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Speedo slow to respond - not the cable

  • Thread starter Thread starter isu2014
  • Start date Start date
I

isu2014

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78 gs550. My speedometer is super slow to pick up speed and hangs when I slow. I lubed the cable and it's all good. The odometer works fine, but the speed is way off. I can be going 45 and it thinks I'm going 20, then I can be stopped and it will very slowly drop from 45 to 0 after quite some time.

I talked to the local repair guy and he says the gauge is rusty inside. Any way to fix this? I've heard of people soaking gauges in alcohol, but I don't think these are the kind of gauges you can do that on. Any ideas?
 
if you are committed to taking them apart because you know they are basically worthless you now have the careless abandon required to do one of two things:

A.) pry the front cover off (very carefully so it goes back on)

B.) Cut the housing so you can carefully glue it all back together.

Both work. I prefer A

Once you get it apart you can try some WD 40 or other cleaner on the spinning mechanism you will see inside. I have tried getting a light oil to travel down the tach input but it generally goes everywhere inside and is not as effective as a cleaning.

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I have taken a drill and drilled a 1/4 hole about half way down on the side of the casing, then you can peak inside to see where the center is and the spinner thing is. Then I took some light 3in1 spray oil, not WD40 but a light weight oil and lightly spray that area through the straw that came with the can . Then you can seal the hole up with a little dab of silicone , or go to you local hardware store and got a rubber plug to fit the hole.
 
I will try taking mine apart. At this point I don't care much about the gauge but I would like to keep the low original mileage. Thanks guys.
 
Pls keep us updated on your success. My 79 GS1000E was just diagnosed with "dead speedometer syndrome". it was working on the way into the office, stopped working somewhere on the way home. I hold out some hope that it is the cable, but no real time to wrench on it this week. Just out of paranoia, I ordered a replacmenet cable, and found a drive unit cheap on ebay. There is another post with a great play by play on cutting the housing-- but I am hoping that I do not need to. Others describe hearing a squeak from the unit before failure. I think that I heard that also- but it may have been coming from the drive unit down near the wheel. Murphy's law is my credo in life, so we'll see.
 
I just took the dash off, turned the set upside down and gave each a good shot of PB Blaster and after a few miles everything was back to normal.

Doesnt matter if you replace then guage or not as gar as the actual mileage goes. You open up the new one and turn the dials to reset the milage to what your original guage says. Just be sure to start at the right side of the reading and go to the left as you rest the numbers..AND go UP in the count so you dont snap the little plastic stops between each number.

In other words, if the far right number on the new one is 3 and you need a 7..then go up till its at 7. Then do the next one and so on till youve reset the milage correctly.
 
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Good news for anyone interested- I unscrewed the cable from the back of the guage yesterday evening, and to my untrained eye it looked fine. I did the same from the drive unit at the wheel, and Boom--- the last 3 inches of the cable actually fell out of the sleeve. I never really looked at one of these in detail before, it has a fitting that is similiar to a flathead screw, which must mesh into the drive unit somehow. For now I just buttoned it back up, and I am praying that Bike Bandit sends me the right cable and that everything matches up. I was also thrilled to learned from another post that the reason that my Turn Signal control unit was no longer cancelling the signals is that it reads from the speedometer. No speedometer ='s no auto cancel. Cant beat the forum and knowledgable GS'rs.
 
Thanks for this thread... My odometer died today.. I did a search here... followed the advice... opened up the body and found this
2013-06-03_22-34-26_149_zps83a8f46b.jpg


Any Ideas on how to replace the worn gear?
 
Uncamitzi said:
Thanks for this thread... My odometer died today.. I did a search here... followed the advice... opened up the body and found this
2013-06-03_22-34-26_149_zps83a8f46b.jpg


Any Ideas on how to replace the worn gear?
Click to expand...
With another speedohead
 
found one at the bone yard...10k on it.... after some mixing and matching (and some white lithium to the part that was chewed up on the old one...) works fine...

now ..the ethical dilemma......... to change the odometer to reflect the actual (or supposed) mileage....
 
rustybronco said:
There is no other answer... unless you are good at re-welding and grinding new teeth.
Click to expand...

I thought that someone might have found a nylon or synthetic replacement... When I got into it I did see that the housing was pressed together and held together with slots and tabs bent and twisted down to secure the moving parts. Any attempt to pry it open and change out the gears would have destroyed it.

Thanks for the link you supplied. It helped quite a bit.
 
Retrofit from another suzuki

Retrofit from another suzuki

I have retrofited the guts of a speedo from a mid 1990's katana inside of my original gs speedo case after the gears in it crapped out.

I even took the katana internals and bent the metal housing holding the mileage # wheels in place, then set them to match the mileage that was on my original gs speedo internals.... And put the mileage # wheels back in place and secured it back to the metal housing with jb weld. Been working for 7000 miles now and still going.....

Enginuity and trial and error can accomplish many great things.
 
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