How To: Replace Gear Position Sensor (GPS)

[R-III-R Turbo]

**24-Apr-22 Updated with Triumph dealer technical bulletin for all Rocket III models - see post #8 (click here)**

Copied my story from another site in order to help a couple of captains currently stuck -


In march 2013 triumph updated the gear position sensor for a lot of its models, included all* (tourer not mentioned) the rocket models (rocket iii, classic, touring, touring SE, touring (ABS) and roadster). this came into effect at engine # 596481.

i will speak only for the roadster as this is my bike and what i've learned. the original roadster sensor was part T1290642 (3 wires in a single cable from sensor to flat 3 pin female plug) and was updated to "kit" form in T1296589 (4 wire cable from sensor, a fly lead with 2 extra triangular plugs).

ok so since i got my roadster i've had to change out the gear position sensor once a year, so i'm on my 4th now.
the sensor goes faulty in that it may display the wrong gear once a year and cause an engine light to come on, restarting the bike makes it work again but tuneboy/ecu is needed to clear the fault and turn off the engine light.

then in january of each year it will become more & more difficult to get the N light to come on. you get gear 6 instead.

this is a pain as you cant run the bike on the sidestand, and if you let the clutch out when the GPS is displaying a gear number besides N, the revs will jump up at idle to around 1100.


anywho if you get the new sensor "kit" and want to replace it, you'll need to know that the sensor is a bolt on job (use a bit of vaseline on the o-ring to lube it going into engine) and the plug for it is the same as before, however the 2 new plugs....
Due to their triangular 3 pin shape, and where they land when you have the GPS plugged in, you'd be inclined to think they plug into the speed sensor plugs.
However this is not correct.
You must plug them into the primary Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) plugs, that's the TPS on the rear end of the throttles, on the throttle closest to the rear of the engine.
This applies to 2010 - March 2013 Roadsters.

But that is not the only thing though for the Roadster.
For the Roadster ONLY you also have to;

1. disconnect battery. negative first
2. pop off the clocks
3. remove tacho rear cover
4. 
5. unplug the cable
6. use a small flat scubadiver to prise off the orange locking plate from the front (hint - start into one of the 2 little holes on each end)
7. 
8. use the scubadiver to pull down the tab on pin location # 9, to free it, and pull on the black/white wire from behind to pull out pin (pay attention to the pin orientation)
9. dont mix up the black/white wire with purple/white wire...
10. remove the white rubber blanking plug form pin location # 10 and stick it into pin location # 9
11. ensuring the little flat face is pointed down to the middle of the plug, insert the black/white wire into pin location #10. push it in good until the pin is flush with the front of the plug like the others, and the tab slips in under it
12. should now look like this
13. 
14. 
15. push the orange locking plate back into the front of the plug. pull on the black/white wire to ensure it is secure
16. put everything back, reconnect battery, live first
17. start bike and toggle through gears to make sure they display the right number etc
18. test the tacho by revving the engine. if you didnt do this rewire the N light will probably go out when you rev it in neutral
19. test the other lights on the tacho by indicating, using full headlights and then put bike into gear and put down sidestand to cut the engine off, this will cause the low oil pressure light to glow.

hopefully this helps someone.
hopefully it cures my GPS problem.. it seems too coincidental that such a change plus the rewiring for roadsters is a coincidence.


P.S. 8 years on and my GPS issue didn't come back.

 

[toshvmax]

Intresting post, I have a 2011 roadster and had an issue with the GPS where when the engine was cold the neautral light would flicker for a fraction of a second causing the engine to stop when on the stand .. took loads of head scratching and cold morning starts before discovering this!!
changed the GPS and replaced the other wires supplied with the sensor even though they looked identical to the wires they replaced, a year later went to start the bike after 4 weeks and the fault has returned.... I never did the swapping of pins in the tacho plug, as everything seemed to work fine. could this be why the fault has returned??? please help;(

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Is your replacement GPS 3 or 4 wire?

 

[toshvmax]

Hi, Its has 4 wires coming out of the GPS

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Hi, Its has 4 wires coming out of the GPS

Good that's the newest revision, I would guess that if you follow the steps above, your issue will go away

 

[TheKid]

Thanks again. You and anyone else helping makes it so much easier to work on these beasts

 

[toshvmax]

Excellent! I will give that a go, cheers matey!

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

 

[Mike Rocket]

Fantastic information, thanks.

 

[drgai]

Thanks for all the info! i have a 2011 Roadster and my GPS recently went totally kaput after being problematic for awhile (showing 6th gear at timed, problematic neutral light...). However, after reading some of the comments, I took the GPS out and it seems different. Instead of the circular contacts (similar to all the part diagrams) I have a unit the has what seems like one central contact and one pin in the periphery that when positioned aligned with the to screw of the GPS, fits into a hole on the transmission. I even bought a used unit that supposedly fits and it looks the same as in the diagrams, fits nicely into the GPS mount, but is completely different than mine, and I doubt that it will work. Both units (mine and the used one), have two wires coming out of it. What am I missing?