speedo (& tach) swap questions & answers?

[GLoweVA]

Alright, here we go. I've been trying to research speedos because my G only goes to 85 and sometime I go a little faster and the 30yr old speedo doesn't like getting put on the peg. Now mine (newer one that I got from TC two months ago after my original 'blew up') is starting to act up.
Here's kinda what I've found: (maybe some others can chime in with input and maybe Steve might edit all this when it's done and make it a sticky)
(Note: this doesn't include the bucket which is black on the standard and chrome on the specials except the midnights which are black)

The G: (standard square ones)
- Speedos are only swappable between 78-81 where the 80/81 stops at 85mph and the 78/79 goes to 160mph.
- Tachs all years (78-81) will swap.

Now, I'm also looking into the SGs because I don't want this same issue popping up on my project once she gets on the road.

The SG: (Circle/round ones)
- Speedos are swappable like the G above. Also there are others that will work too. Any XS Special speedos (650/750/850) will also work and also have the reed switch for the auto cancel unit too. Wiring plug harnesses on these may have to be messed with to make them fit the bike's plug. (don't know 100% on this) (Note: the later ones 80 & up go only up to 85mph)
- Tachs are swappable like the G above too. Unfortunately, the 1100 tachs are electronic and all the other XS tachs are mechanical, so they can't be swapped. (again ot 100% sure on this one either)

When shopping around, watch for the scale, some are in KPH and others in MPH. I just saw one on ebay that went to 240! (but looking close at the pic you can see that was KPH)

Also, TC (a long time ago) posted a thread about replacing the gasket material around the unit with some weatherstripping he found at Lowes(or Home Depot) Here's a link: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...ght=home+depot

Another thing I've noticed, it that the 81's have a different dash bulbs in them. They are the push in type and not the older barrel bayonet type.

For those that have XJs, there's already a tech tip on swapping out your speedos. There's some modifications that have to be made.


Now it's all clear on the firing range, so, open fire with comments.

[crazy steve]

As far as I know, only the XS standards had those square gauges, so I think you're limited to OEM. They do all swap...

The Specials, you have a few more choices. As George points out, there's multiple bikes you can get speedos off of as Yamaha did seem to stick with one speedo drive ratio during this era. The same-era 650/750/850 all used speedos that can be used on the 11; 160 MPH versions were restricted to the 11 though. For Special tachs, you're back to OEM as none of the 'similar' gauges were electric, just mechanical.

The aftermarket is just as grim; there's tons of custom gauges out there, but the vast majority are designed for HD products and very few have the correct speedo drive ratio. Most are 2:1, not the 2.93:1 needed. You might have some luck with aftermarket tachs. Because the XS has two coils, you may be able to connect one of these to one coil and get a reasonably close reading. I've got a couple of spare HD tachs, when I get my XJ running I'll see if that works...

I'll throw one last thought out for the standard owners. If you look at the standard gauges, while the housing is square, the actual gauge face is not. There's a square-to-round 'mask' in there, it may be possible to use a round gauge 'guts' in these if you can successfully disassemble/reassemble the gauge. This might be worth looking into; the 85 MPH speedo isn't as valuable so sacrificing one won't rain abuse down on you...

[GLoweVA]

I'll throw one last thought out for the standard owners. If you look at the standard gauges, while the housing is square, the actual gauge face is not. There's a square-to-round 'mask' in there, it may be possible to use a round gauge 'guts' in these if you can successfully disassemble/reassemble the gauge. This might be worth looking into; the 85 MPH speedo isn't as valuable so sacrificing one won't rain abuse down on you...

Steve, you got me thinking...
I've got my 'blown up' standard speedo, now I'm thinking... take it apart and see if some other 'guts' might fit. I might have an extra SG speedo, but if not, I can buy a cheap 650/750 speedo off fleabay and gut it too and see if I can't make this work. Sounds like a project for this weekend. I'll take pics and document my progress and if it goes well, then maybe we can make it a modification sticky.
As far as taking it apart and reassembly, severeal here have done that including TC and his tach needle replacement.
Probably the hardest part is going to be getting the needle off/on again.

Of course there is the option of putting a whole special gauge cluster on the standard, but then you lose the fuel level gauge and have to modify the system for the special fuel warning light.

Edit: I've been thinking, it would be smart of Yamaha to use the same internal mechanisms in all their speedos, that would make manufactureing cost effective and such. so maybe I might be in luck.

[crazy steve]

Edit: I've been thinking, it would be smart of Yamaha to use the same internal mechanisms in all their speedos, that would make manufactureing cost effective and such. so maybe I might be in luck.

Yeah, you would think so, but they've disappointed me more than a few times on that. Explain the standard/special petcocks and the two different rear caliper brackets to name just two....

But nothing ventured, nothing gained!

PS... PM sent.

[BA80]

I run an XS750 speedometer on my SG..



(Sorry about the pic)

You have to watch what your buying though or you'll end up with one of these green ones that don't match the tach......BTDT



It still works the same but it's ugly and doesn't show KMH. As far as I can tell the black faced ones came on the 78-79 750s.

They only go to 140MPH but WTF? You can get them for aroud $40 on fleabay. The 750 tach is mechanical and won't work on the 11 but sometimes they sell in a set. The last set I bought said it was for a 750 however, the speedo was but the tach was for an 11. 2 for one deal for $40 + shipping

[BA80]

BTW....anybody needing a 750 tach I have 2 or 3 laying around.

[GLoweVA]

Okay, looking at the fiche, here's what I've found:
All '77 thru '82 650's/750's/850's/1100's all have the flasher canceling unit, so therefore all those speedos have the reed switch for that, however, the wiring harnesses for the non 1100 speedos don't exactly mate up to the 1100 bike's harness, so some creative plug work is needed for those to plug up.

For the Special speedos (round ones), there are 4 basic different ones for the 650's/750's/850's/1100's . For ease of discussion I’m only going to mostly talk about the US models (which read out in MPH&KPH except as noted below), but there are several Canadian and UK/NonUS models out there that will also work for those of you that want those)
-85MPH ones (5H1-83570-A0-00)(3J6-83570-A1-00) these are found on all bikes 80 and newer
(Except on the '78 -'80 650 specials which had an option of either, see below)

-120MPH ones (2J2-83570-A0-00) these are found on the '77 - '79 650D/E/Fs.
(except you could get the (140) MPH only ones below) and also found on the '78 -'80 650 SE/SF/SG (specials)
[img]

NO PIC AVAILABLE

[img]
-140MPH ones (2G2-83570-A0-00) are found on the '78 750SE '79 750F & SF (have both MPH and KPH)

(NOTE: There is a green faced one out there. I don’t know what the part number is on this one)
(could be either one of these: 3G0-83570-A0-00 or 3G1-83570-A0-00 off of 650G or 650SE, but not sure)

1J3-83570-71-00 are found on the ’77 650D & 750D, ’78 650E & 750E , ’79 650F (read out only in MPH)

1J3-83570-21-00 are found on the ’77 750D & ’78 750E and the 2K1-83570-E0-00 on the ’79 750F (read out only in KPH)
[img]

NO PIC AVAILABLE

[img]
-160MPH ones (3H3-83570-A0-00) are only on the '79 1100SF


All the 850's were made '80/'81, so they got the 85MPH speedos.

Now for the standards, we all kinda know already that the '78/'79 ones (2H7-83570-A0-00) go to 160MPH

The '80/'81 ones (3H5-83570-A1-00) go to 85MPH.


So, we're kinda limited on the rarity (and cost) of the '78/'79 ones.
The 2H9 & 5K7 speedos are European models and will work, but are kinda rare and I haven’t done enough research on these to tell you what they look like. (ie. KPH vs MPH, etc)


But, I'm working out how to put a round plug into a square hole and may have figured out how to put the guts from one of the above round speedos in the the standard square bucket. Stay Tuned ! This is gonna work, I KNOW IT!

[Pancala]

Well that's interesting. After looking at my SG I see it has been replaced with the 160mph speedo. Makes me wonder if the 19k miles is true or not.. Thanks for the research!

[Rasputin]

Cool. Never seen an 85MPH speedo up close and personal. Us Canucks all had the 240kph or 160mph speedo's.

[GLoweVA]

Here goes the swap.

But, I'm working out how to put a round plug into a square hole and may have figured out how to put the guts from one of the above round speedos in the the standard square bucket. Stay Tuned ! This is gonna work, I KNOW IT!

So, I went ahead and started to see If I can do this and here's the thread for that.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36733

Hopefully if all goes well, this will open up the doors for a lot of us 80G & 81H owners to have some options for going faster than 85mph.

[jetmechmarty]

FWIW, I have a XS650E. The 120 mph speedo has a green face. I think the SE has a black face unit.

[GLoweVA]

Thanks Marty. That's exactly the type of info that's needed on this thread.
I'm hoping that when I'm all done with the square hole / round meter swap that Steve will put it all together for a thread in the tech section.

[GLoweVA]

Additional Info

Okay, so I FINALLY got an upgraded speedo for my SG and this is what I got:



As you can see the speedo is a little smaller diameter than the Stock size.
I bought it off Ebay. (I know, I should have done a little more research)(why would an '80 go above 85mph?)
Here's the listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1980-Yamaha-...#ht_2655wt_864
Don't get me wrong, I very much like this one, but the size thing bugs me a little, so I dug a little deeper.

It was listed for 1980 xs400 Special II.
The first thing I noticed when I went to plug it up, was that the plug that it came with fit PERFECTLY with the XS11 harness. ???
I thought the 400's speedos had individual plugs for each conductor.
Here's a pic of an 80 400SG speedo:

So, I've come to the realization that the one I got is from a 79 xs400.
They have a different stock number for the chrome bucket than the 500/650/750/850/1100. So those buckets are bigger.
Here's what I wanted to get: a 77-79 650 speedo (2J2-83570-A0-00)


Okay, so I have an option if I so choose, I can pull the 'guts' out of this smaller bucket and put it into the bigger bucket that I have here:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36733