tachometer doesnt work

[SilentRaven]

So the tach on my bike doesn't move at all, the previous owner said it never worked for her either. the cable seems to be attached fine and rotates when i move the engine round (checked when i did my valves yesterday) ive never taken a tach apart or anything similar so im not sure what to look for. any advice would be helpful.

is there any ill effect on the bike if the tach doesn't work?

[Cipher]

nothing to harm the engine. I have run my bike for days awaiting a new cable to arrive.
Knowing your engine speed in a given gear at a given road speed helps for sure.
You can reverse the math if your tach works but you lose your speedo cable.

Did you remove the cable from its housing? The nipple can work loose and spin things under no load but then act bad when connected to the tach. The cables can also break partially and produce a jumpy needle.

I would disconnect the cable from the tach side and statrt the engine to verify the cable spins in the housing and that the spinning changes with engine speed.
Then remove and inspect things.

WHat bike is this? You may need to get a replacement on ebay or another vendor.

[SilentRaven]

Did you remove the cable from its housing? The nipple can work loose and spin things under no load but then act bad when connected to the tach. The cables can also break partially and produce a jumpy needle.

I would disconnect the cable from the tach side and statrt the engine to verify the cable spins in the housing and that the spinning changes with engine speed.
Then remove and inspect things.

ok so worst case scenario is that i would need to replace the cable or possibly the whole tach

[Cipher]

yes yes yes
indeed

[Redman]

........................................ the cable seems to be attached fine and rotates when i move the engine round ..............

THe cable on the tach end I assume.... but how about if you try to hold it with your fingers....? Could be broke somewhere but the ragged ends catch each other enough for it to spin with no load on it, but if you hold it with your fingers does it still want to turn out of your fingers...?

.

[JTGS850GL]

Just disconnect the cable from the engine and slide the inside cable out. See if the middle of the cable is snapped or the tach end is rounded. If not then go the classified section or ebay and find a replacement tach. Lots of them out there at reasonable prices. One of the benefits of owning a Suzuki. Cheep bikes and cheap parts that are plentiful.

[Cipher]

This 450 t shares its gauges with man many models
I saw a tach for 38 ucks on ebay yesterday.
Its like a cable issue but you are lucky the gauge itself can be gotten cheaply.

[SilentRaven]

Thanks for the advice very one

[SilentRaven]

so i got my new cable in the mail today and once i looked at the new cable the problem was obvious... my old cable didnt actually have a cable in it! swapped out the old 'cable' for the new one and now it works correctly! LOL

[JTGS850GL]

I love it when a problem is obvious.

[SilentRaven]

i have no idea why some one would remove the cable!? when a new one was about $13!

[Cipher]

You are going to have a massive decrease in engine performance due to the increased load of the tach cable.