Yet Another Audiovox Cruise Install

Just thought I'd share a few details about how my installation turned out. I used FJRCarShopGuy's walkthrough as my primary guide, but wanted to install the servo under the gas tank the way Smitty does for AE models.

Here's some questions I had before beginning (with answers in the first post you you don't have to do a lot of reading): https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=113115. Most important is the new dip switch settings as compared to FJRCarShopGuy's post.

The physical connection of the servo cable to the throttle pulley is covered many times on the forum, so I won't go into much detail on that. I basically used a small button-head bolt from a hardware shop through a hole drilled in the little tab on the throttle pulley. A standard nut tightens the bolt to the tab, then a nylon lock nut at the end of the bolt holds the servo cable connection on the bolt.

I stressed quite a bit about the drilling and throttle connection, but it ended up being the wiring that was the biggest pain for me (figuring out how to route wires, when to group them together, when they should split up and go their separate ways, how short to cut the wires, etc.). Here's what I ended up with...

Somehow my wiring doesn't look nearly as tidy as Smitty's pictures, but I still may have some room for improvement by just tucking things away better. Here's the overall view:



The servo tucks nicely behind the water coolant pipe. It is a bit of a pain because you need to drain about a quart of coolant and remove the pipe to get the servo in there, but it's a nice hiding spot for it that doesn't use up any precious under-seat space.

I used 1/4" wire conduit that I bought from a NAPA shop, which wastes much less space than the large conduit that comes with the Audiovox. The yellow line shows you the wiring from the servo back to the brake wires. To the right of the servo is the connector for the control panel and a couple extra connectors that I added (more details later).

You can also see the vacuum lines there. I hooked into all 4 cylinders with a 3/16" mini check valve on each line before bringing them together with a couple 3/16" Y connectors. I don't have a vacuum reserve canister right now. I'll see how it works without one and can easily add one later if needed.

And now for some more details on that mess of connectors:

1. Audiovox connector, control panel side.
2. Audiovox connector, servo side.
3. My Power/tach connector, Audiovox side.
4. My Power/tach connector, bike side.
5. My Ground wire connector (placed in the ground wire from the control panel at the same location as the Audiovox connector).

The wires from the control panel are not shortened. I tapped the (grey?) backlight power wire for the control panel directly into the red switched power wire way up near the control panel so that the backlight is always on when the ignition is on, and so there's only 5 wires to try to wrap up and hide along the handlebar.

The red power wire from (2) goes only a short distance to (3). The power and tach wires from (4) run a short distance down to the giant brain stem of stock wiring and up into the fuse/battery area where I made my power and tach signal connections almost exactly like FJRCarShopGuy did.

All wires from (2) and (3) go directly back to the the main harness on the servo (except for the red power wire, which goes from 2 to 3). All of this was cut to length (about 5 feet of excess removed!).

The ground wire from the control panel goes through the bullet connector (5) back to the servo and taps into the the ground wire coming out of the servo's main harness, very close to the servo (wiring experts: is this a wiring sin? should I be watching for grounding problems?). The ground wire from the servo follows the large coolant hose that's connected to the coolant pipe. It goes under the frame then back up on the other side where it's mounted to an existing bolt:



The purple and red brake wires from the servo's main harness follow the frame on the left side of the bike (in a separate conduit; visible in the first picture) to the main ECU harness area where I tapped into the stock brake wiring. I added a connector right near where I tapped into the wiring:



I like having connectors everywhere so that things can be disconnected and moved out of the way as necessary for other farkling and maintenance. The connectors came from RadioShack. I crimped AND soldered the connectors to the wires for a reliable connection.

Unfortunately, it's freezing cold and snowy here, so I can't go for a test ride to verify that everything works. My bike is still stripped down for now, so I can take more pictures of other details at your request. Feel free to ask for details that I left out or to tell me if I did something horribly wrong so that I can fix it

~Jeff

-------------- UPDATE --------------

I have since shortened the wiring more for a much cleaner appearance and to keep the wiring away from the coolant pipe:





-------------- ANOTHER UPDATE --------------

I finally added a vacuum reserve canister because the accelerate button for the cruise control was quite ineffective. The cruise control seems to engage a bit quicker now and the accelerate button actually works! I made my canister out of a 2" PVC coupler, two 2" PVC plugs and a 3/16" threaded brass nipple thing. I found a nice place for it that only required a very slight dremeling in one of the ribs on the top side of the rear fender where the canister sits (right next to the lock barrel that actuates the seat release mechanism) to allow it to fit under the tool tray:



I used some basic PVC primer and glue to glue the PVC parts together. I only inserted the plugs about half-way into the coupler to make it as long as could fit in the space under the tray. That nasty looking black junk is some silicone gasket maker I had left-over from installing my Remus hexacones, and it seems to do a good job at sealing the threads of the brass nipple. The canister was still holding vacuum when I checked today after a full 2 days of no riding.

And here's the hose from the canister where it meets up with the rest of the cruise control's vacuum hoses:

Nice work. I still have to install mine. This will defintiely help.

UselessPickles said:

Just thought I'd share a few details about how my installation turned out. I used FJRCarShopGuy's walkthrough as my primary guide, but wanted to install the servo under the gas tank the way Smitty does for AE models.
Here's some questions I had before beginning (with answers in the first post you you don't have to do a lot of reading): https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=113115. Most important is the new dip switch settings as compared to FJRCarShopGuy's post.

The physical connection of the servo cable to the throttle pulley is covered many times on the forum, so I won't go into much detail on that. I basically used a small button-head bolt from a hardware shop through a hole drilled in the little tab on the throttle pulley. A standard nut tightens the bolt to the tab, then a nylon lock nut at the end of the bolt holds the servo cable connection on the bolt.

I stressed quite a bit about the drilling and throttle connection, but it ended up being the wiring that was the biggest pain for me (figuring out how to route wires, when to group them together, when they should split up and go their separate ways, how short to cut the wires, etc.). Here's what I ended up with...

Somehow my wiring doesn't look nearly as tidy as Smitty's pictures, but I still may have some room for improvement by just tucking things away better. Here's the overall view:

The servo tucks nicely behind the water coolant pipe. It is a bit of a pain because you need to drain about a quart of coolant and remove the pipe to get the servo in there, but it's a nice hiding spot for it that doesn't use up any precious under-seat space.

I used 1/4" wire conduit that I bought from a NAPA shop, which wastes much less space than the large conduit that comes with the Audiovox. The yellow line shows you the wiring from the servo back to the brake wires. To the right of the servo is the connector for the control panel and a couple extra connectors that I added (more details later).

You can also see the vacuum lines there. I hooked into all 4 cylinders with a 3/16" mini check valve on each line before bringing them together with a couple 3/16" Y connectors. I don't have a vacuum reserve canister right now. I'll see how it works without one and can easily add one later if needed.

And now for some more details on that mess of connectors:

1. Audiovox connector, control panel side.
2. Audiovox connector, servo side.
3. My Power/tach connector, Audiovox side.
4. My Power/tach connector, bike side.
5. My Ground wire connector (placed in the ground wire from the control panel at the same location as the Audiovox connector).

The wires from the control panel are not shortened. I tapped the (grey?) backlight power wire for the control panel directly into the red switched power wire way up near the control panel so that the backlight is always on when the ignition is on, and so there's only 5 wires to try to wrap up and hide along the handlebar.

The red power wire from (2) goes only a short distance to (3). The power and tach wires from (4) run a short distance down to the giant brain stem of stock wiring and up into the fuse/battery area where I made my power and tach signal connections almost exactly like FJRCarShopGuy did.

All wires from (2) and (3) go directly back to the the main harness on the servo (except for the red power wire, which goes from 2 to 3). All of this was cut to length (about 5 feet of excess removed!).

The ground wire from the control panel goes through the bullet connector (5) back to the servo and taps into the the ground wire coming out of the servo's main harness, very close to the servo (wiring experts: is this a wiring sin? should I be watching for grounding problems?). The ground wire from the servo follows the large coolant hose that's connected to the coolant pipe. It goes under the frame then back up on the other side where it's mounted to an existing bolt:

The purple and red brake wires from the servo's main harness follow the frame on the left side of the bike (in a separate conduit; visible in the first picture) to the main ECU harness area where I tapped into the stock brake wiring. I added a connector right near where I tapped into the wiring:

I like having connectors everywhere so that things can be disconnected and moved out of the way as necessary for other farkling and maintenance. The connectors came from RadioShack. I crimped AND soldered the connectors to the wires for a reliable connection.

Unfortunately, it's freezing cold and snowy here, so I can't go for a test ride to verify that everything works. My bike is still stripped down for now, so I can take more pictures of other details at your request. Feel free to ask for details that I left out or to tell me if I did something horribly wrong so that I can fix it

~Jeff

Click to expand...

This is my "useless" contribution: I really, really admire your talent and knowledge and always enjoy your posts :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Alfred

Why is it always AFTER you finish something and when you won't have time to do any more work for several days that you realize that there was such a simple way to do it better?

I just realized that I can really clean up that wiring near the servo by shortening up some wires even more and getting rid of the excess looping and snaking. I can't figure out how this wasn't obvious at the time. The excess wire was originally there because I didn't start off with the added connectors and was necessary so that I had enough room to do the wiring, then put the servo in place (basically, I had no idea what I was doing, so kept the wires longer just to be safe). Now that I have connectors, the excess wiring is unnecessary. I had enough room to work and add the new connectors, so I should have enough room to shorten the wires too.

I'll post updated pics of cleaner wiring as soon as I have time to do it. I hate wiring.

I like it, are you doing anything to suspend the cable off of hot engine parts, or it a non-issue? Also, is the removal of the coolant pipe straightforward after you drain it? I haven't been in there yet to scope it out, I am deciding between this location and above the swingarm. Actually, I haven't even bought the Cruise yet, I keep looking for the best deal. Thanks for taking the time to write it up and photo it for those of us yet to do it.

I like to stand on the shoulders of giants.

just don't cut the wire with the red piece of tape in the middle of it removing the needed diode to make the cruise work properly

UselessPickles said:

Why is it always AFTER you finish something and when you won't have time to do any more work for several days that you realize that there was such a simple way to do it better?
I just realized that I can really clean up that wiring near the servo by shortening up some wires even more and getting rid of the excess looping and snaking. I can't figure out how this wasn't obvious at the time. The excess wire was originally there because I didn't start off with the added connectors and was necessary so that I had enough room to do the wiring, then put the servo in place (basically, I had no idea what I was doing, so kept the wires longer just to be safe). Now that I have connectors, the excess wiring is unnecessary. I had enough room to work and add the new connectors, so I should have enough room to shorten the wires too.

I'll post updated pics of cleaner wiring as soon as I have time to do it. I hate wiring.

Click to expand...

profireguy said:

I like it, are you doing anything to suspend the cable off of hot engine parts, or it a non-issue?

Click to expand...

I'm not worried about the throttle cable for the cruise control. I have it positioned just like Smitty's picture and there have been no problems reported with that install. The stock throttle cables actually sit right against the coolant pipe normally. I'm guessing those throttle cable sleeves are designed to sit near hot engines or something crazy like that...

The small mess of wires and connectors near the coolant pipe (to the right of the servo) is more of a concern to me. I'll be shortening wires yet again to get that stuff away from the coolant pipe. I'll post new pictures when that's complete.

profireguy said:

Also, is the removal of the coolant pipe straightforward after you drain it?

Click to expand...

I thought it was. There's 2 bolts holding it to the engine and 2 hoses clamped to it. The pipe really likes to be lined up perfectly at a perfect angle when removing from the engine and re-mounting, so just be careful and don't force it. It would suck to cause a leak there. The large hose that connects to the pipe will be full of coolant, so be careful not to make a huge mess. You might want to find something like a large syringe or turkey baster to suck some coolant out of that hose after you remove the pipe to reduce the chance of coolant spills while working.

I'm not sure if it's needed or not, but I insulated my servo with some adhesive backed foam stuff I got at the hardware store.

UP - nice job.. very good report, and Thanks!

I picked up the Audivox unit from Fairlaner's sale and have printed and read every guide known to the free world and am still terrifed to install this bad boy on my own.

Anyone else in the PNW want to bring Smitty (if he is available) in for a Saturday install day?

bikerskier said:

I picked up the Audivox unit from Fairlaner's sale and have printed and read every guide known to the free world and am still terrifed to install this bad boy on my own.
Anyone else in the PNW want to bring Smitty (if he is available) in for a Saturday install day?

Click to expand...

SMART move, if you can swing it...

bikerskier said:

I picked up the Audivox unit from Fairlaner's sale and have printed and read every guide known to the free world and am still terrifed to install this bad boy on my own.

Click to expand...

I agree that it is terrifying. But if you have time and patience, and you take it slowly one step at a time, then it's not so bad. It also feels good to have accomplished such a feat. The only positive aspect of cold snowy winters to me is that it gives me plenty of time to leave the bike dismantled in the garage while I work on it without feeling like I need to hurry up and get it done so I can ride.

I was considering having mine installed by Smitty, but I got to a point where I had nothing left to do to my bike this winter until my header comes back from being ceramic coated (could be a couple more weeks still before they have enough parts to run a batch). I was bored, so I took the challenge. Now the cruise control is ready to go as soon as warmer weather comes around

I finally got time to shorten the wiring. I'm glad I did it because I discovered that one of the leads for the "noise suppressor" in the tach signal wire was broken. It's just a 20K ohm resistor, so I just soldered in a new resistor from Radio Shack.

Here's the new cleaner wiring:





I ended up cutting off the 4-pin connector that came with the Audiovox and replacing it with a 4-pin connector from RadioShack. I did this so I could shorten the wires from the ends, rather than shortening from the middle and splicing all the wires back together (easier, and fewer connections to go bad). The wiring is still the same as described in the original post, just shortened to get rid of the excess looping and snaking. Make sure you turn the handlebars both ways to find when the wires are pulled the tightest when determining the final length of the wires.

Last time i spoke to Smitty he told me he was no longer working on bikes as his new job payed him enough that he could spend all his time with his lovely bride.....

R

SUCCESS!

I finally got to ride the bike this weekend and the cruise control seems to work perfectly. I haven't experienced anything yet that would lead me to believe that I need a vacuum reservoir canister. Does anyone have a good test scenario that would obviously indicate whether a reservoir would be desirable?

UselessPickles said:

SUCCESS!
I finally got to ride the bike this weekend and the cruise control seems to work perfectly. I haven't experienced anything yet that would lead me to believe that I need a vacuum reservoir canister. Does anyone have a good test scenario that would obviously indicate whether a reservoir would be desirable?

Click to expand...

Big Congrats UP:

it would seem to me that plumbing into all four ports would certainly source out lotsa vacuum and the tubing would hold it like a cannister, enough for instant engagement

I only sourced one port with a small fuel filter used as a canister and I have instant engagement.

I had planned to plump all four ports and get rid of those pesky caps, but some of my check valves were 2 ports into one and were plumbed backwards to what I needed (2 intakes into one out instead of the other way around). I had only one proper check valve - single in to single out. I might purchase 3 more check valves since I already have enough hose to do all four next time I open up the tank for something.

WFooshee did/helped me with the install and he used only one port with no canister and has no complaints.

Both of ours are Gen I, but I can't think it matters concerning a cansiter or not.

Cheers,

Mike in Nawlins'

UselessPickles said:

SUCCESS!
I finally got to ride the bike this weekend and the cruise control seems to work perfectly. I haven't experienced anything yet that would lead me to believe that I need a vacuum reservoir canister. Does anyone have a good test scenario that would obviously indicate whether a reservoir would be desirable?

Click to expand...

Long steady hill climb heavily loaded with large throttle opening. I believe the two up guys would have the more constant problem, were there to be one.

How did you mount the CC or is it just sitting there in front of the coolant pipe?

For future reference connecting the ground (-) circuit to the frame is not recommended but it'll work in most cases.

The frame is not a component of any electrical circuits. You'll notice in the FJR's wiring schematics that a return wire (usually black or some variation) is routed throughout the wiring harness. This is the common (-) side of most circuits.

The engine crankcase is an electrical conductor since the battery's negative post is connected to the engine. The frame will conduct electricity because it's bolted to the engine at several places. But having current flow from the engine to the frame is not recommended.

NSrider said:

How did you mount the CC or is it just sitting there in front of the coolant pipe?

Click to expand...

It's just sitting there. The large main wiring harness for the bike that runs across in front of the engine there puts some pressure on the servo against the coolant pipe, so it won't be bouncing around. During my test ride I visited all areas of the RPM range and listened carefully for vibration noises under the tank and heard nothing.