It turns out there is a craftsman--in England--who makes a full time business out of repairing Japanese gauges. And he has some experience with our gauges.
The July 2008 issue of the British bike magazine, Classic Motorcycle Mechanics has a nice article with a lot of pictures about a guy named Chris Rivett who has been refurbishing Kawasaki gauges for many years.
According to the magazine article, he can work on "many other Japanese clocks", but I wanted to to ascertain if he can work sucessfully on our all-plastic gauges. So I wrote him and asked.
Following is his e-mail response, which speaks for itself:
...I have done a few of these plastic ones before. Like most japanese clocks the problems come when spares are needed. I have lots of kawasaki spares because I have been doing them for years. Some suzuki clocks have the same internals as kawa ones so that helps.
I did a GS1000 speedo recently, it had sort of matt finish glass in, that could pose a problem if broken, also if the face is ruined I would have to repair with a decal rather than a new face. New faces can only be made in large batches at high cost.
If you can send me a pic or two of any clocks you have for repair, that would be good. I also have a website www.classicbike-services.co.uk I need to update it soon with more pics but there is some useful info on there.
Hope this helps for now, have a look at the site and mail me back in you need any more info.
This man appears to be a real craftsman who can fix what ails the unit as well as making it look good too, within limits, as he explains. But as you would expect, you will have to pay up for the professional's expertise. His web site gives a general idea about costs and also provides his e-mail address.
Check out Chris' website and write him if you're serious about getting your clocks repaired.
Tomcat
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