erratic speedo needle

Last year on the forum trip to Scotland mine started bouncing around and within 30 mins it snapped the needle and I’ve had to replace the entire clock not a cheap exercise! New one works lovely though.

Garyb

I’ve got a spare speedo drive unit plus cable if need be

Update on my speedo annoyance!

  • noise still present, has not quietened at all, but thinking it is coming from speedo area
  • speedo still erratic
    *cable (new), had wound up the outer slightly, into a tighter bend
    *Chris B, and all, thanks for your help so far, cable routed as you illustrated
    So far, everything replaced with nil effect. Jeffo- I’m going to wash out all lubricant from cable, lube lightly, and also lightly lube the cable/speedo connection area to see how it goes.
    As our Covid travel restrictions have eased here in SE Oztraya, we`re taking our caravan down to camp behind a beach for 4 nights for a change, and will tackle the speedo again when back into work, and shed routine

Hi, Speedy,

Enjoy the beach. Where are you heading to?

Another thought…

If the noise is coming from the speedo end, what state are the odometer gears and flex shaft in?

It’s possible that the gears (or the spindle they’re sitting on) could be in need of attention.

As a test, disconnect the flex drive between the speedo and odometer and try it. You’ll have to split the instrument casing to get at it, sadly.

If its still noisy, reconnect said and disconnect the main drive at the speedo.

That will assist in pinpointing where the fault lies if nothing else.

If all else fails, when my bike gets here from Strayya and it’s been ‘pommified’, there’ll be a complete, known serviceable, Aussie spec instrument cluster up for grabs.

This happened to me last week. Turns out the washer that has two tabs that go into the wheel hub, and two tabs that go into the speedo drive was bent. You almost needed a ruler to see it. So, with slight adjustment to the washer and increasing the angle of the four tabs, it now fit more securely into its respective slots and problem solved.

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Gooday Ozzy, thanks for the hints- I’ll remove front wheel again and put a straight edge across the washer. Puzzling cause I’ve tried 2 different drive washers now, the last one near new, but hey, worth a go!
As I’ve got the fairing off, will pull speedo out to check out again.
Q for brains trust- can I check speedo operation with a variable speed drill driving it?
Chris, I`ll try your suggestions about the speedo unit whilst it’s out, thanks

No reason not to that I can think of

Yes, you can check for constant indication with a drill, but be very very careful. The actual rotational speed of the drive shaft is much lower than you’d think.

Before you attach the drill, turn the flex drive by flicking it with your fingers to determine the correct direction of rotation. Logic dictates it should be anti clockwise looking at the underside of the instrument, but check it. If you turn it the wrong way at speed you’ll damage it quite severely.

Finally got a bit of time for bike work, and bloody speedo sorting! Chris B, yes, tried lube at the top end of the cable and lightly lubed
where the cable engages into speedo- no good- grinding noise still there.
Next thing Itried was to jury rig another instrument cluster, connected cable and rotated wheel with the side of big drill chuck. Now no grinding noise and speedo showing 20 kms, with no jumping.
This was the original speedo off the bike. Changed over speedo, with better face and needle, tested with drill rotating front wheel-ok.
Roadtested bike without fairing on and all seemed OK, but felt like it was reading low, as though I was travelling faster than it registered, but this could have been the effect of riding in the cold with no screen feeling like riding faster.
I really hope this problem is finally fixed, my next step was to bite the bullet and buy a new speedo for $350 Aus dollars.
Will see if it behaves after getting it nice and warm with a good thrashing, might be a couple of weeks until I can get out, unless I commute to work.

If you need an Oz spec speedo and odometer that I know are serviceable, I have a set you can have for the cost of postage.

Yellow dial, though. If you need a red dial you’d need to swap it.

Thanks ChrisB, Im hoping that Ive finally fixed the problem. I reckon I will only really know if I have succeeded after a decent 200km ride, probably won’t have time for that for a couple of weeks due to work, and family commitments. Good news is, the riding weather is improving over here with the start of Spring, and despite Covid-19 restrictions, life is good, woohoo!
Chris, I might take you up on your offer if it’s still playing up, cheers Greg

Hi Speedy, I have just ordered a new s/h cluster as my dial were faded and the needles so sun damaged my speedo needle just crumbled. However the speedo mechanism is good as after pushing a little grease into the drive coupling after rebuild I have done over 700kms with no problem until the needle broke. Assuming the cluster on the way is OK if you need a mechanism let me know.

Thanks Jeffo, will let you know how I go, appreciate the offer mate!

Just realised I hadn’t got back to this post. Problem fixed. I believe that the problem was a faulty drive gear. I got a second hand unit, thoroughly cleaned and greased it, and after resetting speedo pre set- problem fixed. Speedo read 20kmhr fast, but I realised I had the preset wrong.I pulled the needle back off, and refitted it so that it was just holding back against the stop pin at zero. The extra spring tension must have been affecting the magnetic action. Works fine at last - phew!

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