Xj650 seca speedometer making awfull noise

Hi there!

Today went for a ride, and after the first 20km or so at highway speeds, started the good parts with back-country roads and that's when I noticed and awfull noise comming from the front of the bike.
It was only movement related (reving the engine didnt do anything), so first I thought it would be a brake caliper rubb, but the wheel was free, then I thought it would be the front wheel bearings and got upset I would have to call help to take her home.
While trying to figure out what more could it be, I disconnected the speedometer cable and noise disapeared. Connected it again and there it was.
The cable itself is moving like I assume it is supposed to, so... do these speedometers have maintenance? What can be done to fix this? Anyone had a similar problem?

Best regards,

Sergio

 

Take the speedo off-

Disconnect the cable,
Disconnect the wire leads from the harness in the headlight bucket
remove the two lower nuts and washers that hold it to the speedo to the mount
Remove the two small nust that hold the rear cover to the speedo body
Slide the cover back, slipping the wire connector through the square hole.

Now, you can get the small tube from a Kroil can in the little holes---so lightly fog the inside with a lube, but don't use too much or you'll fog up the glass and the gauge face. These are a sealed unit, and are not easy to get into. If the noise continues after the lube has had a chance to work into the mechanism, you will probably want to try and get in somehow. The way to do that is about identical to my write-up on how to get into the xj700/related gauges. You can find that on xj4ever.com how-to section. If you still can't find that, let me know and I'll forward it.

Put it back together in reverse order

Dave

 

Fantastic, Dave, thank you so much! Will try to fix it that way and will post here if successful!

 

My xj700 speedo screams if it's too cold---
If the temperature is below 53, it will scream like a banshee if I go over 55, and I have to slow down to about 20mph before it stops--- then I can speed back up and stay under 55. Otherwise it starts again. Or, I can just live with it til the next traffic light.

 

Here it was 8°C, and I was driving at about 100 KM/H...
But it really screams, people look at you and all that..

 

Try lubing it..... it'll either stop or it won't.

 

On my 750 seca did same thing ..but you can remove speedo from the cluster ..the pinion dries out put pb blaster on it and put white litheum grease on gears with a qtip and lubed speedo nipple ..all good. But since yours is a sealed unit not sure how you would do it.

 

I explained how to do it