Speedo, no Odo

[Pat Kelly]

Riding my 78 E today I noticed the speedometer was registering the speed but my tripmeter and odometer are not working. I recently replaced the broken speedo cable and it was working fine until today. Granted it was pretty cold this morning. I may take it for another spin this afternoon when it's warmer and see if maybe the 30 year-old grease in the unit was sticky.
Any thoughts?

[John]

I just had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. What I found was the worm gears on the shaft and magnet that is driven by the cable, and the gears on the cross-shaft that rides on said worm gear, had worn down to the point of total slippage. I tried, unsucessfully, to remove the magnet/shaft from the inner frame of the speedo, but it is crimped to tightly into the frame. Once you open the speedo up, you'll see what I' talking about. I was able to remove the two smaller shafts that drive the odo/tripometers. You may just need the smaller shafts to fix it. If that is the case, I have a couple I'm not going to be using. I pulled them from an old 85 mph speedo, hoping I could repair my 160 speedo. Let me know if you want them.

[Pat Kelly]

Will do John, thanks. With the new job I have little time for tinkering with it so I may put out a plea for a working speedo 978 standard, square, 160 mph if possible).
Looks like it's time for the bicycle speedo conversion or this HUD unit . I've been looking at the Sport Vue for awhile now.

[planedick]

Been telling you guys...

I have posted the information here about how to prevent this, but no response from anyone. If you were to take the time to remove the sensor for the turn signal self cancel system, you will find the gears just under them and a small bit of grease on the gears will prevent the ODO from wearing out. Simple fix and you don't have to take the speedo apart. The sensor just snaps out and back in easily.

[Pat Kelly]

I missed that tech tip ( maybe we all did). I'll check that on my LG right away.

[jurgenkoppen]

Where is that tech tip

Just tried to find what planedick has been telling us, but could not. A link would be helpful. Thanks, Jurgen

[DiverRay]

Pat,
I have a "frozen" speedo here. Let me know if you need it for parts. (it's a '79)

[planedick]

All there is

There really isn't any more, just pop out the sensor and apply a little grease to the gears with a toothpick or similar, push the sensor back in place and you're ready to go.

[somesuch]

I just did the gear lube myself and together with some light oil application to the spinning inner part from the outside it fixed my slightly noisy speedo!

--Nick

[jurgenkoppen]

I must be missing something here...

Simple fix and you don't have to take the speedo apart.

I am not getting it, excuse me, but I am not from here...my usual excuse...

To snap out the sensor for the turn cancel system,(which I assume is in the speedo housing if it hides the gears for the speedo) would I not have to get into the speedo, and therefore take it apart?

Or did you mean just the difference between opening the speedo casing versus trying to disassemble the inner crimped together guts?

I had the speedos on my bikes open just recently, did some switching of components, and found the guts to be quite unwilling to unscrew, unsnap or un-whatever.... But if you tell me there is a sensor which can be un-snaped, I will try again- and do the grease.
Thanks for your patience, Jurgen

[John]

The sensor that Planedick refers to is the reed switch for the self cancelling turn signals. You have to remove the speedo from the chrome housing, and then you will see right above the where the cable attaches is a long, thin switch/sensor. If you gently remove it, you have access to, and can lube the gears that drive the odo/tripometer.

[Pat Kelly]

I got a replacement spedometer off Ebay (inexpensive). Works fine. Greases the gears inside. It has 21,000 miles showing and my bike has 30,000 miles. Cable chucked into my drill it runs 40 MPH. That's 225 hours or just over 9 days, straight.
I wish I could hook it to my tractor on my next couple of dispatches. It would be all set by the time I got home.
I did the same thing with a bicycle computer but that was easier. I programed it to the maximum wheel size and it didn't take too long.

[Pat Kelly]

Installed the new speedometer the other day. Rode to the end of the block and all seems ok. Once I got above 30 MPH it started to squeal/whine, LOUD. It was louder than my engine. The sound didn't vary with my speed. It would continue until I slowed to about 10 MPH then stop. The needle was steady and appears accurate.
After a bit the sound became intermittent. It would go away for a few seconds then come back. It seemed to be less and less. I took the bike out of town to see if higher speed made any difference, I'd only been to about 45 MPH up till now.
Above 60 MPH it did change pitch and the needle began to fluctuate. It then began to read too fast (and still fluctuate). At one point I was doing about 30 MPH and the speedo was reading between 60 and 110 MPH.
Then it pegged to the right and broke the needle.
After that the noise went away and the nub of a needle is steady and indicates the correct speed.
It didn't do this when it was attached to my drill that spun it to 40 MPH.
I may re-install the original speedo and the Cateye bicycle computer and live with that. I'll see what I can do about the original speedo in the meantime.