 80 psi. I was told the oil pressure goes way over a hundred. Hope the blow off valve opens before 150 cuz that's where this gauge stops.

I'll get video tomorrow. Maybe even a road test video.

LOL I just realized I called them Illumaglo gauges. I got those too but that's another project,

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/30/2017 @ 2:30 PM *

WOW, now you have to put some LEDs on the frame too to match. Starting to look like a race car cockpit. Good job Rook!

Cheers

Thanks, rudy! LOL YES if you are into lizard lights and such, these gauges will compliment that very well. I'll go as far as fancy paint schemes when it comes to appearance mods but that's about where I draw the line. I'm usually not much for extra stuff on the bike unless it has some performance purpose.

I picked GlowShift for the white faces that match the OEM clocks, the shallow cup depth and the price. After seeing them in action, they are just a bit glitzy for my taste. I wouldn't mind something that had more of a straightforward race look...but I must admit, I am enjoying these like a kid with a new toy. ...and they are sort of toylike with their dazzling display and OHH--you should hear the buzz they make before they turn on! Sounds like a ratchet spinning! I have to email the company and ask why it does that.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/30/2017 @ 7:44 PM *

Just did my road test.

The temp LOW warning stopped flashing but the needle indication didn't look like it moved off the minimum. I have the LOW warning set to almost nothing so I'm sure the needle moved a notch. Where that sensor is located, the needle probably isn't going to move much past the lowest indication unless the engine gets very thoroughly warmed up.

The pressure needle stopped climbing at ~92 psi before I hit 8000 rpm.

I revved probably almost to 11000 in 1st gear ~50-60% throttle. Same thing. The needle stopped at ~92 before I hit max rpm. It did not seem to go a little past 92 and then drop back a notch like i might expect if it were reacting to the relief valve opening.

When I got back with a well warmed up engine, the pressure ran at 16 psi.

I ran the the engine steady at 4000 rpm at three bars water temp (I presume that is approximately 90 C oil temp) . The indicated pressure was 62 psi. My 2008 zx-14 manual says 4000 rpm, 36~60 psi @ 90 C oil temp.

I think the pressure sensor only goes to 92 psi. It appears that the gauge itself is indicating the specced pressure.

From what I was just told at 1441r.com, the oil pressure should go to 200 with the sensor located where I have it. Possible I could try a better sensor at some point.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/31/2017 @ 11:02 AM *

Fuel pressure gauge on sale! 15% off!

http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=358A3DBD-FCEE-D7BC-69D5F38D43E572A0

Anyone know how high the fuel pressure goes so I can get a gauge that will go high enough?