Tweet
Now that I have my father-in-law's XJ1100 out of its many boxes of parts and back on the road, it is time to go back and revisit some of the little things. Ever since I fired the bike up, the tachometer has been extremely slow to respond and hardly ever seemed to rise above 2500 rpm.
Two more issues relating to the instrument cluster were that I could not reset the tripometer (I was beginning to wonder about the word "headlight" next to the reset button) - it would move slightly, but not change, and the tripometer didn't correctly increment. I went from 220 miles to 214 miles registered during my first 80-100 or so miles.
Last week I decided it was time to start investigating. It's surprisingly easy to disassemble.
NOTE: I'm not messing with the odometer.
Step 1: Remove the instrument cluster from the bike.
First, I removed the headlight to get at the connectors in the headlight bucket and disconnected everything going to the instrument cluster.
Disconnect the speedometer cable.
There two 10mm nuts complete with lock washers and washers holding the assembly to the bike just behind the headlight. I found it easiest to remove the cover below the headlight (2 phillips screws) to reach a socket on an extension to the nuts.
Step 2: Flip the instrument cluster over and remove the 4 philips screws securing the back cover. Gently work the back cover off the assembly. During reassembly it is easier to slide the bottom of the silver back cover into place first then the top. It should be easiest to remove the top then the bottom. The only hangup really is the gear housing for the speedometer cable.
Step 3: Remove the 6 phillips screws securing the front cover from the guage housing and carefully slide the black housing forward away from the guages. We are not completely separating the front cover, simply folding it forward. There are lights that are attached to the front bottom that will not allow you to completely remove the front bezel.
Step 4: Removing the Speedometer. The speedometer is secured by two phillips screws on either sides of the speedometer cable input (can't think of a better term right now). Remove these two screws and the speedometer is ready to be carefully pulled from the housing.
Step 5: Removing the Tripometer.
For me, it was necessary to further break down the speedometer and disconnect the tripometer. When I opened the housing I found some random gears and a shaft floating in the housing.
Chances are if your tripometer isn't working and you find random gears floating it will be an easy fix. I did not take pictures of this, however you will see what you need to do when you take the tripometer off.
There are only 2 phillips screws holding this together.
When you remove the tripometer, there are black fingers between each numbered dial. The gears sit on a shaft that snaps into place on these fingers. If you hold the reset button down, you will gain access to where the gears will sit. These are held by a spring against the dial. They will only work one way. A little black gear goes on the far right-hand side (at "0"), the rest of the gears go between the numbered dials. No need to worry about what numbers are on the dial, hitting reset will kick everything back to zero when you're done.
This doesn't affect the zeroing function, but my problem with that was simply lubrication. The arm that reaches from the button to the reset lever was binding up and not completely bottoming out to reset.
Step 6: Removing the Tachometer.
There are 5 phillips screws holding the tachometer in the housing. Three of the screws are connecting ring terminals for the tach functionality.
Simply remove these screws - the wires aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so probably no need to label them.
The tachometer will easily slide out the front of the housing.
There does not seem to be much that can be done with the tachometer. What I did find beneficial was to work the needle on the tach with my finger to help loosen things up. I used what I had to lubricate the parts - silicone spray lubricant. I would have rather used something graphite-based on these parts. I'm not seeing any adverse affect to using silicone a week later.
Final: "Empty" Instrument Cluster.
I don't count the computer, but during the process you see a number of light bulbs that could be changed if necessary. The only troubleshooting information for the tachometer I could find was to determine if the tachometer should be replaced.
My tachometer responds much quicker now and seems to have much better range. My tripometer also works now, so some day soon I will learn how far it is to reserve.
Comment