mines a 96 and mine is a non dess system, but im pretty sure that with or without the info gauges, you will still hear your buzzer go off if it overheats. i tested mine by pulling the plug off the top of the head, and grounding it to the spark plug ground...
i beleive to test it, you either have to have the lanyard in, or the lanyard in and running..i forgot what i did, not sure...im sure someone else will chime in on this, in the meantime im gonna look back in my posts to see if i had it running or not