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Tachometer?

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 5:49 am
by Mjollnir
Anyone know how I might go about adding a tachometer to an '03 cannibal? I just like seeing how many r's I'm turning...

An oil pressure light would make be feel better too, but that's probably impossible...

Thanks,
Marc

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 2:21 pm
by Smitty911
About the only way would be to tap directly into the crank trigger and take the reading from there. Unless you have a couple degrees in Electronics I wouldn't try it. The coil sits on top of the plug so you can't use some from of induction pickup.

Smitty

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 4:39 pm
by Mjollnir
Thanks just4fun - I actually found that one online last night after I made this post as well.

Here is the link to the online catalog, if anyone is interested. Interesting... Maybe I'll give it a shot.

http://www.highlifter.com/store/tach.html

-Marc

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2002 4:12 am
by Smitty911
That one won't work as it takes a pickup off the coil. On the Cannondales the coil sits on top of the plus and there is now where to hook on up.

Smitty

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2002 2:30 pm
by Mjollnir
Hmmm. A nonpareil description of the particular predicament, albeit rendered in a perhaps slightly more brusque manner than I would tend to. biggrin.gif

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 4:58 am
by HouserCannondale
im not sure about this... but on my neighbors cannibal when we changed the spark plug i noticed the coil is made right into the sparkplug cap. it also has a two wire connector that plugs into the top of it. im not 100% sure about this because of the newfangled electronics on it but wouldnt that be the coil trigger wires?? or maybe im thinking of the wrong thing correct me if im wrong somebody. :confused:

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 5:26 am
by Mjollnir
I am mostly a V8 dude, but one of those has to be the negative coil lead. If I'm not mistaken, that and a ground is all I need to hook up a tach.

Hmmm....

Thanks Kenny!

coil

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:13 pm
by cannondale27
This is a positive discharge system.What does that mean?
I do know that there is power at both those wires if you hook into them you will blow the fuse.I really dont know how the system works anyone?I think some motor cycles have the same system maybe a tach would work from one of those.

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 10:51 pm
by Mjollnir
Beats me. There has to be an electical engineer in here somewhere. biggrin.gif

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:11 am
by btolenti
Positive discharge. I'm an electrical engineer, let's see if I can figure this out. The engine block is grounded to the negative battery post (negative ground system - just like most of our cars).
Both leads to the coil are positive voltage when compared to the block (again, connected to the negative battery terminal, hence it is at zero volts). The "positive discharge" means that the coil supplies a positive voltage to the plug to allow the spark to jump from the center electrode to the electrode connected to the body of the plug(threaded portion).

I assume one wire is a constant 12 volt source directly from the battery and the other wire is connected to the ECM module, which would instruct the coil when to "fire" based on the information the computer gets from the crankshaft trigger (tells the computer the motor RPM as well as crankshaft position.

Give me a while to think of how one would go about hooking up a tach to a dale.....