Round Peg / Square Hole (Std / Spc speedo swap)

[GLoweVA]

So, here's part one:
I want to put this round speedo,

Into this square hole for my G.

First, I cut the lip off the edge from the white arrow on the bottom left to the right and then up to the right corner (the other white arrow) (This is the bottom and right side of the speedo and will be least visible after reinstallation.) I gently pried up the cut edges and I was able to slide the cover off to the upper left. (red arrow)

Here you can see the backside of the ‘cover plate’ and how little I took off with the dremel tool.

Here’s the cover plate removed. It’s held in with simple rubber gasket that was probably sticky with age.

Now to remove the guts, I removed the 2 mounting screws (red arrow) and loosen the rubber grommet for the trip knob (other red arrow)

Then I just wrangled the guts out of the housing.

Note that mine is really dirty/sooty due the gears in this one tearing itself apart.

I thought I had a spare SG speedo, but I forgot I gave that to Nightengale (John) for his project. So, I currently have nothing to try to put in there.
I'm watching a 650 (120mph) speedo on ebay.
Does anyone have one they'd like to donate to see if this mod is doable?
I saw that a member here had the guts for one, but it's already accounted for. (that would have been perfect)

So now I'm waiting for a round speedo guts so I can put it all together.

[crazy steve]

Looks like a good start!

[copracr]

I have a round 85mph speedo off my bike. I replaced it with the 120. I can't get over to UPS till tues but if you want I'll send it to you.

[BA80]

Why not just put a whole special dashboard on there with both round guages?

[crazy steve]

Why not just put a whole special dashboard on there with both round guages?

You could, but this opens up options for the standard owners. The only factory tachs that will work on these are the XS11 units, so swapping those and their increasing rarity can be a problem. If it proves possibly to swap 'other' guts into the square speedo housing, we'll have more choices...

[fredintoon]

Why not just put a whole special dashboard on there with both round guages?

Hi Greg,
sounds like a plan, but one'd have to swap in a Special's thermistor low fuel sender too.
One could also swap in an earlier speedo that went faster than 85mpg.

[GLoweVA]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BA80
Why not just put a whole special dashboard on there with both round guages?

Hi Greg,
sounds like a plan, but one'd have to swap in a Special's thermistor low fuel sender too.
One could also swap in an earlier speedo that went faster than 85mpg.
__________________

Yeah Fred, not only would the fuel level be an issue, but, you'd have to figure out the harness differences too. Like the neutral light now goes to the tach instead of the center display.

I'd love to swap in an earlier standard speedo, but the sellers of those are getting wise that they are a highly sought out item, thus the prices are crazy.
So I went and did some research to see what would swap where when Steve sparked an idea in me.
See the thread here: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36699

I have a round 85mph speedo off my bike. I replaced it with the 120. I can't get over to UPS till tues but if you want I'll send it to you.

Copracr, I'm really hoping for a 650/750/1100 speedo that goes higher than 85 so I won't have to take this thing apart again, but then again, I'd just like to see if this thing will fit up right before I go out and buy a perfectly good speedo and find out it doesn't work.
I'll send you a PM.

[BA80]

The fuel level isn't really an issue. The sensor in the tank of my special quit working about a year ago. I can go about 100-110 miles and the thing runs out of fuel and I have to switch to reserve the I have about 20 miles to find a gas station. No issue.

It just seems the wiring would be less difficult to figure out than doing the major surgery.

Just sayin'

[GLoweVA]

Greg, I understand what you're saying, but there are some of us standard owners that kinda llike the square faces (it kinda makes it look like a standard vice a special)
As far as the major surgery, it really wasn't that hard to take apart, and putting it together whould be fairly easy with a little epoxy/super glue to keep that face plate on.
(and I had the junked/broken one already setting around doing nothing)

The other plus is that the 120/140 speedos are a dime a dozen for the 650/750's, so there's plenty out there for us to canibalize, there's just not that many 78E's and 79F's available for the 160mph speedos

[GLoweVA]

Got 'er done!

Unfortunately my laptop died and I can't post up all the pics right now.
My work computer won't let me access photobucket and my phone's typing ability sucks.
But I can post up at least one photo of the finished product and hopefully get the rest up in a few days when I get a new laptop.

Note, this was an 80SG speedo guts that I used, but any other speedo should work.




Thanks goes out to copracr (joshua) for donating the SG speedo.
Now the search begins for a 120/140Mph speedo.

[tom clisham]

I just got here

Sorry i missed the beginning. Busy weekend. Before that PC was down for a week. You gotta have time on your hands to want to do this deal. (No offense).

For others interested, I have 2 sets of standard instruments , with 160 speedos, tachs, & idiot lights I'd like to get rid of. How's $35.00 + shipping? PM if interested.
Sorry to hi-jack the thread.

[GLoweVA]

You gotta have time on your hands to want to do this deal. (No offense).

Tom, no offense taken. I did have some free time, and it really didin't take that long to do. Maybe an hour for the disassembly (just making careful to make sure my cuts were good) About 1-2 hours for the reassembly. Now that I know how to get the guts in there, it won't really take me about an hour to get it back together.
The dremel tool was my biggest asset in this job.

For others interested, I have 2 sets of standard instruments , with 160 speedos, tachs, & idiot lights I'd like to get rid of. How's $35.00 + shipping? PM if interested.

That's a great price. If I had the extra money, I'd get them, but sorry the SWMBO keeps me on tight purse strings.
The biggest reason I wanted to try this, is to see if it can be done.
Those 160 speedos don't grow on trees and most won't sell them for anything less than $50-60 plus shipping. With my mod, you can get a cheap 120/140 speedo and do the swap for just a few hours of your time.

[GLoweVA]

Here's the final product

So, here’s the assembly.
Got a 85mph gauge from Joshua. (thanks again)
I cut 180deg around the rim so I could take the face off in case I want to reuse this round housing.
I had I little trouble getting the guts out because of the trip reset knob, so I had to notch it out.

Here’s the unit out.

You can see them side by side, the SG is a little bigger.

Now to try to fit it in the metal square bucket.
Again, I had trouble with the trip knob. It was flush up against the side of the bucket and the gear drive just wouldn’t fit. I had to bend out the hole in the bottom (where my finger is) just a bit to get it in the hole.

I had to take the face and needle off to get a bit more clearance.

So, here it is in the bucket.

And with face back on. Looking good so far.

But, how to fill in the corners? I can use the old square cover plate.

Or I can use the round cover plate from the new speedo.

I thought I might use both, so I used the round one as a template to gauge how much material I had to cut out.

Here’s the 2 cover pieces and the face glass.

Here are all 3 put in the face.
Back side:

Front side:

And the whole thing put together, next to the other standard gauges for comparison.

And a close up

[crazy steve]

That turned out very nice!! My only question is how well is the trim ring attached?

[GLoweVA]

My only question is how well is the trim ring attached?

That was probably my biggest concern about the finished product, (how well will it hold together?)
Because I only cut off about 180 degrees around the lip, the face plate almost clips on. I could use a small amount of epoxy or even superglue and baking soda to make sure it won't slide off. (not right now though, waiting for a 120/140 unit)
And because I cut around the bottom and right side, those will be hidden from view when installed on the cluster.
I'll try to get some side view pics up tonight so you can get a better idea of how the face plate gets put on.