Tachometer interchangeability (Honda)

**lanci** · 9th July 2007, 22:12

Wow what a mother farking mouthful!!!

Anyway I have a Hornet 250 and was wondering what tacho's would be compatible with it (gauge cluster is missing). I was thinking a cbr250rr or the like but am not sure as I am not too sure how the tacho on a hornet is picked up (electrical or gear driven???)

Please help!!!

Cheers,

Lance

**delusionz** · 9th July 2007, 22:24

Tachometers are run by spark pulse. I don't think a CBR tach would physically fit in place of your Hornet's tach either, though it would work if you could mount it.

**xwhatsit** · 9th July 2007, 22:27

I'm pretty sure Hornet tachs are electrical, rather than from a cable off the camshaft; but I'm just going from memory off GiJoe1313's bike.

Hornet and CBR250 engines are the same thing, really, so it's possible they do it the same way.

If you can't find anything, it would be worth calling up the guys at www.econohonda.co.nz ; normally they specialise in more elderly Hondas, but it's possible they could have a Hornet instrument cluster for you.

**lanci** · 9th July 2007, 22:29

It's missing all the original mounts so I would need to fabricate a mount.

So there should be a wire off the loom to hook up a tacho to? And I guess some sort of calibration would be required?

**lanci** · 9th July 2007, 22:33

All the wreckers have been really shit. I've asked if they have any in stock, they don't which isn't a surprise but when I ask if they'd be able to get one in or quote they all say there are not looking at getting one in for a while

**xwhatsit** · 9th July 2007, 22:34

You shouldn't need any calibration, considering it's electronic; it'll simply count how many times it sparks in a second and figure it out from that. I would think the CBR250 gauges would work perfectly, but mounting them might be tricky as they're off a faired bike and yours is naked.

Fabricating a mount; I'm doing that now with a speedo

.

EDIT: Oh yes, bear in mind that the CBR250 gauges, if they do work, will have the redline shown as being a bit higher than the Hornet. The Hornet's redline is a little lower, isn't it?

**ZeroIndex** · 9th July 2007, 22:55

On the subject of Tacho's. what's the easiest way to change a tacho from black to white?

**xwhatsit** · 9th July 2007, 23:08

I want to do this with the speedo I have. Don't know what yours is like, but mine is the old-style round clock type thing. What I'm going to do is take the top glass and bezel off it, leaving the face exposed. Will then stick the whole clock onto a scanner so I get an accurate and to-scale picture of it; will then draw the new speedo face up on the computer, and get it printed professionally on some thick glossy paper at a printers.

Placing it onto the speedo might be tricky; the needle will be a pain in the neck, but I want to change the needle too (from orange to just plain black or white depending on what colour the background is), so I may have to remove it anyway.

**ZeroIndex** · 9th July 2007, 23:28

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

I want to do this with the speedo I have. Don't know what yours is like, but mine is the old-style round clock type thing. What I'm going to do is take the top glass and bezel off it, leaving the face exposed. Will then stick the whole clock onto a scanner so I get an accurate and to-scale picture of it; will then draw the new speedo face up on the computer, and get it printed professionally on some thick glossy paper at a printers.

Placing it onto the speedo might be tricky; the needle will be a pain in the neck, but I want to change the needle too (from orange to just plain black or white depending on what colour the background is), so I may have to remove it anyway.

Let me know HOW you remove the glass and bezel... that's the part that I gave up on last time...

**sAsLEX** · 10th July 2007, 04:28

Originally Posted by ZeroIndex

On the subject of Tacho's. what's the easiest way to change a tacho from black to white?

Paint.?

But rather than paper getting it done in vinyl say from someone like MTRS as once you've opened it water is likely to ingress and make paper poo so a vinyl adhesive sticker thing would be the way to go I reckon........

**imdying** · 10th July 2007, 08:51

I had a place in town print a new face onto 3M vinyl using UV resistant dye. Just drew the dials I wanted in a vector arts package, exported as a BMP, touched up in photoshop, and then took the pics to the printer on disc.

**lanci** · 11th July 2007, 20:28

Should there be a single wire from the loom to hook-up? I don't know as the bike only came with a speedometer.

**sAsLEX** · 12th July 2007, 01:48

Originally Posted by lanci

Should there be a single wire from the loom to hook-up? I don't know as the bike only came with a speedometer.

Yes, what sort of bike

go here http://www.ecliptech.com.au/main_win_sep06.html and look under the instructions for this product for your bike, it will tell what wire you are after