Trail Tech Vapour Tacho for TE449 2013

I tried a few different settings. The best I could get was when the bike started it looked to be ok but, soon as I gave it a bit it was reading too high and changing the settings only made it worse.
With mine i ran the earth a couple of different ways but it makes no difference if its connected or not.

I reconnected (soldered) the red tach lead to the red/black lead going into the coil connector. I connected ground to the engine just behind and below the oil filter housing. Then per Trail Tech recommendations, I set the pulses per revolution to 0.5. I rode the bike to work afterwards and the tachometer appears to be indicating correctly. I only have 10 minutes of ride time on the working tach, but so far so good.

Updated - After riding about 30 minutes the tach went haywire, bouncing all over the place, indicating 10,000+ RPM, and the LEDs were flashing. I reset the Vapor and the erroneous readings came back after a minute or two. Then it just started working again before I shut the motorcycle off. I'll ride it for a week or so and repost my experience, but if anyone has the Vapor tach hooked up and working correctly, PLEASE HELP!

Do you have your tach working yet? Last night I disconnected the tach lead from the coil, bundled up the wires and tucked them away. I don't want to say I gave up, but even Trail Tech can't help. I'm just posting in a couple of forums hoping to find someone who figured it out and can give some instruction.

I am anxious to hear if anyone has gotten the Vapor Trail to work on the TE449. I currently have them in my cart, but do not want to buy them if I can't get the RPM gauge to function. Has anyone tried to connect it to the PC5 -- doesn't that unit have a reading on the RPM's? Seems like this might be an option if you have the PC5...don't know though...

I have not had a chance to do mine yet, I was waiting to see how you went. Evan that's what mine I'd seemed to work for a while then went stupid.

i have it running on my KTM...I did have to change the PPR (I think) settings to .5
just them up, the techs there are very helpful

SOLVED (Well, sort of)

Read in Acewell motorcycle computer install manual that if getting erroneous RPM results when connected to coil, to install a 1M Ohm resistor in the circuit. So that's what I did. I spliced the red line and soldered in a waterproof resistor (remember that I have my red tach lead soldered into the black/red wire off the coil connector). Well, that gave me nothing on the Vapor. So I began experimenting. I figured I added too much resistance, so I jumped the resistor so I'd have a direct connection. The RPMs went haywire. Then I noticed that if I just moved the wire I was using to jump the resistor near the line on the other side of the resistor, I got RPM readings that looked good and stable.

So, my solution was to solder in a wire from one side of the resistor and wrap it around the red wire on the other side (I did strip the end of my jumper wire before I wrapped it around the red Tach lead). See the picture below. It's ugly, but it works. I suspect there is a simpler solution using a smaller resistor, but I only had one size.

I have about 30 minutes on the bike since I got the tachometer working and it's still working great. I'll provide an update in the future if something goes wrong.

I installed mine on the weekend, connected to the coil by carefully stripping back the Red / Black and soldering the red wire from the vapour to it, I then used waterproof tape to seal it up. I connected the black to ground the same way. (Although I might now try and connect to ground somewhere else) I adjusted the PPR to .5 and everything seems to work fine. I did notice that just after I start it the 2 LEDs flash and the Tac then is telling me the Max revs were 15500 so there may be a little interference somewhere. So nice to have a speedo I can see plus engine temp and revs.

Yeah, that's where I started. It work for a little while for me, but then the tach went all over the place and pretty much stayed that way. I think the signal from a direct connection to the coil is too strong for Vapor. If your tach goes haywire, I recommend you get an assortment of resistors and try them until you get the right one inline that gives you consistent RPM readings (something like this - http://www.amazon.com/600-Piece-Res...UTF8&qid=1378921295&sr=8-2&keywords=resistors). My method above is a work-around since I only ordered one size resistor. Anyway, my setup is still working great and I have put about 1-1/2 hours on the motorcycle.

Keep us updated.

Hey everyone. I have been watching this thread for a while and decided it was time for a Tach for my 511. I did not go the trail tech route. I got one that is a completely sealed unit with no wires in or out, and no ground. It works great! It is a Hardline products Hour/Tach. For install I just stripped one end of the wire and stuck it in the plug that goes into the coil/spark plug cap. It is the red/black wire and I just stuck it in the female side and plugged it back in. The indicated RPM were way off at first but after messing with the settings I found that 1P2r was correct for this bike. I immediately found that my idle was a bit too low (~1850) so I adjusted it and took it for a ride. It has worked perfectly with no erroneous readings. It does not plug directly into the meter which is why I don't think it has the issues of giving strange readings after running for a while. If anyone is looking for just a tach that is super easy to install and works great, this one is definitely the way to go. I just velcro-ed it to my handlebar mount below my speedo display so I can still see them both clearly. If you get this tach, DO NOT TRY TO WRAP IT AROUND THE COIL! I wasted 2 hours wrapping it around every part of the coil I could to no avail. Our coil is what they call a pencil type and it says right on the instructions that you have to wrap the wire around the spark plug to get it to work. That is not possible on our bikes, so connecting it to the red/black wire is the only way. I would like to thank everyone on this thread for having all the problems with the trail tech products. You made this purchase/install SO much easier.

I have just installed a Vapour unit on mt 2013 TE 449, got the Tach working by wrapping the sensor wires around the base of the coil - but it is very stiff to get in & out now. has anyone got the neutral light to work?

So your vapour dash is working with the tachometer? I would love to have a tach and temp gauge on my bike....

Sorry about the broken pic link, but my Vapor has been up and running (RPMs) for over a year (for about 1500 miles) directly soldered to the coil lead. I spoke w/ Trail Tech support and they sent me a lead with a smaller resistor in-line, but I haven't tried it. I probably won't try it until my setup quits on me. I recommend you call Trail Tech and have them send you a new RPM line w/ resistor. Good luck.

Bryce:

I am about to try the same thing as you. Would you please provide more detail as to how you wired your tach? If convenient, please post a picture. The thing I'm wondering is how the wire being inserted into the female socket will allow the whole thing to plug back together without interference.

I think the OP was mentioning sliding the wire into the connector where the red/black wire slides into the connector on the back side of the plug. That plug then connects into the coil. The wire insulation should help shield it from interference.

I see. Okay. Thanks.

Ok so I wired in the new rpm sensor wire with resistor and set the ppm to 1/2. The tachometer works perfect now.

The red wire was wired into the red/black and the black wire wired to brown or ground on the side of the engine. Tried to get a better picture but each picture timing was the same. lol Maybe get another one showing a higher rpm later just to demonstrate it working.

Thank you. I've got a duplicate multi-plug coming, so I can wire in the tach lead to the red/black wire. Just waiting for everything to be delivered.

No problem. Thought this needed to be solved and confirmed. To have a nice digital rpm gauge just looking at you every time you ride and not being able to use it was insane. lol