A loud, strange noise! Need help!

[nicholascott]

Happy new year everyone,

I'm getting this VERY loud whirring noise coming from the front end of my bike. I have (i believe) located the noise. It seems to be coming from my instrument cluster. The speedometer to be more exact. The noise only happens when i'm riding. When I start to ride at maybe 5 or ten mph the noise is very slow. However, when I start to go faster the noise gets louder and faster. The whir sound increases as speed increases. When i'm at a stand still there is no noise at all. But man, once I take off it is loud and annoying.

Is there anyone out there that has had this same problem. And if so, is there any way to fix it. I'm at the end of my ropes here. As always, any help is always appreciated.

[Tom MLC]

Most likely the speedo cable. Easy to replace.

Could also be in the speedo itself. You can try to test this by disconnecting the cable at the front wheel. Try to lock the end into a battery operated drill. Not much to bit onto. Run the drill at LOW SPEED and listen to where the noise is coming from.

[brveagle]

lube your speedo and tach cable

[DimitriT]

I had a similar thing happen to me with my tach. It was due to a combination of things. First, the bearing in the tach unit was dry. I removed the tach from the bike, turned it over so that the drive unit faced up and dripped some light machine oil (I used 3 in 1) into the unit. I then let it sit in a warm place for a while to the oil would work its way into the bearing. You can try turning the drive while it is full of oil to help the oil flow in. If that doesn't do it, you may need to first disassemble the unit and clean out the drive from the inside, with some brake cleaner or something before lubing it. Careful with the cleaners as they will damage the paint on the clock face.

The other cause of the noise was the angle of the cable. If the cable comes in and puts sideways pressure on the bearing, it will eventually cause it to wear and dry out again. Try to feed the cable perpendicular to the drive at the speedometer so it doesn't put much sideways pressure on that bearing.