A V7 III Carbon becomes more Special, or racier

[DoubleGuzzi]

After a few trials and errors, I've managed to reduce my OCD tendencies that little bit further.
Anyone notice the difference here? (Rhetorical.)


I started off with an Aliexpress presumed copy of an AMP Superseal 26 way 4 slot connector (with pins) for £6.01 inclusive. This compares to connector only at around £20 to £70 (!) from other suppliers, albeit likely genuine items. Note that the speedo connector though similar, only has three slots.
I dug out an old BMW F650GS loom from the back of the garage and chose a section that had enough (too many) wires, though with near matching colours available, to existing loom. I hauled out the excess wires, leaving a loose outer sheath. Then the white/yellow and yellow leads were removed to make the a twisted pair for Canbus purposes - the now loose sheath made cable reinsertion easier.
I don't have a crimping tool small enough for the pins but I don't get on well with crimping tools anyway. After a few attempts with much gnashing of teeth and choice phrases, I managed to crimp the 5 required pins onto the wires. The pins are a close tolerance fit and the crimping needs to end up as circular as possible. The full amount of pins (26) are supplied and I only needed to scrap one.


With some patience and the use of a thin screwdriver, I managed to squeeze the opposite end of this new sub-loom through the existing (peeled back/slid down) rubber boot. I carefully pared the insulation on the existing leads to expose approx. 2mm of wire and soldered on the new wires to closely match the appropriate colours. Very fiddly work but doable. Space is limited here, so automotive cable joiners likely won't fit unless the rubber boot is dispensed with. As a fallback, I thought of using uninsulated inline crimp joiners, angled to suit. Just as fiddly was wrapping each of the newly joined leads with small sections of insulating tape. Here's the result, almost looking OEM, if not for a second rubber boot - I used copious amount of petroleum jelly to fill/cover the unused pins, just to help prevent moisture ingress.


Figuring out the actual wiring up is simple enough with each wire going to the same place on both connectors.

[Kev m]

Better you than me, but well done.

I think I'm going to keep my "tach-less". 

[Vagrant]

The fork kit is what I see that's important. Who's?

[DoubleGuzzi]

The primary reason for posting this thread is to let others know that it is possible to convert your single instrument (Stone, Carbon) to the dual cluster found on Special, Racer and Milano models - possibly others that I haven't 'inspected' closely enough eg. Anniversario.

A few additional notes. Hopefully this will allow others to not go down the wrong rabbit/gopher holes etc.

IF, I had studied the appropriate wiring looms before starting, then I'd have been much better informed and wise. Easy with hindsight.

Originally, in my ignorance I purchased through eBay V7 Special instruments that have a single input port. This was for the older models only and although the connector matches that of the V7 III speedo, it will not function fully - this I discovered later, as below. The price was excellent and I was too quick to jump at the chance: a near impulse buy, as I had been looking at aftermarket/3rd party options for a tach. In short, match the cluster to the same model series that you intend to replace. Others here likely know whether the I & II ranges are the same, in terms of instrumentation.

Up popped a V7 III Special loom at considerable cost and after some soul searching I grabbed that, thinking it would save me cutting into existing loom. First issue is that I noted the dual (different) instrument connectors. Drat (and words to that effect)! I powered up the clocks above, confirming the super low mileage and the lack of many functions/indicators. Well that ain't great beginnings to the project. There's more! 

I got more than expected cash for doing some web work, so..
From the same seller (breaker) as the loom, I purchased the matching instrument cluster. It cost considerably more than the previous attempt but I managed to negotiate them for £300 - Ouch! Once again, with super low mileage. Now I can marry the replacement loom to the replacement clocks..

Unless you intend to strip down the bike for other reasons and/or split the engine from the frame, I strongly advise NOT to attempt to replace the main wiring loom on the V7 III. The plastic holder makes it a nightmare to remove, even when releasing items such as the ignition coils. After spending too long disconnecting everything, I spent as long connecting it all back up again. I inspected the way that the dual instrument connectors entered the loom and decided to make my own equivalent. Note that this loom doesn't have a rubber boot on either instrument connector.
I returned the unused intended replacement loom, for a refund minus the postage cost. That lessened to hit on doing this project.

One risk that I did take that I wasn't sure of the outcome, was that of the ECU. I didn't know if it would be coded to work "out of the box" i.e. was the same firmware used for all the V7 III series. With MG anything's possible! I'm dumbfounded as to why they use a different loom on the Stone, compared to the Special, when they could just leave the rev counter connector unused, as they do with about three other connectors (for optional kit). Seems like an unnecessary complication/expense to me, given additional inventory and assembly differences; surely costs more than say $8 (trade) for the extra wire and connector.

The last task was to switch over the two speedometers, to retain the existing mileage on my Carbon Shine. This'll save any future questions about anomalies in the paperwork and recorded mileage. That was easy - phew.

The benefit of the modification that I've done, is that it is easy to revert the wiring to stock, by desoldering/snipping off the wires to the tach and pulling out the sub-loom. Remembering to tape up the resulting bare bits,of course.

I hope this wee story inspires and/or assists others in this venture. If done right the first time, it isn't a major task and certainly easier than say replacing a clutch! YMMV (geddit?)
 

[DoubleGuzzi]

The fork kit is what I see that's important. Who's?

Senior moment?  We've been here before see..
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=122408.msg1896077#msg1896077
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=122408.msg1896467#msg1896467
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=122408.msg1897086#msg1897086
.. and to top it off (bad pun)..
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=122408.msg1900152#msg1900152

HTH