Gauge Issue

Hey everyone!

Having an issue with my gauges and thought I'd pose the issue to you in case you have some ideas before I go hunting for new ones.

Took the bike out of the garage for its first ride last weekend. Everything seemed to be good. Got a ways down the road and went to make a right turn. Realized my right turn indicator light wasn't working any more. No big deal. When I stopped I double checked and the signals were working just not the indicator.

I have a 50 minute ride from where I garaged the bike to home. On the highway the speedometer needle started flicking back and forth rapidly. So going 65 the needle was bouncing between 60-70. Would settle down occasionally. Pull off the exit to home and speedometer needle drops back to zero. It has quit working. Using the tach and keeping track of my gear to guess my speed to make it the mile from the exit to home.

Fast forward a week without time to mess with it. Start it up, and take it down the road and back to see if the issue is still there. Now the speedometer, tach, and right turn indcator aren't working. Everything else is.

I pulled the headlight off and used electrical cleaner to clean all the connections. Fuse looked fine but I replaced it with a spare I had anyway. Issue persists.

Any ideas on what I could try next or am I looking for a new gauge console? I figure I'll probably be replacing the speedometer cable no matter what I do.

Bike is an '82 Maxim XJ750J

Thanks everyone!

 

The speedometer cable may need pulled out of the housing and lubed. If you have the atri like my seca you will need to remove 2 nuts from bracket pull housing up and there are 4 screws, remove them and remove cover. This will allow you to get to the bulbs , the other thing have you upgraded the fuseblock? Check all your fuses and connectors. It is possible some corrosion on grounds can cause problems like your having so check this , is your battery is not fully charged ?

 

Will check all of that next.

Upgraded the fuse box last year to a new blade fuse box. Replaced all those fuses too just to be safe, and yes battery is fully charged. Bike runs like a champ otherwise.

Here is a pic of the gauge system I have. Not the actual one on my bike just one I dug up off google. Your description of how to get it at sounds right tho from what I see.

Probably won't get to try this again for a few days (weather is supposed to be crap and I don't have a garage here to do the work) but will check back in after I do.

 

Just an FYI..., if you do end up taking apart your gauges, you might look into replacing the 194 bulbs with LED bulbs. What a difference in brightness! I don't think changing the gauge bulbs will affect your turn signal flasher but I'm not sure because I changed all my bulbs to LEDs on my bike with the proper flasher.

 

Will definitely look at that as well.

 

If you do just keep in mind that they can be put in backwards and won't work. They are +/-. Just check them before you put everything back together. I got mine on Amazon for $15 for 10

 

Just an update.

Bike is back in working order. Turned out is was a blown bulb in the cluster and the speedometer cable had actually snapped (thankfully I had decided to just order a new on instead of trying to just clean and lube). See pic. Thanks Jetfixer and Yardawg for pointing me in the right direction.

You are are right Yardawg, those LEDs make a huge difference. There is no doubt when the indicator lights are on now lol.

Thanks again guys for the help.