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Old July 2nd, 2018, 12:41 PM   #1
Cep
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Name: Colin
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Tach light intermittent but mostly off. Plus battery question

Hi again!

So my tach bulb went out the other night.
I notice sometimes if i tap the glass ( at idle) the light comes back on. But goes out after pulling away from stop.

So i decided to first check the battery voltages.
These are the readings connected to bike:

After sitting 12 hours:
12.95v

starting:
12.5v

Revved to 4k:
14.3v ?? Is this too high?

Other thing i noticed is the guages SLIGHTLY dim when press brake lever. and slightly get brighter when on throttle. Also seems like headlight intensity is very slightly changing at idle.

Any thoughts?
Maybe regulator?
Or is all this normal besides the tach light?

Thx again
-Colin
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Old July 2nd, 2018, 09:11 PM   #2
greg737
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Those voltage readings are fine.

An EX250 sitting at idle at a stoplight is the worst voltage situation: not generating a lot of power but having a lot of draw put on the system (headlight, running lights, all brake light bulbs at their "high" 2-filament setting because you're holding the brake "on", maybe even a turn signal flashing...). EX250s all do that dimming thing under these conditions.

As to the instrument lighting, if you've got just one single little light that's intermittent I'd bet on it being a bad bulb (one that is somehow not up to the normal quality standard you find in motorcycles, they normally last many years). In the case of just a single light bulb going intermittent or quitting completely I'd get a few replacement bulbs (I always replace old motorcycle instrument bulbs with more modern LED versions). Although it could be the problem bulb simply isn't seated properly or secured properly in its holder.

If you have a whole area of the instrument panel going dark (like the entire tachometer gauge which probably has 3 or 4 small bulbs around/behind it), meaning you've got several bulbs going dim or quitting all at once (hard to tell what's actually happening from your description) I'd be checking the power and grounding connections on the backside of the instrument cluster.

If you remove the surrounding fairing/windshield and then loosen the instrument cluster nuts you'll be able to access the backside of the cluster. You'll see that the lighting is really pretty simple.

If this bike is always parked outside in the weather there could be some corrosion developing in some of the connector plugs. Any connector plug that regularly gets wet can corrode, but especially any connectors that see water/dampness plus high voltage current will be the first to corrode, the worst tends to be the 3-wire (3 yellow wires) connector plug that carries the 3 phases of AC power generated by the rotor/stator to the regulator/rectifier.

And, it doesn't matter how much power your rotor/stator is generating if the bike's main ground is messed up or loose. The bolt that secures the main electrical system ground wire needs to be clean and properly torqued. The threads in the engine block that this bolt screws into also needs to be clean for proper grounding. If you don't know where this ground is located just follow the big black wire from the battery negative pole, it will lead you right to the main ground.
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Old July 3rd, 2018, 08:17 AM   #3
Cep
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Thx Greg!
Ya the entire tach guage goes completely dark. And the guage lights up, sometimes. I didn't realize it was multiple bulbs for each guage.
BTW, i am still unsure of this question, can i just swap in LEDs in place of these dash bulbs or would i need to add anything?

Thx
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Old July 3rd, 2018, 08:49 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by Cep View Post
Thx Greg!
Ya the entire tach guage goes completely dark. And the guage lights up, sometimes. I didn't realize it was multiple bulbs for each guage.
BTW, i am still unsure of this question, can i just swap in LEDs in place of these dash bulbs or would i need to add anything?

Thx
Yes, they make LED bulbs that are direct-fit replacements for the old-school incandescent bulbs that came in the instrument lighting from the factory.

You just have to remove the old ones and take a close look at them then compare to what's available from an LED seller like SuperBrightLEDs.com https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/...-gauge-lights/.

Sometimes the bulb type (designation) for each type of bulb in the bike is listed in the motorcycle's Service Manual.
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Old July 3rd, 2018, 10:50 AM   #5
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My back lighting used to do that also. Turned out the wire contact on my bulb was juuuuuuuuust barely making contact with the socket. Removed the bulb, bent the little contact out a little, stuck it back in the socket. Problem solved.

but if you're going that far... might as well replace them all while you're in there and you won't have to do it again for a long time. LED's work great, but I found it best to modify the little diffuser buckets that the bulb sits in for good even light distribution.
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Old July 3rd, 2018, 05:24 PM   #6
1994Ninja250F
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Just something interesting to note, I get more voltage at idle than I do while actually riding. I check my electrical system every 2 months with a multimeter as part of routine maintenance.

At idle I get 14.4V and at 6000RPM and up I get a steady 13.8V. All within limits, but strange it actually puts out less at higher RPM.
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