temperature gauge on ebay

[JCHarth]

I could not help it so I got the one if farenheith.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221090199609

Ill let you guys know if it works. I put straight pipes and I sync the cars on my bike. I ve been adjusting the mixure too. In my experience it is good to know the temp in case it run lean (hot). So far my plugs look healthy so I dont think I have any problems but I like to keep and eye on the temp.

[Eveready1100]

Had a couple of messages regarding my link failing so here's my mod -

Had a fair bit of discussion with Steptoe during the build up and fitment of my low oil warning light and he'd said that an Oil temperature guage would be a handy item to have as well / instead. So, while I was in there messing about with the sumps, I also fitted up a temperature guage sender (which Geoff spotted in those pics BTW) in the sump.
Originally the plan was to simply drill the oil filler plug and stick the sender in it, but I was a bit dubious of the thickness of the material left, and didn't want to end up snapping the oil drain bolt through it being weakened by my modification. Subsequently, I had my old, spare, half rounded bolt laying there so I went through that routine afterwards just to see how well it shaped up.


^ Ok, first I went looking around under the bike to find a handy spot away from moving bits of the stands etc and the exhausts.


^ Then I got the bits ready for surgery. Note the nut I tapped to match the sender thread.


^ I selected this area as it was nice and flat nestled in between two ribs


^ Tools of choice


^ A common problem with taps is that they're too short to get any swing on them if in a limited space.


^ My way around this problem was to fit a 3/8th extension with a 1/4" adapter which fitted the tap.


^ This way, I could get a full rotation of the tap.


^ After cleaning out all the swarf, the sender got screwed in place


^ A healthy dab of loctite to be sure, to be sure


Then on went the fibre washer and locknut.


^ the finished sump.


^ And mounted, with the wiring following the ignition pickup loom up towards the battery area.


^ Mounted the gauge ($12 Ebay) in its little pod mount ($4.90 Ebay) and did a simple wiring run down to my relays hiding under the tank. Found one of my switched active wires and went from there.


^ I simply hard wired the gauge light to the power as I couldn't be bothered getting into the headlight to find a lighting power wire. There's minimal drain from the tiny bulb anyway.

Tomorrow, I'll take it for a run to see how it all works.......................................
I'll keep you posted.




Oh and before I forget, here's how the oil drain bolt went.


^ Drilled the centre of the bolt out


^ How much of the head end's left


^ Then tapped the thread into it.


^ A lot more beef left that I anticipated.


^ The sender loosely screwed into the bolt to show the size differences.

After going through the process, there is enough thickness of the bolt to fit a sender in it. I do have my reservations, as the sender doesn't protrude right through the bolt which would give very limited surface exposure to get a proper reading. Also, unless you were using the 6 sided spanner as provided by Yamaha in the toolkit, You'd probably have problems getting the drain plug undone with the sender sticking out of the middle of it. And finally, finding somewhere to run the wiring keeping away from the exhausts and such would be a much greater problem than with the rear mount sender. The only + is that it can be fitted without removing the sump.

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Pt 2

Ok, the test run. gave the bike a couple of minutes to warm up then took the bike into town to fuel up (about 3 klms) and the gauge hadn't moved as yet. Idled through the centre of the metropolis known as Childers and noticed a slight climb from the static position of 50 degrees. "Ok, that works then", I thought to myself, then peeled off to the Biggenden road and the promise of some twisty bits on the way out to the dam. But about 2 klms from my fave bits, the road was wet from a recent shower that had passed through. Bugger. that's killed that then. It took ages to get to 70 degrees which really surprised me as I'd thought that an air cooled bike would attain temperature quicker than that. Actually reached 80 degrees when being punted through the ups 'n downs of the Dam road, but quickly settled back to 75 when I eased off a bit. It wasn't a terribly hot day though and it will be interesting to see how it behaves when the ambient temperature is up a bit more. What did surprise me was on the trip home, I ran through a heavy shower of rain and the temperature dropped 15 or so degrees in about ten seconds, so it does show what happens to a hot air cooled motor when showered in water,
The actual temperature readings may be a bit different to the exact temperature due to the budget guage and sender assembly, but it does give an insight into what's happening between your legs.

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Pt 3


Been thinking about a lot of stuff recently -

Now that my bike was armed with a temperature monitoring device, I thought I'd carry out a little test. Yesterday, I rode the bike in to work sitting on an easy 110-120 kph just cruising along. Air temp was around the 12 degree mark when I left home, and the oil temp sat just a tad above 70 degrees once it got warmed up (but before the truck episode).

Today, I rode the bike into work. Air temp was close to yesterdays and I tried to mimmick as close as possible the trip in. OK, air temp was around the 12 degree mark again, but the oil temp sat on a steady 77 degrees for most of the trip. It also seemed to get hotter quicker, too. The difference?

Last night, I made up a cover for the oil cooler which completely blocked all the airflow from it.
I was just curious as to how much heat it actually took from the oil as it flowed through it, so now I have a rough figure as to what a difference it makes having it on there. I am of course referring to those who chose to remove their oil cooler from the bike. Mind you, all my figures are just roughies taken from a cheap gauge in uncontrolled, but "near enough for me" conditions.
I am looking at doing the comparo again when things warm up but i just thought I'd post up my preliminary findings for those who might be interested.

[Eveready1100]

(Stupid time limit on edits)

Oh and Tom is absolutely right about the amount oil that sprays out of the filler hole if left unplugged. Definitely enough to keep one of those originally discussed gauges flooded with oil and getting a good reading so would be do-able as well.

[JCHarth]

Hello Everyone, I got the temperature gauge in the mail on Friday. Seems to work well. If I was to guess I think it gets the tempearture from the engine block. I am very happy with the gauge. It came from taiwan.

[CaptonZap]

Looks to me like you may want to make that cover a permanant part of the bike, as 171 deg is a bit cool for evaporating the moisture out of the oil. A flip up arrangement could be used, and you could vary the cooling accordinng to the outside temperatures. CZ

[650mark]

oil temp gauge from taiwan

i recently bought that same oil temp gauge from taiwan for my sr500. actually a pretty accurate and well made piece except for one thing. on the sr500 the vibration of the motor caused the gauge needle to swing and jump so wildly that it was virtually unreadable unless i was stopped and the engine was idling. not really usable while underway. worked great at idle! perhaps the very smooth xs1100 motor will not cause the same problem with this gauge. there are, however, similar gauges available from other ebay sources that are oil damped and very stable. and more expensive. fwiw, i've chimed in on this one only because i bought the temp gauge AFTER my sr500 overheated on a ride through death valley at temps of 108 and speeds of 70mph and blew the head gasket and melted the piston. had to rebuild the motor but perhaps if i'd had a good oil temp gauge to warn me of the overheating it might have been avoided. can't be sure but if i were to do it over again i'd buy the easily read oil damped gauge and *pay attention to it*.