Ok, I'll take a look tonight when I get home.

 

Well I checked both wires at the front of the bike comming from the gauge cluster and under the seat going into the main circuit connection. I didn't see a loose wire or fit on any of the wires and I didn't take all the electrical tape off but I ran back a few inches and didn't see any wear on the wire.

My gauge cluster doesn't work. The N, and FI light's are the only thing I see light up when I turn the bike on. I think the RPM needle is supposed to jump up and then back down and it doesn't do that either.
I can't take the front cowl off again (it was a BITCH to put back on, lol) until the weekend - should I take the gauge cluster apart? What would I look for if I did?

 

hmmmm....

as far as I know, yes, the needle should jump when you start it, kinda like a self diag. Have you unplugged any of the connectors to see if there is any corrosion in them? Also, maybe something wiggled itself just loose enough that its not visably loose... so unplugging, checking, cleaning, replugging seems to be a good place to continue, especially up near the gauges. Check the computer plugs as well. Might wanna check everything you can reach now, and if still no good, take off the front cowl and check in there.

I'll browse through the F4i manual and see if I find anything useful.

How long have the gauges been acting flaky?

 

I just bought this thing and the original owner said they have never worked.

 

well thats unexceptable. Lets get these things workin. I'm going through the F4i service as we speak.

 

ok, so tell me what exactly works and doesnt work on your cluster. I'm looking through section 19 of that F4i manual and want to know what exactly I should start thinking about.

Speedo
Tach
Odometer
Nuetral light
Oil light
Side Stand light (it have one?)
Coolant readout (in the Speedo)
Backlight
clock
trip meter
high beam light

 

Alrighty here we go.

Speedo NO
Tach NO
Odometer NO
Nuetral light YES
Oil light NO
Side Stand light (it have one?) Doesn't have.
Coolant readout (in the Speedo) NO
Backlight NO
clock NO
trip meter NO
high beam light NO

Neutral and FI lights are the only two that are working.

 

holy crap.

I'd guess your not getting power to the gauges.

So, wherever you can get to the harness that goes to the gauges... preferably where it actually plugs into the harness thats coming off the gauges. Unplug the gauges, turn the ignition to on, Run/Stop switch to run, engine not running... you'll be testing the harness going back to the bike, not the gauge side of the harness.

Grab your voltage tester, put it to DC Voltage, measure across the battery terminals. Write down the reading.

Stick the black lead of the voltage meter to something thats definately a ground. Either wedge it in the negative battery (preferred), or find somewhere thats a good ground and wedge the lead. When I say 'wedge' I mean stick it somewhere that it will hold itself, so you have both hands free for messing with the positive (red) lead on the meter.

The wiring diagram is vaguely fuzzy, so hopefully these colors are right...

According to the diagram there should be a pink/green wire, a blue/black (maybe), a brown/white, and a red/green wire all in a row. These should all be very close to the battery voltage you wrote down, say within .5 volts.

Turn your high beams on, and the Blue wire (not light blue) should go to near battery voltage.

Let me know where all that ends up.

Next, wedge to red lead on the meter to the positive terminal off the battery and remove the black lead. You'll be testing with the black lead now.

Touch the green wire with the black lead of the meter, the meter should again be close to the battery voltage.

So get those readings and we'll go from there.

 

Ok sir heres what I have.

Battery Test, ~30

Heres a (rough) diagram on how the wires run into the connector - if your looking down at it.

BRN/BLK BRO/BLK RED/GRN

EMPTY WHT/BLU PNK/GRN

GRN EMPTY YLW/GRN


First I wedged the BLACK prong into the battery terminal and tested the positive (ended up testing them all). Heres my readout:


BRN/BLK BRO/BLK RED/GRN

EMPTY WHT/BLU PNK/GRN(+@30)

GRN(+@30) EMPTY YLW/GRN(+@30)

Next I wedged the RED prong into the battery terminal and tested with the BLACK prong. Heres my readouts:


BRN/BLK(-@30) BRO/BLK(-@30) RED/GRN(-@30)

EMPTY WHT/BLU PNK/GRN

GRN EMPTY YLW/GRN

The only wire that had no response was the WHT/BLU wire.

 

uhhh, your tester must have been on the wrong setting. You should be seeing about 12 Volts at the battery, usually 11.5-12.5 when the engine isnt running.

So I'm thinking trying again, making sure your meter is set to DC Voltage, like the 20 volt range if it has ranges on it. If your not sure exactly how to get it there, let me know the model of the meter and I should be able to look it up, or take a picture of it.

Also, there should be 2 separate plugs for the dash, not just the one you found. Look here at this ebay listing....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/honda...spagenameZWDVW

You can see the white plug and black plug. You'll be searching on voltage on the 'bike side' of the plugs.... the connectors that plug into the ones you see on the ebay listing.