Temperature guage

[Andrew2]

  So while riding along yesterday I look down at my temperature gauge and notice it's way in the red. Mmmm,thinks I,that's interesting. The bike doesn't seem to be overheating. It's warm,yes, but they are a hot bike to ride so I decided that it was probably a faulty gauge or sender unit. So this morning when the bike was stone cold I turned on the ignition and this is what I got.


  Ignition OFF



  Ignition ON



  While out riding with a hot engine



  The gauge starts at the 3/4 mark when cold before I even start the engine and rises to the red when hot. It sometimes just stays in the middle of the red zone but get's there regardless. So I'm assuming it's not over heating. The temperature light has never come on or the fan for that matter but I haven't been sitting in traffic or anything like that.
  I want to get everything on this girl working as it should but I'm not very clued up on electrical. Again I spent a lot of time reading threads last night before posting this up and my guess is the sender unit but am unsure which type of sender or if it's even a sender for sure. Maybe it's the gauge?. Any help would be appreciated. And please make it simple,electrics confuse me :hehehe .


  Cheers
  Andrew

[Enfield]

Hi
 I had the same issue on my Land Rover.... turned out it was the Earth Lead that had a bad connection. I guess it wouldn't harm going over them.
Regards
Christian


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[Andrew2]

  Thanks Christian, i'll check it out.

  Cheers
  Andrew

[rbm]

Check and clean all the electrical plugs in the cabling between the sensor and the gauge.  They do tend to corrode and, when that happens, improper signals will be sent to the gauge.  Use a good contact cleaner like Deoxit and reconnect the connectors several times so that the wiping action cleans off the crud.


The gauge should operate in the mark with the white dot normally and the fan should come on when it reaches the red dot.

[Andrew2]

  Thanks Robert,
    sounds like a plan. I did notice this morning when I turned the ignition on when the bike was cold that the needle was between the white and red dot like your photo instead of starting on the 3/4 mark so "maybe" it'll right itself the more I ride it. I'll get myself some contact cleaner like Deoxit ( expensive here ) and go through the whole bike. It hasn't done a lot of work so I'm guessing there might be some corrosion in some of the connections. The fuel gauge wasn't working at first either then it got erratic and now seems to have settled down nicely so things may start working properly with a bit of use. Bikes don't like not being used regularly.

  Cheers
  Andrew

[Laitch]

It might be helpful to determine if the fan functions at all. You've written that you haven't heard it run. To determine if it operates correctly, it should turn on after 15 minutes or so of idling from a cold start. You can also test it electrically for function. Read this post and the posts following it.

If you can reach it with a dowel, try to rotate it to determine if it moves easily.

[Andrew2]

It might be helpful to determine if the fan functions at all. You've written that you haven't heard it run. To determine if it operates correctly, it should turn on after 15 minutes or so of idling from a cold start. You can also test it electrically for function. Read this post and the posts following it.

If you can reach it with a dowel, try to rotate it to determine if it moves easily.

  I haven't yet but I haven't been in a situation where it would come on yet either. I'll try the idle test and also those other tests in the link. Thanks for that. Man, have I done some reading over the last week or so :deal: .


  Cheers
  Andrew

[Laitch]

I haven't yet but I haven't been in a situation where it would come on yet either.

Unless you've had previous experience with K-bikes, it might be premature to decide that. It's best to check it for function now.  Temps like you had Sunday, Monday and yesterday are enough to trigger the fan when idling during riding.