Speedo maintenance?

[BigRed]

Hey, All.

I'm getting a bit of a whine sometimes from somewhere up front at low speed (around 6-30 mph). It sounds like the noise that my speedo made on my Honda CX500. Is there any maintenance that I'm supposed to be doing to the speedo? On the Honda, I took the speedo off, put a drill with a robertson driver bit into the speedo gear, and added 3-in-1 oil as I spun it for a while. Is there anythink more complicated that I should try?

I haven't tried running it with the speedo disconnected yet, as the whine isn't always there, and this bike wants to go way too fast for me to take it out without a speedo. If I get caught at 30mph over the limit here, it can be a $10,000 fine, and the bike really likes to speed. I'm pretty sure I'd end up with a bad case of speed blindness pretty quick. Seems like I develop a case every time I take my eyes off the speedo for more than a few seconds, or every time I pull away from a stop light or onto a highway

Anyways, as the whine gets worse, it'll be easier to locate, but I thought I'd check if there's something I'm neglecting before asking you folks to diagnose the problem based on where the smoke is coming from. So far, I've lubed the speedo cable and greased the speedo aparatus on the wheel. Doesn't seem to change with RPM or brake pressure, so that's why I'm thinking speedo.

Also, I don't think my self-cancelling flashers are self-cancelling... do I need to take the speedo apart for this anyways? Does it even come apart without breaking things?

Thanks in advance,
Brian

[Crazcnuk]

I get that once in a while, although on mine it is a MAJOR whine.

I just take a small dab of white grease onthe end of my finger, undo the cable and dab the grease all over wher the cable conects, then put the cable back on. it sucks the grease up around the speedo input and quiets right up.

[trbig]

I disassembled mine (XJ.. a bit different) and greased all the gears well when mine did that as well as the cable ends. That didn't help it. What finally fixed mine, was a small shot of silicone grease in between where the threads that the cable end screws onto and the part that spins inside of that.

Tod

[Crazcnuk]

The part that gets dry is the part that spins just inside where the cable goes in. It is a nylon bushing and when it gets dry it squeels. If you leave it too long it will start to snap off cables, as it builds resistance.

[Elevener]

Mine started jumping all around and then the needle broke.

[Crazcnuk]

That 'jumping' is caused by the cable binding, then releasing. It will do that for a bit then fail.

[jmnjrpa]

Yep

Been there, done that!

[BigRed]

I couldn't hear the whine on today's ride, but the speedo was jumping around, so I unscrewed the cable and pushed in some grease, and smeared some al over the cable end. Went for a short ride after, and everything seems to have smoothed out.

Thanks for the help!

[Elevener]

That 'jumping' is caused by the cable binding, then releasing. It will do that for a bit then fail.

Actually I had put a new cable on and greased the bottom drive trying to fix it before mine broke.One thread on here said the grease got old in the speedo itself and got sticky.

[draketrumpet]

Noob question

I get that once in a while, although on mine it is a MAJOR whine.

I just take a small dab of white grease onthe end of my finger, undo the cable and dab the grease all over wher the cable conects, then put the cable back on. it sucks the grease up around the speedo input and quiets right up.

Just what do you mean by "white grease" I have some Coastal premium hi-temp grease...will that work? Are there applications where hi-temp grease will not work?

Thanks

[Elevener]

white lithium grease