Got the 850L running now tach doesn't work

[Guest]

Redid the carbs on my 80 850L and it really runs good but I see the tach is not working. Also seeing some leaking around the tach fitting at the head. So I'm about to pull the tach cable and just wondering if there are any gotchas? I'm kinda hoping only the cable not the tach instrument itself...

[tkent02]

No gotchas. Take it apart and fix it.

[Datsa Noydb]

Easiest thing is to pull the cable off the back of the tach, start the engine, see if the cable core spins. If it does, it's probably the tach at fault. If it doesn't, pull the cable off the drive unit on the head to see if that is spinning. Divide and conquer.

[Sebastian24]

Hey I have a whole cluster off of a 1980 gs850g, if you can't fix yours and you need a tach, let me know and I will take it out of the cluster. I'm doing mini gauges on my bike

[jdvorchak]

Hey I have a whole cluster off of a 1980 gs850g, if you can't fix yours and you need a tach, let me know and I will take it out of the cluster. I'm doing mini gauges on my bike

Thank you all for the answers... It looked pretty straight forward.

Sebastian, thank you for the offer. I haven't trouble shot it yet but will as soon as I can and let you know.

[jdvorchak]

Just took the cable out and it's trashed. So I won't know if the instrument itself works until I get a new cable.

[tkent02]

It probably does, they mostly work fine. Sometimes they need some lube but to find one that doesn't work at all is rare.

[Who Dat?]

Hey I have a whole cluster off of a 1980 gs850g, if you can't fix yours and you need a tach, let me know and I will take it out of the cluster. I'm doing mini gauges on my bike

Nice offer, indeed, but the gauges are different between the G and the L.

[jdvorchak]

The internal cable itself was rusted tight and the part that attaches to the drive was twisted off. Years of sitting takes it's toll. If there wasn't a fairing I'd just spin the tach with a drill. I just chuck up a piece of the old cable, one with the square end, and spin it counter clockwise.

Thank you for the offer it was very gracious.

I've had a bad speedometer before on one of these old bikes. The needle was laying at the bottom of the gauge. Curiosity got the best of me and I disassembled that speedo. I don't ever want to do that again! About 3 band aids and painful cuts later I found the internals, the spinning magnet, had fallen apart. An eBay replacement fixed that one. LOL

[jdvorchak]

got the new clutch cable installed with new o-ring on the head mount. Stopped the oil leak but now the tach needle is lazy. Only rode it about 5 miles so far and I saw it go up to 2500 rpm once. Took it about 30 seconds after shut off to drop to Zero...LOL I'm hoping warmer weather and more riding will wake it up.