Sluggish gauges

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ob1quixote
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Sluggish gauges

#1

Post by ob1quixote »

On my 79, the temperature, fuel and voltmeter seem to be slow to react to being turned on, or changes.

Say the motor is hot and you kill the motor. 5 minutes later you fire it up and the gauges are slow to show the warm motor.
Same with voltmeter and fuel gauges.

Is my 7V regulator getting soft, or is this how the gauges act normally?
1979 GL1000
2001 DRZ400
1983 CR480
And a few late '60's - early '70's British thumpers
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flyin900
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Re: Sluggish gauges

#2

Post by flyin900 »

The gauges don't react like a modern car and do take a little while to read a "normal" reading. That said they should be showing the correct reading within a minute or less. How do they act when they are at their regular positions when your using the bike for a ride. If they are reading normally when in normal use and just a little slow when first fired up from hot or cold then my experience with my 76 Wing was this was normal.
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: Sluggish gauges

#3

Post by Sidecar Bob »

Slow moving gauges is normal on vehicles of this age. In fact, they were designed that way on purpose.

In galvanometer based (electromagnetic) gauges like your multimeter the needle is attached to a coil mounted on a pivot and between the poles of a fixed magnet so that when current passes through the coil and it produces a magnetic field it moves. Modern automotive meters use electronics to keep the needle steady but that wasn't invented back then so if they used electromagnetic gauges the needle would shake when you revved the engine, bounce around on bumpy roads and even swing from inertia when you turn.

So in order to keep the needles steady they used thermoelectric gauges. In a thermoelectric gauge the needle is connected to a bimetallic strip that passes through a coil of heater wire so that when current passes through the coil it warms the strip, causing it to deflect and move the needle. This produces a very slow moving gauge that gives very steady indications, unaffected by bumps, vibration or inertia.

As I learned when driving my first GoldWing sidecar outfit during a few early '90s winters, they can read lower than normal when the temperatures approach -40 (this would be less of an issue for gauges mounted inside a car where the cabin heater would produce relatively balmy ambient temperatures).
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ob1quixote
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Re: Sluggish gauges

#4

Post by ob1quixote »

Excellent answers! Guess I will consider them normal.
1979 GL1000
2001 DRZ400
1983 CR480
And a few late '60's - early '70's British thumpers
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