Help with mini gauges and HOW TO WIRE THEM?!

[Nickyd]

Hey im thinking of piking up some mini gauges from Dime City Cycle. im a noob when its comes to anything electrical, even when its dealing with just a few wires and connecters here and there.

So my question is...When i buy my mini speedo and tach how do i wire them up? the existing XS gauges have a "connecter"/"plug" that makes the wires connect inside the headlight. it seams that all the aftermarket gauges come with the wires but not the "connecter" there just naked wires? so how do you install them? and the guys at dime city cycles said any speedo they have will work.. does it matter how many wires are attached to the aftermarket speedo to make it compatible?

Im also confused with this. if i get a speedo that has "LED" indicator light will that be ok on my bike? the fact that there LED?

I have a 1981 XS650 SII

Thank you so much for you help!

 

[pristic]

Dont know what wires come out of your gauges, however I would cut the connectors off and solder the wires on, to make removal easier, you would cut the connectors off and crimp or solder on new connectors (male on one side and female on the other... ) then you have a new 'plug' to connect the speedo wires to your wiring... (hope that made sense)
LED is fine usually... they are the same voltage, but use less amps than normal... in fact going LED on an XS is a good idea in my opinion.

Example, my speedo has LED light, 2 wires. 1 is the negative, which you would earth (attach to frame) the other is positive which you would attach to the positive wire that the headlight has (which means when headlight is on, the LED in speedo is on) you could wire it so it comes on with a switch or anything... but in short, negative somewhere on frame (earth) and positive to positive...

Now, is your speedo Electric or Mechanical?
Some speedo's are electronic... which means you have to have a unit at the wheel that measures or drives the speed, sends a pulse (signal) to the speedo via a wire, and the needle moves... standard, there is a cable that runs to the left side of the front wheel, which the speedo cable screws onto and as your wheel spins this spins making the speedo needle move (aka Mechanical)

 

[Sn34ky]

Donno if it's the same speedo here but here's the wiring diagram, so work with your XS diagram and this one and you'll be able to make it works!