"floating" tach needle

[Guest]

my 82 gs550m tach needle "floats" some. seems like it does it mostly in top gear, cable is good. and ive made sure the male/female grooves/insert are aligned when connected to the engine. plus it doesn't see very accurate . some times 4500 rpm in 6th at 50 mph. sometimes 5000 in top gear. sometimes it seems the rpm's rise when going from 5-6th ??? any body ever can it in favor of a electronic one? thanks in advance, tom

[JTGS850GL]

Sounds like the gauge is sticking internally. I have one that's doing the same thing right now and have seen several in the past. Usually you need to open the gauge and clean/lubricate the mechanism after the spinning magnet and before the needle. Seems that the lubricant gets dirty/dry over years and slows down the movement.

[jknappsax]

Spiders nest

I had one where a spiders nest was in the magnet cup. I cleaned it out, and put it back together, and it worked fine. Taking them apart involved prying apart the crimp all around, then recrimping it back together.

[cyclocrossfool]

sprayed some lube, works better, thanks

[sedelen]

I had a "floating" needle, twice on my GS1000.
The cable was less than a year old.
I found my problem to be the crimp that holds the cable to the piece that it mates to on the engine. The crimp just kinda became uncrimpt'd, and eventually let go all together, resulting in a reading of zero rpm. So, I re-crimpt ed, and it did it again, so I took it apart, cleaned the two pieces with alcohol, put some red lock tite on it and re crimptd it again and it's been fine ever since.

[bbjumper]

I have had that one too, liberally sprayed some LPS1 inside the gauge. Problem solved!!

[Chromedome]

"floating" tech needle

Hi, id that very same problim, i removed the cable and two fastening nuts and the chrome cover an then allowed the tech to hang up side down for a few days by the electrics "didnt hurt at all" i filled the recess, for the cable, in the back of the tech with a light oil, the oil never seemed to dissappear but after a few times it did work.