volt meter?

[train460]

long story short. Replaced wifes rectifier last year with a NEW one from e-bay. see them all the time. also replaced her battery with a dry cell knockoff that was recomended awhile back. less than a year later her bike is dead, jumped but is dead.
Ater Rusty and i do some checking turns out the rectifier is pumping out about 17+ volts. So we replace with a R1 rectifier, mounted under the rear seat and i pull out the battery and low and behold that damn thing has swelled up like a overfed yorkie. was tough getting it out of the battery box.
So now what i am looking for is a small, round volt meter that i can mount on the bars area. A small auto one will work. Does anyone else have something similar on there bikes to monitor volts?
thanks
Michael

 

[tonyg-5386]

When I suspected my bike was having voltage issues I went to an autoparts store and bought a "cigarette lighter" type dc receptacle and wired it to my battery. I mounted it above the gauge cluster with velcro. I think it cost about $6. I then bought a plug in voltmeter for it so I can monitor the voltage while riding. I like having the dc receptacle on the bike for charging my cell phone and you can even use it for your gps if you have one. I attached 2 pictures. The fancy red led voltmeter I bought years ago for my car. It was expensive ($50 at the time). The plain readout one is made by vector and I got it for $11 on ebay. It is dimly backlit but is readable at night. Someone on ebay also sells marine grade handlebar mount dc receptacles. A little expensive but heavy duty and they look well made.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vector-VEC008-D...235?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25595ecdc3

http://cgi.ebay.com/Motorcycle-12V-...225?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c4996f41

 

[SpecOps13]

Very Cool Idea. I like it.....

 

[Bill Seward]

Kuryakin sells a small LED voltmeter. Uses a row of colored LEDs to indicate system voltage. It's about 1.5" by 1" in size. I have one stuck to my right scoop, and it seems to work fine. After replacing the R/R unit with a more modern design, and doing the GoldWing battery mod, my Max always runs in the green (ok) area.

Available online for about $30.00.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Michael, have you looked through all of Brians stuff, he was crazy about these kind of goodies???

 

[old timer]

Kuryakin sells a small LED voltmeter. Uses a row of colored LEDs to indicate system voltage. It's about 1.5" by 1" in size. I have one stuck to my right scoop, and it seems to work fine. After replacing the R/R unit with a more modern design, and doing the GoldWing battery mod, my Max always runs in the green (ok) area.

Available online for about $30.00.

+1...have the same one...foolproof...just a glance and you know exactly what's happening . unk:

 

[Rusty McNeil]

+1...have the same one...foolproof...just a glance and you know exactly what's happening . unk:

They certainly install cleanly and look well done, have you ever tested it for accuracy????

 

[train460]

i am looking for either an analog one or maybe a LED. not sure if a LED will be seen in the sunlight tho.
Michael

 

[old timer]

i am looking for either an analog one or maybe a LED. not sure if a LED will be seen in the sunlight tho.
Michael

Yes

 

[dannymax]

I have one of these velcro'd to the right scoop....it was a temp install, to see how it worked and if I liked it.....and has been there for 3 years!

http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-SVMR-...GBWE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306768771&sr=8-2

Maybe someday I'll do a permanent install! :confused2:

But it works fine, I don't even bother to remove it when I wash the bike anymore.

 

[RaWarrior]

I have one of those Kurayakan ones sitting on the shelves in the shop. I had installed it on my Max, but every place I tried for "keyed power" was a victim of the bike's shitty, lossy harness. I'd test 14.4 volts across the battery, but only around 13 by the time it gets to the tail light power, so it would always show yellows or flick (quite annoyingly at night) between yellow and the first green.

On my Magna I had two greens all the time.

 

[KJShover]

I have a small digital one sitting on my desk. I've been procrastinating its installation for a while now, one of these day's I'm going to get off my lazy ass and get it done.

I got it for $23 from here. This is a picture of how I'm hoping it will look after the install.