Funk this hit I say, after numerous failed contact attempts with the seller, koso europe, -america AND taiwan I got to the conclusion that they are not interested in keeping their customers so since the gauge doesn't seem to have a warranty anyway it's the same to crack it open and do it myself.



No way to get a soldering iron there...



...so I introduced it to my crafting saw.



My eyesight isn't what it used to be... at least not @11.30pm...



All done, not pretty but should be solid. If it STILL jumps around gonna hurl the whole clock into a wall...



All buttoned up, also bolted on the navi rack to go get a few pins on that ruinspotting map with my neebr in a few hours.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've bought three Koso gauges. The first, the only and the last. With these prices I'd expect, nay, REQUIRE to NOT have contact issues with a daym connector!

 

Man...I was planning on a Koso too. I think I'm going to steer clear now. Its too expensive to have those issues.

 

...aaand it STILL doesn`t work!!! Or it does, but when it bloody feels like it! The behaviour changed after I soldered the connector, earlier it jumped around wildly, now it jumps much less but still is showing speeds almost double the real, unless I pull in the clutch and let it idle, then it`s showing the speed like it should. Pretty much the only things that even CAN be wrong anymore are an internal failure in the gauge, and a faulty intermittently working speed sender, and the only thing left to do to it is light up a circle of candles, sprinkle holy water and chant vade retro satana at it!

I`m tempter to use the Koso as a catapult ammunition and buy two round cafe style meters off ebay cause I have a suspicion they will not interfere with each other if they are not in the same circuit board, but the suspicion of a faulty speed sender has me hesitating... An original one costs a fortune, but I`ve read there is a replacement from some Kawasaki that isn`t as fragile either, gotta do some studying...

 

Mattie, take the gauge to a speedometer repair place! They may be able to suss out the misbehaving component and replace it.

 

I`ve been juggling with every possible option and I`m STILL not sure IS the problem in the gauge or in the bike. at one point is seemed like the fuel sensor is causing the problem since every single time I fill up the gauge starts working and gets messy when the fuel level drops a little, so I disconnected the sensor, nope the gauge still jumps around and guess what, the next fill up didn`t cure the problem even momentarily. I got one last ditch effort to try which is to disconnect the original speed sender from the gauge (but leave it in place cause the ECU needs the data) and connect the sender that came with the gauge, running completely separate power feed to it from the battery. Since if I pull in the clutch at speed and let the engine idle the gauge is showing correct speed, this in theory, should remove the problem since the secondary sender is not in any contact with the ECU which has been a problem with the rev counter and a few other issues as well. I`m about to go to the garage right now to rummage through the boxes if I still find it, and the fixing supplies. The only problem is that I might have cut the wire cause I was in need of a three core cable once but there should be a stub long enough to weld new ones on. 11pm so not gonna get it finished today but will be working on it in the next few days.

 

Found the parts but the fitting will be a bit more labour intensive than I wished: The only position where I can fix it to anything so that the sensor aligns with the brake rotor bolts is that, and to get it there I need to saw off a piece of 20x3mm aluminum stock I got in the shelf, and use it to reach the lower brake saddle bolt. To get it to fit there I need to detach the saddle, shave exactly 3mm off from the mounting hole to get the stock between the fork leg and the saddle, re-bleed the front brake and make everything pretty. But I don`t see any other way to do it since I will not make any hasty jury rigs onto this bike and even that is kinda so-so is it an eyesore or not... Some matte black will hopefully mask it a little and make it disappear...

 

Did you happen check the connections between (what's left of) the plug and the circuit board itself ? From what you've described of the issue, that would probably be my next guess. I think even, that if I was to hard wire the gauge, I would just pull what's left of the plug off and solder a set of pigtails right to the board. Just a random thought.

 

My first thought, and the first thing I checked. All the pins are soldered well into the circuit board, and the reasons I did not do what you suggested are 1)to get to the backside of the connector I would have had to remove the rev counter and it seemed it would be difficult to do without damaging it 2) getting the connector out would have meant removing all the solder from the backside as it is wave- soldered in place and the pins are secured into the connector body, this means exposing the circuit board and the frail surface mounted components to such heat I would have risked causing futher damage.

I just got one of those "could it be that simple" thoughts a minute ago, and will test if it does anything to cut the signal wire coming from the ECU and piggyback it straight into the signal wire coming from the sender unit and going to the ECU thus removing the brain box from the equasion. It shouldn't interfere with the speed signal the ECU is getting but would remove the need to fit another sensor. Will try that first thing when I get home from work

 

Was just figuring it's probably a double sided circuit so there could be connections on the backside that can't be seen. But yes, It's a somewhat precarious job so I can understand the hesitation.

Ok, well best of luck.

 

It seems I might have just fixed the issue. Jusg got back from a short test run, only bout half a mile cause it's pouring rain here but during that I could not make the speedo act up even when I tried by revving the bike at steady speed. So what was it? The simplest of all simple things and the mother of all F-ups: trusting ANY of the old wirings.

A bad ground. I routed a new slightly overkill sized ground wire from the battery up front, cut the ground bundle coming from the front off from the bike's own ground wires and soldered it into the new ground wire. Seems to have done the trick. not holding my breath yet cause the problem has been intermittent so it might just have a good day but I'm hopeful. The blinker indicator light still doesn't flash when the engine is running but that might also be the doings of the digital LED relay and doesn't bother me really, it's just strange.