tach/dwell meter

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The '81 has electronic ignition, and getting to the coils might be a pain, considering where they are. What exactly are you trying to do, anyway? There are inductive style tachs that will simply have a clamp that goes around the plug wire...
Welcome to the CGW forums, btw! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:
 
To connect the tach/dwell meter to mine, I had to pull the false tank, and connect it to the top of one of the coils. Of course you have to connect the meter's ground cable to a good grounding point.
 
my meter is not inductive-it has alligator clamps-checked with some forums that suggested connecting to 3 wires coming off coil- im trying to re adjust my pilot idle screws on the carbs after rebuild-bike tach not accurate enough for fine tuning-bought hand held unit and then found out how hard it will be to connect. tried setting carb 1-1/4 out, sync'ed-bike road tested bad. turned out 2 turns- bike ran better but still not crisp on throttle starting off, seems to have small hesitation-decided to reset with tach and re sync to see if that would help. seemed easy enough in book. thanks
 
try mixing some atf in the gas as this will make the gas more like the gas it was design for while your doing this....sounds crazy but its not ....thats what i did and seem to work realy well on getting a true reading on adjustments....
 
joedrum":287clvyi said:
try mixing some atf in the gas as this will make the gas more like the gas it was design for while your doing this....sounds crazy but its not ....thats what i did and seem to work realy well on getting a true reading on adjustments....

You keep bringing this up. I don't know enough to argue and I haven't tried it, so please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just trying to understand the science of it. How does burning oil make it run more the way it was designed for? By somehow lowering the flash point - simulating a higher octane? Just trying to understand. Thanks.
 
scdmarx":3h9lj7er said:
joedrum":3h9lj7er said:
try mixing some atf in the gas as this will make the gas more like the gas it was design for while your doing this....sounds crazy but its not ....thats what i did and seem to work realy well on getting a true reading on adjustments....

You keep bringing this up. I don't know enough to argue and I haven't tried it, so please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just trying to understand the science of it. How does burning oil make it run more the way it was designed for? By somehow lowering the flash point - simulating a higher octane? Just trying to understand. Thanks.

the refinerys keep stripping more and more of the heavy oils out of the gas over yrs more and more all the time the gas is just crap compared to the gas availible when theses bikes were made and design for
 
connected hand held tach to neg. side of coil according to meters instructions-red to neg. coil black to battery groung-still no tach reading-guess i will try other connectors see what happens. shop books pretty much useless
 
Try connecting the ground(black) to the engine casing, or frame...might be a grounding issue with the tach/meter. Also, check and see if it will work connected to another coil.
 
tlcdmc":ngl28m0h said:
connected hand held tach to neg. side of coil according to meters instructions-red to neg. coil black to battery groung-still no tach reading-guess i will try other connectors see what happens. shop books pretty much useless

If you are sure you had a good connection, you may have to set your tach to 4 cylinders, or with 2 coils, maybe 2 cylinders. Not all of them will do 2 cylinders. Don't know what you have, but some meters need to be connected to battery power, besides the rpm connections. If what you have is a multi-meter you might look into that. You can also try your meter on another motor to check if it works or not.
 
im assuming the carbs have been benched sync where all the play has been adjusted out of the linkage .....if so id just run it with atf mix and the air mix screws adjusted to what ever setting the book says to strart at and ride a tank of gas through it....this may change the way it runs from your pervious tests....the timing cant be off its not adjustable....i think the the advance has a vacume line that has to be hooked up..... my bike is a 1000 and im not sure i remember right about what others have said on this with there 1100s.....
 
scdmarx":1xlkpf4s said:
tlcdmc":1xlkpf4s said:
connected hand held tach to neg. side of coil according to meters instructions-red to neg. coil black to battery groung-still no tach reading-guess i will try other connectors see what happens. shop books pretty much useless

If you are sure you had a good connection, you may have to set your tach to 4 cylinders, or with 2 coils, maybe 2 cylinders. Not all of them will do 2 cylinders. Don't know what you have, but some meters need to be connected to battery power, besides the rpm connections. If what you have is a multi-meter you might look into that. You can also try your meter on another motor to check if it works or not.

From the last time I hooked mine up, it seemed I had to divide by 2 the reading on the meter. I would guess the benefit of having to do that is the meter swings will be twice as sensitive. I bet the reason the meters do this is because both coils are firing at the same time, with each plug firing twice per cycle instead of the customary once per cycle.
 
If you have one available to you, try using a photo tach, install the reflective tape on the crankshaft pulley, hope this helps.
 
does anyone know of connection point to hook up external tachometer on 1981 1100 interstate. rebuilt carbs and i need to adjust pilot screws. bike tach not accurate enough-i have hand held with alligator clips-connected to neg. side of coil- didnt get reading. anyone help. thanks

(duplicate thread merged with original-
AApple)
 
If your talking about the idle mixture screws, just turn em 2 1/2 turns out and leave em alone. It`s that easy...........no rocket science here.
 
SORRY! I just checked to Haynes manual for the GL1100 79 -81,and I was wrong!They do describe a procedure like you explained with a Tach!It don`t say where/how to hook it up but it says you need one that will show 50rpm increments.They say to start with 1 1/2 turns out and adjust as needed.Do you have this manual/know the procedure?If not I could try to copy or re-type this page and send it to you per e-mail or post it here.
 
Smokey66":2y7pzhkh said:
SORRY! Do you have this manual/know the procedure?If not I could try to copy or re-type this page and send it to you per e-mail or post it here.

If you know the page number we have the manuals in the Gallery put there for this very purpose. gallery/album.php?album_id=48
Select the page then below it you can copy the link to display it in the post.
 
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