Broken Tachometer

[akpasta]

Hmm, cable thing is interesting. I noticed when it first started acting up I tried pulling the cable out a bit and it sorta made things better, but not for long, and not when rpms got up high on a good, fast ride. What would happen is the dude would fix it, then it would work for a while, then after a good fast ride it would go nuts again. He did this twice, then said he was stumped and thought it was just broken. I imagine the dude knows what he's doing since Charlie's Place goes to him for speedo repair work, but who knows.

Would it be wise to buy a broken, ugly looking parts speedo online?

[conbs]

AK, the 2 speedo's that I disassembled I got on Ebay for cheap. There are a few usable parts in each of them, but I could not make one good speedo out of the two of them. Your chance of ending up with usable parts diminishes greatly the more rust there is. In particular it seems to eat the little clock spring.

I would try the cable fix that Jensen suggested first. If it works you will be done. If it doesn't fix the problem, you will know you have to get into the speedo unit. Only three choices: 1. Buy a used one on the hope it is good; 2. Get yours rebuilt (apparently not an option in your case - but I question that); 3. Try to get parts and fix yours yourself. Graham is right that there is a really good discussion and pictures of the speedo in the shop manual. I tried to scan them to add to this thread. I was about done and remembered that JPEG files won't upload onto this site.

Be encouraged that alot of us are cheering for you. I will help however I can.

[jensen]

Hi,

And make sure you attach the ground cable to the housing of the speedometer,

Jensen

[akpasta]

There's an auction for a "working" one on ebay right now, currently at $28. Might try and snag it. Face is faded to hell but I could always have that replaced. I'm afraid it might be too late to try the cable shortening method. When the tach starts to go wild and spin in circles, I suspect something is thrown off inside, because it stops performing well at low rpms after that happens. However, I think you may be right about that method. One thing I noticed when it first started acting up was when the cable was screwed out some, it would calm down. I didn't pursue it because I suspected it was bad for the unit.

[bart3]

I'm having the same issue, did you ever figure out what the cause was?