1981 XJ650 Maxim - Tach Needle Broke Off

First post! I recently lucked into a very low mileage XJ650 Maxim that was stored in a climate-controlled garage. Runs great, and somehow the old rubber is still soft even after so long in storage.

There’s one problem though: the tach needle broke off. I’d like to open the tach and see if I can glue it back on or replace it, but I’m having trouble finding a guide online for doing that. My local mechanic used to work for a Yamaha dealer, and he said these XJ instrument clusters weren’t really made to be disassembled. But there’s got to be a way, right?

See attached pics of the bike and the tach for context.

 

The good news is that gauge is really easy to take apart. Remove the gauge assembly from the upper clamp and then once you unbolt the gauges from the bracket it will pretty obvious how to take it apart from the back. The black surround and clear windows will lift right off leaving the gauge face unrestricted.

The bad news is there is no way to remove the shaft from the gauge "motor" without destroying something. I'm sure there is a professional service somewhere that can press it out and re-calibrate but I tried for a long time when I restored mine with a few junk gauges and was never successful. If you get it apart and can glue it then cool. If not, those gauges are all over eBay and here for super cheap.

 

I found some pics.

Remove these screws to remove the chrome cover.



Under that you will see how the gauge cover and gauge is attached to the bracket. Remove those screws.

Once done you will have a single gauge pod:



You can remove the internal assembly and replace just that if your case is in good shape.

 

Perfect, this is exactly what I was hoping to figure out. If I can manage to glue the needle back on, then I wouldn’t even need to take the internals out. Definitely going to give that a try first — if it doesn’t work or if the needle breaks off again after a few miles, I can get a new tach. My gauges are in very good cosmetic condition, so I’m hoping to avoid replacing the internals if I can help it.

I’ll update this thread once I make the attempt.

 

I have an update! You were absolutely correct, disassembling the instrument cluster was easy once I unbolted the retention bracket and disconnected the wires. I was able to get the needle reattached, but of course…

…turns out the cable for my mechanical tach doesn’t have a wire inside! Just a hollow shell, completely useless. So, I won’t know if the tach actually works until I get a replacement for that, but at least it looks nice. As a bonus, I can also now replace the high beam bulb, which seems to be burnt out.