Custom Dash?

[Nate R]

Anyone done their own custom dash? Can someone put up pics of the back of their dash? How did you do the wiring? Lots of connectors? Soldered connections? Heat shrink tubing? Terminal blocks?

[EX#996]

Nate:

What do you really need on a dash?  Tach and perhaps a temp gage?  

Just curious as to what other information would a rider need....

Dawn   :)

[Nate R]

Yep, tach and water temp.
Im gonna wire up an oil and neutral light, and the fuel lights for the SV as well. Also putting the ignition switch there in the form of a toggle switch. I just dunno what method would be best for wiring. All of the connections need a ground, so they're going to the same thing. Dunno if I should use a terminal strip for that, or just solder them all to one wire and put some heat shrink tubing over it, or what. Things like that.  

[EX#996]

Oh...

Dawn   :)

[Nate R]

Well, if not pics, anyone got any suggestions? Also thinking possibly of enclosing the back completely and runnign wires through a few holes with grommets and a bit of silicone to seal it all, Thoughts?

[Zac]

I build a dash for my wife's MZ (just tach, water temp, neutral light, temp light, ign. toggle switch, and a place to stick her lap timer), so here's a few things I learned:

The MZ harness uses the same connector that they sell at radio shack, so I used one of those.  I would use one or two multipin connectors to make it easy to pull the dash for working on the bike.  The pins on these connectors are solder type.  I like to apply silicone to the back of the connector to keep out water and give the wires strain relief.  Don't use epoxy because it makes it really hard to rework the connector if you need to.  

I like to use crimp type terminals at the gauges.  The are more reliable than solder because the solder causes the wire to stiffen and fatigue.  Again, I put a dab of silicone were the wire enters.

Be sure to use a water proof switch for the ignition.  I learned that after a rain race at Firebird.  The switch worked fine that day, but 2 weeks later the contacts inside had corroded and the switch wouldn't work.

Because there weren't too many wires back there, I just loomed them with zip ties, for more wires such as when I rebuilt the gauge harness on my R6, I use a non-adhesive harness tape.  The non-adhesive tape is similar to electrical tape without the adhesive.  I use it because electrical tape tends to get messy after a few months.

For common gounds I bused some to a single pin in the connector, and daisy chained the ground for the gauges.
-z.

[dwilson]

I replaced the ignition switch with a toggle.  I used one from Home Depot with a rubber cover to keep the water out.  

I try to stay away from electrical tape to hold it all together.  It falls apart and looks sloppy.  Heat shrink tubing, plastic conduit or self-fusing silicon tape all work well and are available at Radio Shack. Silicon on the connectors will keep the moisture out, you can also use di-electric grease.