After waiting many months, the Ducati Performance tachometer finally showed up for my M900. This is the one with the round analog tach that exactly matches the speedometer, has a carbon fiber face plate, and the lights at the top in sort of a V shape. It took me about an hour and a half to install, but could easily have been done in less than an hour if I didn’t have to keep hunting down the right tools.
Tools needed:
5 and 6 mm allen wrench
8 mm socket
Very small phillips screw driver
Soldering iron
Steps:
Remove the headlight using the 5 mm allen wrench. The wires just unplug, but it seems to require two hands on the connector plus one more to hold the headlight. I still managed by myself.
Remove the speedometer assembly using the 6 mm allen wrench, then disconnect the wire harness and the speedometer by unscrewing them. Remove the three nuts on the back of the speedometer assembly and open it up. I was careful to mark where every light went in the set of eight idiot lights, but they each have a little white plastic ring over one wire with a number on it to indicate where they go, so you can get by without writing down the color combinations. Just to make this complete, though, here are the color sets:
Battery: red/white, light blueI pulled all eight lights out plus the two in the speedometer, which are larger, then removed the four phillips screws holding the wiring harness to the speedometer assembly. There is a separate plastic piece about an inch wide by inch and a half long with a bend in it that fits it all into place that was no longer needed. I might not have had to remove it, but I didn’t realize that until it was already off.
Kickstand: grey, light blue
High Beam: black, white
Lights On: black, yellow
Oil Pressure: yellow/ white, blue
Turn Signal: grey/white, white/green
Fuel Low: brown/white, black
Neutral: yellow/green, black
To get the speedometer out you have to insert the very small phillips screwdriver into the reset nob and unscrew it. There is no way to get the speedometer out of the aluminum face plate without removing this screw and the reset knob, unless you cut the aluminum.
At this point everything is taken apart and you’re ready to start the assembly process. I was quite concerned about running the wire from the tachometer to the coil it attaches to, but that was probably the easiest part and is done last.
The toughest part for me was getting all of the lights in place and getting all of those wires inside the speedo/tach case without interference. There were two zipties that I cut off to let the wires stretch more. I couldn’t get all of the lights into place without removing them. The other problem was wiring the two lights that light the tach at night. I suppose I could have cheated and used one light from the speedometer and left both instruments dim, but I wanted it done right.
Since I have no need for the “lights on” green light, I just cut it off and soldered the two lights to the end of the wires that formerly went to that light. But first, put the speedometer and tach into place, because you want the wires connected behind the face plate, right?
The next step was to put all of the idiot lights into the right sockets, connect the long wire to the tach, through the back case, then close the case and tighten it up. It took three or four attempts before I had all of the wires into place and could tighten it all up properly. Once it’s closed, put the rubber grommet into place on the tach wire and you have a nice clean pod.
I then ran the wire along the right side of the bike, with other wires, to the coil next to the battery, under the tank. Those black rubber things wrapped around all of the frame tubes are real handy when you want to add another wire. You just pop one open, put the wire in with the rest of the wires, and stretch it back closed again. You can’t tell on my bike that the wiring is any different than what came from the factory.
The other end of the wire has two connectors. You just pop off the equivalent looking connector on one of the coils and plug the two connectors into the middle.
Reinstall the headlight, aim it, and you’re done.