Triumphrat

NewMetal · 07-29-2007

Well i just got back from my trip to the Hagers town half mile flat track racing and I've developed a problem in my Tachometer and my coolant gauge..... When I'm cruising in 6th gear at 4,500 the tachometer goes everywhere till i go up to 5,200 and it levels back out..... my coolant will spontaneously jump all over the place at any rpm, idle, or running at speed......I had just gotten done putting in new spark plugs and a k&n air filter(which has made a great improvement!) i did put in iridium plugs... but i was reading my Haynes shop manual and it shows my tachometer going to an connector then to the ignition and my coolant gauge is going straight to a sender.... but there both acting strange... does any one know a fix to stop the crazy coolant and tachometer gauges????could the two gauges be interconnected somewhere and there grounding out somewhere????....also i don't have turn signals but thats because the turn signals where grounding out and blew the turn signal relay which i have yet to order..... This is on a 1996 triumph trident 900....where is the best place to get T3 parts also....my bike has 12,900 miles on it also...

mhaythor · 07-29-2007

I don't know the answer to your problem, but to your second question - try bikebandit.com for OEM parts. The diagrams alone are a great resource.

I bought some parts- they are labeled as genuine Triumph and I have no reason to doubt that they are the real thing.

KitNYC · 07-30-2007

I get a lot of parts from Bike Bandit; it's just easier to have 'em delivered sometimes. I also get parts, usually used, from Baxter Cycles.

I see you're not too terribly far from Philly. If you ever need a good shop, Manayunk Triumph there is great.

I'm waiting on an order from Bike Bandit right now. One of the parts in that order is a temperature sender. They are a weak point on our bikes, & that would explain your temp gauge getting wacky.

The tach is run from one of the coils. It seems possible to me that your iridium plugs could be interfering with the signal, but I'm not an expert on electrical stuff.

Maybe it could also be noise on the line? IIRC, the tach & temp gauge share a common ground.

If the relay is the only part you need, check this thread.

HTH,
-Kit

gfiandy · 08-01-2007

Hi, If both the dials are playing up I would suspect a grounding or power supply problem.

If you have a multimeter you can check this fairly easly. (If you don't you can get a cheap one from Maplins for about $5 - $10)

To check the ground turn the bike off. Set the multimeter to Ohms setting connect one probe to the bike chassis somewhere where the metal is exposed (a nut on the engine would do best point is the negative (black connection to the battery)). Now connect the other end of the probe to the ground wire to the dial. If you can't tell which is the ground wire you can try each in turn the lowest reading should be the ground. The ground should be less then 1 ohm when you have a good contact on it and to the chassis.

If you need to use a point other than the battery ground you can check the resistance back to the battery first by touching the negative on the battery. Don't touch the positive in the omhs setting the meter won't like it, it will probably survive but still best not to.

To check the power supply set the multimeter to volts DC and turn the bike on. With the bike on but not running you should have about 12V DC on the power to the dials. Again if you don't know which one it is you can try each in turn, the power will the the biggest reading. Don't short them together as this could cuase damage at worst and is likely to blow a fuse at best. Once you have found the power supply and ground try wiggling the wires to see if it changes the readings.

If you don't get any joy from this, try starting the bike with the meter connected to the power supply and see if it starts to jump arround. If it does it is likely that a cable is loose some where, the other possibility is the alternator is playing up but you would expect to see this affecting all the systems so the lights would go dim etc.

Also check the problem you had with the indicators is porperly solved as the indicators, Temp and Tach all share the same power supply according to the circuit diagrams in the haynes manual.

Hope this is of some help,
Andy.