Instrument console dead- Why?

I just went to go for a ride on my 990 and when I turned the ignition on the instrument panel is not working. The bike starts up but there is no LCD readouts, no idiot lights and no rev counter working. Does anyone know of this problem and what might have caused it?

I've checked all the fuses and they are all OK. But there is power going to the instruments because the red light for the alarm blinks when ignition is turned off.

There is this old thread on here. The same symptoms are being described.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17934

Maybe my clocks are wet inside.

Couple of other possible causes in the Soft 32 Dat 101 thread re clock power supply connector and similar.

I had the same problem this year, replaced the clocks and all was fine again.
If i remember correct you've got a gipro gear indicator right?
If so: just ride up and down the street and see if it still displays the right gears. If so, your clocks are still receiving the speed and rpm signalen but not displaying them. Therefore: clocks are dead.
This is what i did anyway. But my clocks were faulty since i had the bike. As soon as i disconnected the battery they would rest completely, odo, trips, clocks everything back to 0

After replacement i opened up the dead clocks, all looked fine, no real sign of moisture inside. Only thing i found was a small crack in the glass. So it could have been moisture.

Here is my topic btw:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25433&p=315123#p315123

it happened on my bike every one said the clock was dead ,i wouldnt have it and there was power to the clocks , so i started checking every wire in the head light and found a bad contact in one wire joint , i used a multimeter on ohms signal tested every connection and found a bad connection

A new set of clocks is about £280 and there are non on e bay so I thought I have nothing to loose but to take the unit apart to see if there is water in it. Seemed OK but it's spent the night in the airing cupboard so I hope that it will fit back and miraculously work OK. Fingers crossed.

Nampus. When you fitted new clocks did they just plug and play? The local KTM dealer to me told me yesterday that I would have to have the new unit programmed to match my bike and the KTM alarm that's fitted otherwise it won't work. (of course they say they will have to charge me for this and it will take about half and hour!!!) Did you have to do this?

Clocks are just plug and play, have fitted two s/h units, unless you want to show correct mileage which can only be done by dealer apparently.

Clocks were plug and play, i had to supply the mileage, and the clocks come from the Factory set to the correct mileage. The dealer can not change the mileage. They just order a set of clocks with a certain mileage.
I took of the dead clocks, plugged in the new ones, and they worked straight away, so the problem on my bike was definitely the clocks itself.

But keep in mind i don't have an alarm fitted. This might change things.

Things have got stranger.

I dried out the dismantled clocks in the airing cupboard over night. When I refitted them this morning they were still not working so I rang Jim Aim KTM place and ordered up a new set of instruments. The previous comments are right and so I supplied them with the old mileage and they can get the new ones preset to match.

So then I set off to do some Christmas shopping and as soon as I set of they clocks flash on and seem OK again. But then a few seconds later off again. The whole journey, about ten miles they are intermittent and sometimes just reads a load of abstract patterns on the LCD display. I resign myself that they are damaged and ignore them. But then setting off home again they come on with the ignition and have been faultless for the last 20 miles or so. I can't get them to not work now! They seem OK.

So I ring Jim Aim and ask them to hold the order for a few days to see what happens as I don't want to spend £270 for something I don't need.

I hate these intermittent electrical issues. Drives me mad.

My guess is moisture. You could try opening it again and try and get a silica pack in there.

Jeez. After working all day perfectly they packed up on the way home again. Just dead except for the backlight.

I give up. Expensive decision but if it is moisture then it will only keep re-occurring now because I ride a lot in the rain and I can't be doing with not knowing if it will work one day to another. On the way back I asked myself if I could live without the instruments. Funny because the only thing I really, really need is the petrol warning light!

Bic, the problem with these clocks which the Advrider forum have gone through in great detail is replacing those useless pins that hang of the LCD and connect to the bottom panel,siliconing the unit when assembling and modifying the breather valve.I had all the problems you are having so I replaced the pins with solid copper core wire which size just happened to be a nice tight fit in the sockets on the bottom panel and soldered the other end to the LCD panel.Solved the problem.Apart from a couple of doggy solder joins which I have since fixed,my clocks have worked fine since.Bit of a fiddly time consuming job by I got a lot of satisfaction out of it and avoided having to deal with KTM and spend money.I have not modified the breather to release the moisture better but it sounds like a good idea.Cheers

Silverbear: Could you post a link or some photos? I've still got my faulty ones and would like to try and fix them.

I have another set of clocks which I bought used from eBay a few years back but they never worked when I connected it up. (Same problem as now)

I just took it totally apart to see what Silverbear was describing and I find that several of these tiny pins are so bent that they weren't actually fitting into the small holes. Some plonker had disassembled the unit and when they'd put it back together hadn't aligned the pins with all the holes. I will have a go at straightening them out and see what happens.

Here's a picture, my phone camera isn't so good but you can more or less see what the issue is.


I should say that when I disassembled my own unit I never took it apart this much. I only removed the front cover so that any moisture could be dried out. To get the graphic panel off and access the PCB and take off the LCD screen you have to remove the rev counter needle and unclip a few plastic housings. I din't want to do this unless I have to but now the unit has stopped working I might have a look as I've nothing to loose now.

The copper core wire that I used come from inside standard housing power wiring.It just happened to be .7mm thick which after dipping in dialectic grease fits nice and tight into the bottom panel sockets.After cutting the pins off,I cut a little recess into the top LCD panel for the copper wire to sit before soldering.Don't worry about to much solder going on and touching the next terminal.When all the soldering is finished ,just dremel between all the terminals with a thin cutting disc,but then again you may know how to solder unlike me.I would send some pics but My IPad dos'nt seem to let me.Cheers

To dry the clocks out put them in a plastic bag with rice. The rice absorbs the moisture.

The pins are a pain as they are small and easily bend. I took that connector of a few time as I had the speedo stop working suddenly and it wasn't the sensor.
After carefully cleaning the small connector on the back and putting it together the issue disappeared.

From time to time at work we used to have to deal with similar pin connectors that got bent, we used to straighten them with a comb.

Literally comb them straight from the board to the ends, then use the comb to hold them parallel when inserting them into the sockets.

I might have a go at fixing mine when i get home again. Thanks!

Nampus. If you are thinking of having a go then take extra care when removing the LCD screen from the unit and try not to bend any of the pins. If you are thinking of replacing these like Silverbear suggests then OK but if you're planning to just take a look and reassemble then don't bend any of the pins because it makes it very, very hard to get them all back into position and press home without bending them more. I've been playing about for a few hours with my old spare unit and you need a lot of patience. If you do get into trouble then you need to try and get them as straight as possible and then put the screen at a bit of an angle so one end of the pins goes in first and gently work your way along the line of pins using a scalpel or fine point to guide each one at a time into its hole. Once they are all started you can press down and fit the unit into place.

My other working unit stopped working again yesterday so I've decided to go ahead and buy the new unit. But I will try and do the fix on the broken one and see if I can get it working again.

One other bit of advice. When dismantling the unit try not to do it on a table where the kids have been making Christmas cards and the place is covered in that fine glitter. It gets everywhere and you cannot get it all cleaned off. Thank goodness this was just a spare set and not a potentially good one.

Thanks for the tip BIC! Will keep that in mind. Will be a while for i get time to take them apart though.

I'm reading this thread with interest since my instrument console starting acting up 2 rides ago. I have the right top and center bars of the digital 8 throughout the complete panel become light gray instead of solid black. in every single digit, time, speed, odometer its the same so something is failing and I'm not sure I can take it apart and fix it.

Now, A few weeks ago, on my first ride after washing the bike, I had moisture inside the lens that was covering the speed and after a few hours it dried out and went away. I imagine that THAT has something to do with my issue but again, not wanting to open it up not knowing what to look for inside. I keep my bike inside the garage and it rarely sees rain.

Best of luck trying to figure out electrical gremlins Bic.

Umm Comrades: Some years ago I used to buy all of the clocks that I could find on ebay. Seemed quite expensive at the time but you can never have too many clocks for these bikes if they are keepers.

So finally I have a new working set of clocks on the SD
I got the factory to pre-set the mileage onto them so it reads right. When they are first fitted the calibration is set to kph so you have to change it to mph by holding down the mode button for 12 seconds. Graphics and outer plastic moulding have changed with the new model but the connections and attachment is identical. Unit just plugged in and worked so the KTM dealer in Crawley who told me it needed programming to match the alarm and ecu were wrong.

Here's the old and new for comparison.

Just a bit too late!!
These appeared on the bay!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KTM-Superduke ... SwwE5WYCc~

Has a new unit solved your issue then?

Why would he want another set of dead clocks?
The one on eBay is listed as nog working.


I'm surprised they came from the factory set to khp instead op mph.
My bike was imported from the UK, and every time I disconnected the battery, the clocks reset, and they started back in mph instead of kph. Temp was in fahrenheit as well.
I figured you guys would get clocks set for mph from the factory.

Yeh, I saw those on eBay but they do say not working and (like Nampus says) I now already had two sets of non-working clocks and don't want any more!
New unit has solved all the problems so far but I guess it will take a few months of being paranoid that it will fail. i had to give the bike a proper jet wash yesterday to get rid of winter dirt and there was no condensation in the face so that seems reassuring.