Real Head-Scratcher - Tach Signal Victory

[ChopperDoc]

I went down to a friends shop to install a tach on one of his customer's bikes that he was having problems with.

2004 Victory Vegas, Baron tach.

The Victory has a single-fire ignition and the Baron tach requires a converter to be wired into the circuit.

We had the tach and the single-fire converter and wired everything up per the instructions - Tach lights up, but taky no worky.

Called Baron and they told me that if I got it to work on a Victory, I would be the first one to do it. They didn't know why it won't work, it just doesn't.

There is nothing I can see in the ignition circuit that would prevent it from working. It has two wires going to each coil, a common positive and a negative for the front coil and one for the rear.

The coils are in a constant state of charge until they receive their negative signal which discharges the coil to the plug and bang the plug fires.

Baron said they had called Victory to ask what they are doing different that their tachs won't work on Victory bikes. Victory said they sold a tach for their bikes and had no interest in helping any competition. I guess I can understand their point, what I can't understand is that an ignition circuit is not rocket science but I am stumped as to why it won't work

Any ideas???

 

[glider]

JMHO I thing this may be a problem. You need a control device to separate the two coils.

a common positive and a negative for the front coil and one for the rear.

 

[ChopperDoc]

JMHO I thing this may be a problem. You need a control device to separate the two coils.

The single-fire converter does that. It has a seperate connection for the front and rear coils and converts it to a signal the tach can read and that is what it does on every other single fire they have tried it on, except for Victory's bikes.

Baron has a whole list of bikes that it has worked on including metrics and many of the custom manufacturers that have opted to use single-fire ignition systems.

I am wondering if they are somehow firing the coils with a digital signal and there is no real "ground" signal coming through the wiring for the Baron system to "count".

Anyway, I don't like being stumped so I have ordered a tach from Victory. Once I have their wiring diagram and tach in hand, I can figure out what is what in the ignition circuit. It should be apparant in the wiring diagram where they are getting the data stream for the tach. If not, I am willing to sacrifice the tach to science (read, bull-headed).

I'll post an update after the surgery.......

 

[oiler]

I had a 2006 Victory Cory Ness Jackpot a few years back. Installed Victory's tach and it was a direct plug in - in the head light. Nice tach, same size as the speedo and comes with a new bracket to hold speedo and tach. The tach had a green light letting you know when you were in 6th gear.

 

[ChopperDoc]

Oiler - Did the instruction sheet that came with the Tach have a wiring diagram or just plug "A" into "B"? Do you remember how many wires were running from the Tach? Was there a vacant plug-in in the headlight housing or did the Tach piggy-back on an existing connector? Thanks for the tip.

So much for Father's day plans - I'm back on the hunt!!!!!

 

[ChopperDoc]

Got the Victory tach in today and found out what we were doing wrong. We were trying to get the tach signal from the coil, as this is how most tachs are wired up. Victory's tach signal comes direct from the ECM, located in the headlight housing. The Victory is a dual-fire ignition system.

Anyone wanting to use a non-Victory tach on their Victory, here is how to do it.

Inside of the headlight housing is a three-prong, female connector. The pink wire is 12 volt positive, the black wire is negative/ground and the green/white is tach signal (from the ECM). If your tach has an indicator for overdrive, connect that wire to the black/yellow in the main harness (also located in the headlight housing).

 

[harleypr]

I appreciate a motivated person who will not let a problem stop them. Thank you for passing on the info because just by chance a friend just purchased a Victory at the local dealer.