Dead Speedometer

Well.. I had the speedometer whine and bouncing like crazy issue, just rode with it for a short ride or two and it seems that my speedometer needle is now "dead" at 0 mph. So it seems like it isn't getting any input anymore. Maybe it bouncing around like crazy for a few rides messed it up? (oops)

Time to bust it open, give it some lube, and check the worm gear i believe?

The tachometer was bouncing a bit too before, but now that the speedo has died I haven't noticed much bouncing at all from it. From the mechanical aspect of things I thought it wouldn't be related at all but idk?

I of course know about bigFitz's write up about the speedo break down, but if anybody has further insight it would be much appreciated!

 

Maybe the cable broke?

 

yeah, dont start going crazy before looking at the simple things. unscrew the cable from the cluster and pull on the internal cable and see if its broke. a cheap and easy fix. (under 15$)

wont fix the whine, but you can lube that pretty well without tearing everything down.

 

I unscrewed the cable from the cluster and could freely spin the cable while the bike stood still. I wasn't sure if this was a clear marker of a broken cable so i tested further.

While rolling the bike forward the cable does not spin, I think this might be a clear sign of a broken cable?

I couldn't pull the inner cable out, I don't know how other people have said they pull it out to lube it?

But anyway, key question here is: Does front wheel rolling forward, and no spinning of the speedo cable mean the speedo cable is broken?

 

Generally, YES. (Or the drive gearbox died.)

Disconnect it from the bottom, and pull the inner cable out.

 

Thanks for the input guys

It's definitely a broken cable. And it was definitely in need of proper lubrication. I think what can be learned from this is to take the cable out and lubricate the entire thing, not just spray some from the top down into the cable, because it doesn't seem like any ever got down to the bottom quarter of this cable during its lifetime.

Here is a pic, the bottom 6'' of the cable looks quite rusty/dry. There is also rusty dust around where it connects at the bottom, doesn't seem like there is a very good seal down there?

 

Meh, it's more so just a wear item that's going to fail eventually, as it's always spinning. It's a cheap easy fix

 

Order a new cable from XJ4EVER

While things are apart, lube the backside of the speedo (remove it & flip it, drip a few drops of oil where the input shaft is.)
Lube the "sending unit" too. @ the axle.

 

New speedo cable is on its way, from len of course

I'll make sure to lube those other bits up as well! (Including the new cable when it gets here)

 

Alright so.. New speedo cable came in the mail, I lubed it up good and put it on.

Speedo still no el worko. I made sure that the drive unit at the front wheel was working correctly by removing the top of the speedo cable from the speedometer housing and going for a drive and noting that the cable was being spun.

But when I hook it back up to the speedo, it seems that the speedometer only grabs onto the speedometer cable every once in a while. The speedometer sits at 0mph and flickers up to 5mph tops when moving. So it just sits there bouncing off of 0mph a bit, and making a good racket while i drive.

Is there something i did wrong? I don't really know how I could have done anything wrong. But it seems like the speedometer cable won't mate correctly with the speedometer unit.

 

Did you pull the front wheel off and look at the speedo drive?

 

Nope, I figured driving with the top of the speedo cable unattached to make sure it was being driven correctly would be enough.. Maybe not though?

 

It's probably simply not engaging in the speedo head (as long as the input side of the speedo isn't damaged.) It may take some wiggling/joggling about when you tighten up the cable to be sure it actually engages rather than just pushing the cable back into the sheath. (The whole assembly is long enough to have enough slack that it can do that rather than engage.)

 

Here is a simple test to see if it is no signal getting up to the speedo or a problem with the speedo needle itself:

Ride the bike a known distance (a quarter mile will be more than enough). Before you start, take note of the odometer (or trip odometer) reading, and if it is the same after your set distance, say of 1/4 mile than you know no signal is getting to the speedo unit.

I have a 550 whose speedo died, and the odometer and trip odometer read properly and accurately, but the mechanism that drives the needle to tell you how fast you are going had failed. A combination of laziness and a spare speedo lying around resulted in me simply swapping it out for a known good speedo unit.

Granted this all assumes there IS a signal getting up to the speedo unit. If there isn't, when was the last time you had the front wheel off? I accidentally destroyed the gear unit at the wheel when I first took off the front wheel and reassembled it. There are two nubs that fit into spaces on the front wheel, and if you don't line them up you can bend the nubs to a point where the unit needs fixed or replaced.

 

Thanks guys. The speedo was working fine before the speedo cable broke so i'm pretty sure it just needs some more wiggling/joggling.

I'll try some more wiggling/joggling tomorrow!

 

More fiddling and jiggling today to no avail.

Used an electric drill to drive the old speedo cable while making sure the speedo cable was pushed as far into the speedometer unit as it needed to and the speedometer was still acting funky (barely lifting off the 0mph)

So I think a little speedo teardown is the plan of attack.

Hopefully others would agree this is the next step?

 

If your speedo is bad I should have a spare I can let go

 

Thanks MN, hopefully I won't have to take you up on that though!

No fiddling would get the cable to seat itself right to drive the speedo so... It was time to take the speedo off!

Thanks to bigFitz's writeup I was able to get the dang thing out. Now to spin stuff and see what happens / doesn't happen!

At first glimpse, there seems to be a lot of metal shavings everywhere..

 

So far with the speedo removed I have found out that:

The speedo cable drives the input shaft & magnetic head just fine. But the spinning magnet does not seem to "carry" the magnetic cup along for the ride. I can spin the magnetic cup with my finger and it spins, but the spinning magnet will not make the cup spin :?

Wait.. Maybe the magnetic cup came free from the shaft it is on as well? Because I can spin the magnetic cup by hand, and it doesn't spin the shaft it is on and move the needle anymore.

Anyway.. Here is a short video of me spinning the speedo with a (dying) electric drill. The magnetic cup looks a bit wobbly, maybe it isn't supposed to be free like that.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/E ... directlink

p.s I tried a million times to embed the video but failed so here is the link instead.