Bigfitz's 550r: 150mph speedo retrofit

Here is the recreation with bigfitz's permission:

 

Finally dug through the archive and found all the pics necessary to show you how I accomplished this:




The first step was tear apart the original cluster; that is covered here:
http://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/bigfitzs-seca-550-instrument-cluster-teardown.116027/


Next was locating a suitable "drop in" replacement speedo. I originally planned to use a 125mph unit freed from its can, but soon discovered that old "same but not" Yamaha syndrome.

Then by a stroke of luck, I located an NOS speedo from an XJ900 on eBay and the project was back on:



Stock speedo on left; then the new XJ900 unit; and the formerly canned instrument at far right.

Note the difference in overall depth/shape of frame, and angle of input bearing between the canned unit and the two to its left.

The big goofy trip odo reset on the new unit comes right off with two or three screws. Note however, the shape of the opening in the back of the internal cluster housing for the speedo.

That presented the next challenge: Note the support plate for the input bearing on the new unit (left) compared to the original (right.)




A little work with my Dremel and an Exacto knife yielded a modified housing:




Then the new unit fit right in; I improvised a couple of "retainers" from clipped and bent washers, providing a positive mechanical mount for the new speedo:




Then it was just a matter of painting all the needles to match:



Red on the left, orange on the right. Not a WHOLE lot of difference once dry; I ended up using the orange.

I also "tarted up" the tach to sort of match the speedo; I have an electronic tach that DOES match that I will install one of these days.

The only downside for the whole thing was the loss of the trip odo reset; but that is only temporary until I figure out how to "reverse-adapt" the old spinning-knob reset to the new instrument.

Meanwhile I simply plugged the hole in the housing with a black body trim fastener.





It sure is nice to know how fast I'm going.