How To Calibrate Your Tiger Instruments
By Cullen Bennett
B9472658
September 17, 1999
Installation:
Loosen the hose clamp on the inlet side of the radiator (top left side for a stock Tiger setup) and slide the thermocouple far enough inside to get the junction past the metal of the radiator neck and into the water flow. Be sure to tighten the clamp back up as a severe leak will occur upon pressure buildup if you don't. Start the engine and let it idle for a while. You can pre adjust the voltage regulator for the temperature gage to about 9.5 Volts just so you can watch it rise as the temperature increases.
Run the system long enough to allow for the thermostat to fully open to its operating point. Read the temperature on the thermocouple and then adjust the voltage regulator so the needle reads the same temperature on the gage. An interesting sidelight is that If you momentarily rev the engine a few times you will be able to see the fluctuations in the coolant temperature with the thermocouple as it is much faster reacting to changes than the dash unit. Before removing the thermocouple shut the engine off and allow it to cool off BEFORE loosing the radiator clamp. Failure to do so will most likely get you severely burned.
This concludes the calibration of two of your instruments residing in the dash of your Tiger. The best that we can hope for is that the readings "close" to the point where it has been calibrated will be adequately accurate for most purposes. The meter linearity on these systems is usually pretty bad and as I started this article "They are for Indication Only!!!". The only difference now is that they are correct at ONE point on the gage and we know where that point occurs.
| < 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 > |
|
Anyone who would like to contribute to this effort should contact us at Editor E-Mail. Thank you. |
**
