[dinolee]

Datel Digital Voltmeter install, 98 VFR 800

Parts: Red LED voltmeter - DMS-20PC-1-DCM $50.00
Bezel and gasket, screws - DMS-BZL4 $6.00
Retaining clip - 39-2165105 $2.00
Male / Female connector - $2.79
Flux and solder, wire shrink wrap, tie wraps
2 cans Vanilla/Cherry Dr. Pepper, beef bones and rope toy for supervisor


Datel has changed their website to cd4power.com, and it looks like they have a minimum quantity requirement for orders. I ordered these parts 5 months ago before the change, so I'm not sure on being able to get single quantities.

I chose to mount the voltmeter on the left fairing, beside the gas tank. Easy to see without having my tank bag or elbows in the way. I also am using an existing relay wiring for my Heated grips, to turn on the voltmeter with the ignition. The draw from the voltmeter is low enough to be left on all the time. But being a VFR, I trust nothing that maintains a constant draw from my electrical system. The voltmeter power source is spliced and soldered in from the relayed power wire.

1. Starting out, open can of Dr. Pepper, and make sure the Quality Supervisor has ample toys and beef bones to ensure a smooth and trouble free install.

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2. Using the gasket as a template, and a Sharpy fine tip pen, mark the outline of the hole for the voltmeter, and screw holes for the bezel mounting. Remove the fairing.

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3. Using a Dremel, carefully cut the hole, too small at first, and slowly expanding the edges out so that the voltmeter unit will fit tightly inside the hole. After the hole is cut to the correct size, drill out the screw holes with a slightly smaller drill bit then the diameter of the screw threads. This forces the screws to be tightened through the fairing before making contact with the bezel threads.

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4. Since the fairing will have to be removed for oil changes and etc., I'm using a male/female connector for quick disconnects to allow complete fairing removal. Crimp, solder and shrink wrap two circle connectors to the male end of the wire harness. The circle connectors will attach to the voltmeter screws on the back side of the unit.

Splicing into the existing relayed wires for the heated grips, attach the female end of the disconnect. Solder, shrink wrap and seal with rubber sealant. Attach male and female connectors, turn on ignition and test unit. Use tie wraps to secure mess of wires.

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5. Install the voltmeter with wiring harness attached., and gasket into the fairing. I notice that I screwed up the alignment of one of the screw holes, crap. Redrill and live with a loose fairing hole. Quality supervisor is gonna chew my rear for that one.

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6. Remove protective plastic cover from voltmeter, mount plastic bezel and tighten screws into bezel. Mount retaining clip on backside. Using a hot glue gun, I seal the areas where the wires enter the male / female connectors to keep most of the water from entering. Water can still enter where they connect together, but I can live with that.

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7. Connect the wiring harness to the bike, replace the fairing. Turn on ignition and retest.

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Call Quality supervisor over to give final sniff and slobber of approval, job is now complete.

Things I learned:
- Cutting into the fairing is not as scary as I thought.
- I still suck at doing quality soldering. I need a better soldering gun.
- Next time, have beer instead of Dr. Pepper.
- Bribe quality supervisor with better toys during install.

Total install time: 3 hours

[Rivcyko]

Tight. Is your supervisor, a union member? "You work, and I won't". :P

[gadgetjunky]

why did you put it there instead of on the little almost vertical peices like covering up the fuse block? is it because you needed a more flat surface?

did you paint your radiator grills red? cool

[adamf18]

looks great, but do you have pictures of the wire splicing. Namely what wires did you splice.
Thanks

[JonnyBoy]

Nice job! Excellent write up, and the pictures are worth a thousand words.

P.S...That's the toughest looking quality supervisor I've ever seen :D

[dinolee]

gadgetjunky, on Sep 12 2005, 04:06 AM, said:

why did you put it there instead of on the little almost vertical peices like covering up the fuse block?  is it because you needed a more flat surface?

did you paint your radiator grills red? cool
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I thought about putting the display in the 'vertical' area beside the instruement panel, but was too lazy to dismantle the fairing area up there. I think it would have looked better on the vertical area though. I ended up choosing the side panel for ease of installation.

On the radiator panels, I was bored one day and wanted to see what it looked like. Ghost_Rider made fun of them though. :D

Quote

but do you have pictures of the wire splicing. Namely what wires did you splice.

I have a hi/lo switch on the same side (in the black body panel area) controlling my heated grips. I used the hot wire and ground that powers the heated grips as the splice for the voltmeter. The hi/lo switch is powered by a seperate relay and fuse block under the seat:

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I 'should' have gone with a separate relay, but again out of lazyness, lack of room, and the low draw of the voltmeter I chose to cheat and just power it off the additional relay I installed for the heated grips.

[Salty42]

(I'm a newbie so tread lightly)... I know I'll sound like an idiot but, what is the volt meter for???

[HispanicSlammer]

To monitor your charging system. VFR's have a nasty habit of blowing Regulator Rectifiers by watching charging voltage you have advanced warning and can replace a bad unit before your stranded.

[dinolee]

As Miguel said, VFR's in general have very touchy charging systems. I've already had to replace my Reg/Rectifier at 3K miles on this bike. I plan on running radar detector, GPS, heated vest, and heated grips, maybe another farkle; and will use the voltmeter to help me plan how many of the farkles I can run at the same time without taxing the whole charging system.

[gbryant]

dinolee, on Sep 12 2005, 07:05 PM, said:

I thought about putting the display in the 'vertical' area beside the instruement panel, but was too lazy to dismantle the fairing area up there.  I think it would have looked better on the vertical area though.  I ended up choosing the side panel for ease of installation.

On the radiator panels, I was bored one day and wanted to see what it looked like.  Ghost_Rider made fun of them though.  :D
I have a hi/lo switch on the same side (in the black body panel area) controlling my heated grips.  I used the hot wire and ground that powers the heated grips as the splice for the voltmeter.  The hi/lo switch is powered by a seperate relay and fuse block under the seat:

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I 'should' have gone with a separate relay, but again out of lazyness, lack of room, and the low draw of the voltmeter I chose to cheat and just power it off the additional relay I installed for the heated grips.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where did you buy your fuse block?

[dinolee]

gbryant, on Sep 15 2005, 02:46 PM, said:

Where did you buy your fuse block?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Local auto parts store, in my region it was Schucks Auto Parts. Same with the relay, 30 amp standard auto relay.

[Salty42]

HispanicSlammer, on Sep 14 2005, 04:31 PM, said:

To monitor your charging system.  VFR's have a nasty habit of blowing Regulator Rectifiers by watching charging voltage you have advanced warning and can replace a bad unit before your stranded.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What type of reading would indicate standard or ok conditions and what reading would indicate replacing the r/r?? Is this only a problem on late model VFRs?

[Asphalt_Pilot]

Salty42, on Sep 16 2005, 01:20 PM, said:

What type of reading would indicate standard or ok conditions and what reading would indicate replacing the r/r??  Is this only a problem on late model VFRs?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Look for 13.5 - 14.5 volts (roughly) at anything above 2000 rpm.

The r/r has two failure modes (I've had them both!):
1) The voltage will drop below 12 V -- meaning the r/r isn't charging the system and you are running off battery power (but won't be for long because the battery will die).
2) The voltage will jump to like 18 - 19 V -- meaning the r/r is failing to regulate the voltage. This is the more common failure mode. It will 'cook' your battery. This happened to me on a multi-day trip. Stopping and then starting the engine sometimes made it work, but a couple of times I had to let it cool off before it would regulate again.

This has been a problem with older VFRs as well (had one fail on my '85 VF1000R). Some have failed at low mileage, but most seem to fail around 20 - 25k miles. The r/r on my '94 lasted until 55k miles.

Consensus is that the failure is heat-related; the replacement OEM r/r Honda now sells has a decent heat-sink mounted on it and is a much better unit. I think that unit was introduced in '01 or so. If you don't see cooling fins on top of your r/r, you have the old type. You can see them by removing the seat.

One key item that is often overlooked is to also make sure that you have good grounding points on the frame. Remove the bolt holding the green grounding wires, and use a brass or steel wire brush to clean the ring terminals and mating frame/bolt surfaces. Even if they look ok, cleaning can make a difference. The primary grounding point on a '94 - '97 is on the right frame above the brake pedal area, don't know about other models.

Also periodically check the white connector where the r/r plugs into the harness. If it's discolored (brown), that is due to heat. Keep a close eye on it. These will burn to the point of melting if the r/r gets too hot. (almost happened to me, but I caught it before the r/r failed). Honda recognized this problem and sells a connector repair kit.

I highly suggest that you install a voltmeter, and carry a spare r/r if you plan any multi-day trips. My voltmeter saved me from the aggravation of a tow and a day or two waiting for parts, far from home. This is the only weak point on the VFR, so best to prepare for it!

[dinolee]

Asphalt_Pilot, on Oct 9 2005, 01:05 PM, said:

Look for 13.5 - 14.5 volts (roughly) at anything above 2000 rpm.

The r/r has two failure modes (I've had them both!):
1) The voltage will drop below 12 V -- meaning the r/r isn't charging the system and you are running off battery power (but won't be for long because the battery will die).
2)  The voltage will jump to like 18 - 19 V -- meaning the r/r is failing to regulate the voltage. This is the more common failure mode. It will 'cook' your battery.  This happened to me on a multi-day trip. Stopping and then starting the engine sometimes made it work, but a couple of times I had to let it cool off before it would regulate again.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Number (1) is what happened on my 98, number (2) happened on my old 91. Both instances took the battery along with them, as showen by load testing the battery by my mechanic.

With my current farkle load of widder vest on high and grips on high, the voltmeter will run at about 13.3 volts at healthy rpms. I don't want to go any lower then that, unless future electronics (hardwired gps and radar) prove to have a very low draw; which I've heard is true.

[seadooloo]

Very nice install of your voltmeter. Unfortunately my voltmeter has a lot of other functions such as clock/stopwatch/temperature sensor/black ice warning lights and alarm/ and voltage readout with alarm. I got it through a site that Miguel recommended on another post regarding battery discharging due to electrical accessories. So, I had to come up with another way of installing it and since I have an '02 Vtec model I don't have many places to install such a device. The best thing I could come up with was to fabricate a bracket that would mount on my ignition switch so it would be right there where I need to keep an eye on it yet still be out of the way of everything else. The first photo shows my mounting bracket and voltmeter before installation.
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The next photo shows the bracket installed on the bike, ready to mount the voltmeter
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The next photo shows the completed installation
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The wires were just connected as per the instructions. A pretty simple 3 wire install anyone could do.

[turgut kalfaoglu]

Stinks - there is no mention of "international shipping" or even "email us" link at www.digitalmeter.com
So I was unable to buy it for my VFR 800.. -turgut

[mechdziner714]

Any chance of turning the red x's into actual pix?