Speedometer Repair

[FAST FRED]

I'VE HAD THE SAME WILD SPEEDO SYNDROME ON MY CL, IT WAS SO VIOLENT IT BBROKE MY NEEDLE OFF. I PURCHASED ANOTHER USED SPEEDO ON EBAY AND WHEN I INSTALLED IT , IT DID THE SAME "WILD THINK", I THEN CHANGED THE SPEEDO CABLE AND THAT FIX IT NO MORE "WILD THING" THE USED SPEEDO WORKS PERFECTLY SMOOOTH. I THINK A BAD CABLE WILL START TO BIND OR STICK AND WILL WIND UP UNTILL IT OVERCOMES THE DRAG AND THEN UNWINDS INSTANTLY AND THIS I THINK CAUSES THE SPEEDO NEEDLE TO SWING MADLEY UNTILL IT BOUNCES OFF THE PEG. MAYBE WINDING UP IS THE WRONG PHARES TO USE BUT THE CABLE IS NOT SPINNING SMOOTHLY ITS MORE JERKY.

FAST FRED

[e3steve]

Of course, all answers to the problem should be understood to assume that the cables are lubed and working properly. I'd been that route before buying a replacement unit, which works fine.

http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2526

[rgtaylor2]

Update on repair... Foreign got them 12/4 and I gave Preston a call on the 12th. He did a visual inspection and did not expect any problems fixing both, but had not gone into them when we spoke. Their estimate on the phone before I sent them was a minimum of $80 each. He will contact me when he is inside with a final price on repairs. This seems a normal time frame so far.
More to follow.

[rgtaylor2]

Preston called today (12/19) and the total repair cost with return shipping is $203 for both units which included the required parts. He will ship today and I should have both speedometers within the week. I emailed Bill Silver this week and he mentioned he saw my speedo's in the repair line at Foreign Speedo, Inc. and it should be soon, so I was expecting the call. This experience has taught me one thing, I will never purchase another 40+ year old speedometer unless it has been rebuilt. I will post again when I get the speedo's and see how they work. More to follow. G

[britman]

Preston called today (12/19) and the total repair cost with return shipping is $203 for both units which included the required parts. He will ship today and I should have both speedometers within the week. I emailed Bill Silver this week and he mentioned he saw my speedo's in the repair line at Foreign Speedo, Inc. and it should be soon, so I was expecting the call. This experience has taught me one thing, I will never purchase another 40+ year old speedometer unless it has been rebuilt. I will post again when I get the speedo's and see how they work. More to follow. G

rgtaylor2

I too have an extra speedo with the jumping needle and grinding noise syndrome. I checked with Joel Levine in Atlanta Ga. who has done a couple of British Speedo's for me and his bottom dollar estimate was $225.00 for the basic repair. I will also be contacting Foreign Speedo when I get ready to have the unit repaired. Thanks for the info.
http://www.joellevinecompany.com/

[rgtaylor2]

Well its Christmas morning and when I go outside to get my paper guess what Santa left on the front porch. Yep, you guessed it, a pair of beautifully rebuilt and looking like new CL77 Speedometers. Just what I needed! Hopefully the mounting rings I saved will work again and I'll be riding before the day is out, Oh wait, its only 30 degrees outside.

I will conclude by saying Preston did a super job for me and I will have absolutely no problem recommending his workmanship to any member of this forum.
I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Gordon

[G-Man]

That looks like a truly nice job they did there. When I got my CL77, the speedo had already been part dismantled and the bezel was in poor shape, partly from the dismantling process and patly because the brake or clutch cable had rubbed on it.

I managed to buy a set of three non-working speedos on ebay with various ailments but two had good bezels, so I set about dismantling one as carefully as I could. I found that the bezel could be prized away from the speedo body (see below) with minimum damage using succesively larger flat-bladed screwdrivers to turn the edge over.

After that I took a look inside my speedo mechanism and tried to turn the input shaft. The bearing was very stiff so I cleaned that with solvent and re-lubed the bearing. I removed the needle by putting cardboard packing on the speedo face and gently levering it off with two flat-bladed screwdrivers. The dial came off easily and I gave dial, needle, glass and rubber gasket a wash in soapy water.

I cleaned all of the bearings and gears and re-lubed with grease fo rth egears and light oil for the bearings, wiping away the excess.

Once I had my movement working to my satisfaction - I took at look at my two spare movements. One had clearly been driven into 'frenzy mode' as described above - the hairspring, which retains the needle against the turning force of the magnet had clearly been in distress and got tangled up as you can see in the pic below.

I think I can repair this movement and get it working, if I can find a new spring. My Father-in-Law repairs clocks so I'll check with him.

There's not much to these speedo movements compared with the old Smith's Chronometric which were full of tiny gears. Next to the spring in the picture(s) you can see the only 'tweakable' items which look like they could affect the calibration. One looks like it sets the zero point and the other changes the spring tension (pre-load). I'll have a play on the lathe and see if I can work out how easy it is to set / re-set the calibration.

Hope this might help those who are scared to dismantle one of these instruments. I just love poking about in mechanical things to learn how they work. I'm happy that I now have a good speedo for my project and enough spares to build up another two.

Once you're happy you can gently fold the bezel back over the speedo case.

Regards

G