Speedometer acting wiggy and field calibration test results problematic

[Nomad2day]

2007 Bulldog EFI
I replaced the old speedometer because the trip button broke off and fell in the housing binding the needle.
I bought a new speedometer pick up sensor and a new speedometer from Shovelheadkicker a few months back and it had the factory pulse count on it. I have about 310 miles on it now. The pick up sensor is a 804122-04 MIS Rev A 7/9/04
Problem:
After installation it seem to work alright. Did not ride much because of Tennessee winter weather.
After I started riding the speedometer would be registering about 70 and then just drop down to about 30 mph when I let off the gas. Sometimes it would not start registering any speed until about 20-30 mph. It just seems it has a mind of it's own. It just drifts and kinda bounces around.
Calibration:
I followed the calibration procedure in the manual for a 2 mile run.
Bike off, hold the trip odometer, turn bike on, full sweep, press again and it goes to half sweep.
Drive 2 miles by road markers, stop and the pulse count is only 67350 not the 98880 or so the manual says it should be. Press the trip odometer and it goes to zero and I ride off. At what appears to be about 45 mph it is showing 70-80 mph.
I do the test 3 or 4 times to the same results......
What is going on is my question to the others that have performed this test...
Do I have the wrong pick up sensor?
Speedometer a POS....
registering in kilometers?
or something else...
Thanks in advance....
Neil

 

[Raywood]

2007 Bulldog EFI
I replaced the old speedometer because the trip button broke off and fell in the housing binding the needle.
I bought a new speedometer pick up sensor and a new speedometer from Shovelheadkicker a few months back and it had the factory pulse count on it. I have about 310 miles on it now. The pick up sensor is a 804122-04 MIS Rev A 7/9/04
Problem:
After installation it seem to work alright. Did not ride much because of Tennessee winter weather.
After I started riding the speedometer would be registering about 70 and then just drop down to about 30 mph when I let off the gas. Sometimes it would not start registering any speed until about 20-30 mph. It just seems it has a mind of it's own. It just drifts and kinda bounces around.
Calibration:
I followed the calibration procedure in the manual for a 2 mile run.
Bike off, hold the trip odometer, turn bike on, full sweep, press again and it goes to half sweep.
Drive 2 miles by road markers, stop and the pulse count is only 67350 not the 98880 or so the manual says it should be. Press the trip odometer and it goes to zero and I ride off. At what appears to be about 45 mph it is showing 70-80 mph.
I do the test 3 or 4 times to the same results......
What is going on is my question to the others that have performed this test...
Do I have the wrong pick up sensor?
Speedometer a POS....
registering in kilometers?
or something else...
Thanks in advance....
Neil

Neil, I had lots of problems with these (10 of them) and they are really effected by the starting procedure hence the EHC flash that cause the speedo to reboot after the bike is started. Have you had this flash done? Do you still have the EHC?
Also, Autometer changed the calibration procedure a couple years ago for the newer models. They are really helpful when you call them as I did after I changed the face on mine.

:2thumbs:

 

[07bigdog]

70km is 45mph. You have it set in kilometers.

 

[Nomad2day]

Neil, I had lots of problems with these (10 of them) and they are really effected by the starting procedure hence the EHC flash that cause the speedo to reboot after the bike is started. Have you had this flash done? Do you still have the EHC?
Also, Autometer changed the calibration procedure a couple years ago for the newer models. They are really helpful when you call them as I did after I changed the face on mine.

:2thumbs:

No Ray,
No EHC..
I put a Thunderheart micro controller in a couple years ago.....
I will have to call them...
I am wondering if I have the correct pick up Ray..

07bigdog,
It did not register like that until I did the calibration...

 

[Raywood]

No Ray,
No EHC..
I put a Thunderheart micro controller in a couple years ago.....
I will have to call them...
I am wondering if I have the correct pick up Ray..

07bigdog,
It did not register like that until I did the calibration...

I'm not positive but I think all the pick ups are the same except for maybe the wiring length.

 

[BigDogBro1]

I was just wondering this evening about the BDM speedo dual power reset controlled by the BDM EHC, and will it now work correctly since the Wire+ conversion which doesn't do it now.

Sounds like its setup for km not miles.

 

[Nomad2day]

I was just wondering this evening about the BDM speedo dual power reset controlled by the BDM EHC, and will it now work correctly since the Wire+ conversion which doesn't do it now.

Sounds like its setup for km not miles.

So how do you go from kilometers to mph anyway or vice versa...

 

[BigDogBro1]

So how do you go from kilometers to mph anyway or vice versa...

A 98880 for two miles is correct.

When you press and release the trip set button the display will show 49440 which is 1/2 98880 and correctly calibrated.

Could be the speedo pick-up missing some pulses. Check the wires and clean pick-up face.

Try going three miles to calibrate it closer to the 98880 pulses.

 

[Nomad2day]

I did check the pick up before I started and made sure it was connected good before I did the test. It was clean and relatively new anyway. No marks on it at all unlike the old one. I did try going further but had to turn so I could not go to the next marker but I was looking to get to the pulse count I needed.
How do you go from Kilometers to miles on the speedometer I would like to know anyway. Perhaps one of our Canadian brothers can enlighten me. I will look in the manual again though...
Thanks BigDogBro1for your insight as well.....

I will get a DD speedometer soon anyway but want to make sure I do not have something else going on first....
Thanks,
Neil

 

[Nukeranger]

I noted my speedometer didn't work and figured I needed a reflash but instead bought a new battery (Braile). No problems since I installed the new battery so in the future, I plan to use this to remind me to get a new battery (vice reflash). What I did was start my bike, warm it up, shut it down and restart. This told me the voltage was dropping too low on initial start-up when cold.

Just a thought but I have found that some mile markers are off and use the trusty old gps.

In reality, I bet it is your speedometer

 

[Raywood]

I did check the pick up before I started and made sure it was connected good before I did the test. It was clean and relatively new anyway. No marks on it at all unlike the old one. I did try going further but had to turn so I could not go to the next marker but I was looking to get to the pulse count I needed.
How do you go from Kilometers to miles on the speedometer I would like to know anyway. Perhaps one of our Canadian brothers can enlighten me. I will look in the manual again though...
Thanks BigDogBro1for your insight as well.....

I will get a DD speedometer soon anyway but want to make sure I do not have something else going on first....
Thanks,
Neil

http://www.bigdogbiker.com/forums/general/26818-speedometer.html

 

[Nomad2day]

http://www.bigdogbiker.com/forums/general/26818-speedometer.html

Tried that Raywood and no red dot.
Held it for a while.
So how do you put it in one mode or the other?
Neil

 

[Raywood]

Tried that Raywood and no red dot.
Held it for a while.
So how do you put it in one mode or the other?
Neil

Humm, sounds like it may have some internal issues. Like Chacha's thead where he pulled his apart and one of the wires was broken loose and he soldered it back on.
Again, I would call Autometer cause they changed the calibration and other functions from my manual states.

 

[07bigdog]

I run mine in mph.

 

[Mojo]

2007 Bulldog EFI
After I started riding the speedometer would be registering about 70 and then just drop down to about 30 mph when I let off the gas. Sometimes it would not start registering any speed until about 20-30 mph. It just seems it has a mind of it's own. It just drifts and kinda bounces around.

Since it drops like that it wasn't a calibration issue. It is a signal issue. The pickup you have in it should work. It is only counting teeth. There are sensors with different reaches, but it wouldn't work at all or fit right if that was the case. Like Ray said, there could be a wire coming loose from inside the speedo. Carefully remove the plastic nut on the back of the speedo and check it. Could also be the power or ground to the sensor, the signal wire from the sensor to speedo, or the speedo sensor even though it is new. You will have to recalibrate it after fixing the problem. You were calibrating it right, but with the signal messing up it gave it the wrong pulse count.

FYI-The EHC flash mentioned on this thread only cuts the power to the speedo while starting. If the battery is low, the voltage drops too much and the speedo gets stupid. The needle would not move at all while riding if this happened. You could stop after riding, start it back up, and it would work. That is in the speedo itself. As long as the battery is close to full charge(12.8v+), the flash doesn't matter. Bikes without EHC's can have the same problem if the batery is low.

 

[BigDogBro1]

The Autometer speedo is a stepper motor driven unit. The EHC flash update is done so the speedo gets another power cycle (reset) after the bike starts up. This was done to hold off the speedo power up reset operation until the starting load was removed and the battery voltage recovered to a level that would allow correct speedo operation before powering up the speedo electronics.

Some low voltage condition speedo processor resets can cause the speedo to operate but have the needle in the wrong position or possible irratic operation.

I am not aware if a Wire+ unit can provide a speedo power cycle thus possibly again allowing potential speedo startup issues. It would be a good thing if they could with the current units.

IMO...Restarting the bike to fix the speedo without the EHC 2nd reset is not going to reliably reset the speedo due to the same condition as earlier.

As the battery condition degrades over time the speedo problem may become more evident.

Several workarounds to solve this issue are available.

 

[Nomad2day]

Since it drops like that it wasn't a calibration issue. It is a signal issue. The pickup you have in it should work. It is only counting teeth. There are sensors with different reaches, but it wouldn't work at all or fit right if that was the case. Like Ray said, there could be a wire coming loose from inside the speedo. Carefully remove the plastic nut on the back of the speedo and check it. Could also be the power or ground to the sensor, the signal wire from the sensor to speedo, or the speedo sensor even though it is new. You will have to recalibrate it after fixing the problem. You were calibrating it right, but with the signal messing up it gave it the wrong pulse count.

FYI-The EHC flash mentioned on this thread only cuts the power to the speedo while starting. If the battery is low, the voltage drops too much and the speedo gets stupid. The needle would not move at all while riding if this happened. You could stop after riding, start it back up, and it would work. That is in the speedo itself. As long as the battery is close to full charge(12.8v+), the flash doesn't matter. Bikes without EHC's can have the same problem if the batery is low.

I will open it up and take a look.....
I like taking things apart..
Neil

 

[pknowles]

No Ray,
No EHC..
I put a Thunderheart micro controller in a couple years ago.....
I will have to call them...
I am wondering if I have the correct pick up Ray..

07bigdog,
It did not register like that until I did the calibration...

Does your low fuel light work with the thunderheart micro controller, not related to your issues but with the wire plus install.