Aftermarket fuel warning?

[Artful]

I'm looking at redoing the dash and have all my options laid out for the gauges, etc. But then it hit me... what the hell can I do about low fuel? No reserve tank and no stock cluster leaves that as an interesting dilemma...

The aftermarket stuff has idiot lights for indicators, neutral, brights, and warning, but no fuel. I assume there is a way to wire up low fuel to the warning but then I lose the oil pressure warning and am trying to REDUCE clutter, not add an oil pressure gauge.

So, anyone out there with some experience or am I pretty much tied to using the trip odo to calculate fuel with aftermarket gauges?

[Monstermash]

I considered doing aftermarket gauges on my 996 and I had the same concern. I was going to use the check engine light on the new dash for the low fuel indicator. If something happens to trip your check light, there's a good chance your going to know about it before or as the check light would come on anyway.

[Artful]

The check engine light doesn't concern me really, that's nothing more than 'check emissions' as much as it is a check engine. The oil pressure light though, that's critical IMHO. Even my old '77 Sportster that only had a speedo and a tach that barely worked had an oil pressure light mounted prominently on the top of the headlight.

You can lose oil pressure quickly, without warning, and have only a small window to kill the motor. I don't want to trust feel and my ears on that one.

[ChrisH]

I'd love an actual fuel gauge instead of just a warning light. Is there a sender unit at all, or is it something else that trips the low level warning? I have a 696 by the way. Id like to use a fuel gauge that is made by koso:

[Artful]

A fuel gauge would be infinitely more involved to hook up. I'm taking a wild stab at this but I'd put good money to say the fuel idiot light is just that, a on/off measure of resistance, not a linear sender.

[Drunken Monkey]

A fuel gauge would be infinitely more involved to hook up. I'm taking a wild stab at this but I'd put good money to say the fuel idiot light is just that, a on/off measure of resistance, not a linear sender.

You are correct sir. The stock sensor basically allows a current to pass once the fuel is below a certain level (what that level is seems to vary quite a bit, even between bikes of the same model)

I have the same issue on my bike (I have a motogadget gauge) and I think I'm just going to wire it up to the universal warning light on the gauge.

[greenohawk69]

I have an Acewell speedo/tach combo that also includes an indicator for fuel.  Unfortunately for me, it just blinks on / off as my '97 M900 does not provide what the fuel level is. 

[Artful]

Had a feeling, they don't put linear senders on anything if they don't have to.

So then next question... how in the hell do you isolate the fuel warning wires from the stock dash? I'm going to go ahead and assume again that it's coming off of an IC and isn't just a straight wire off of the ECU or tank sender? If it's just a wire from a sender it can't be that hard, but if it's off an IC you would almost have to keep the stock cluster guts and run a wire from the board.

If I can figure that part out I'll just drill the top of the triple and tap in an LED housing for a single red blinky for oil pressure and use the warning light for fuel.

Oh electronics how I loathe thee. There is an old joke I used to drop on my buddies as they chased the dragon with their old MGs and Triumphs...

"Why do the British drink their beer warm?"

"Because Lucas also makes refrigerators"

Ba-dum-ching.

[Drunken Monkey]

Between this post and your other post, you need to get a wiring diagram for your bike.

It'll show you the connectors, wire colors and everything.

Do what I did and take the PDF of the owner's manual down to kinkos and have them blow it up to poster sized.



Invaluable for projects like this: http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=40299.0 

[Artful]

I'm in the signs and graphics industry by trade, why stop at 11x17 when I can print it in house up to ten feet wide

[Speeddog]

I think if it was a real clear C-size copy, it'd be perfect.

Any drawing bigger than C is a PITA to use.

You should be able to chase the wire color at the level sender connector up to the dash, IMO.

[Drunken Monkey]

Speedog's probably right about the size, but I wanted it readable from 8 feet away 

[J5]

Had a feeling, they don't put linear senders on anything if they don't have to.

So then next question... how in the hell do you isolate the fuel warning wires from the stock dash? I'm going to go ahead and assume again that it's coming off of an IC and isn't just a straight wire off of the ECU or tank sender? If it's just a wire from a sender it can't be that hard, but if it's off an IC you would almost have to keep the stock cluster guts and run a wire from the board.

If I can figure that part out I'll just drill the top of the triple and tap in an LED housing for a single red blinky for oil pressure and use the warning light for fuel.

Oh electronics how I loathe thee. There is an old joke I used to drop on my buddies as they chased the dragon with their old MGs and Triumphs...

"Why do the British drink their beer warm?"

"Because Lucas also makes refrigerators"

Ba-dum-ching.

you could go direct to the source , at the tank