tachometer needle is jumping around?

[kevinwcarr]

1983 suzuki gs 850. The needle sometimes sticks when say about 3000 rpms then it jumps to around 5-6000 rpms. Needle goes up and down. Hard to explain but i think you get what im saying.I checked the cable and it looks fine. Oil and everything. Thanks in advance.

[hampshirehog]

Probably the cable - have you pulled the inner out and had a look? Plus oil / grease (graphite is best) it when you put it back together. If that doesn't solve it next check is the meter itself. Pull it off and run it on a drill with an improvised cable. If it dances around you'll have to split the meter, clean and lube (spray furniture polish - I swear by the stuff).

If it's not the meter it's off with the cam cover to examine the drive - could be that if the PO was a bit cack-handed and didn't let it mesh together properly.

[Buffalo Bill]

Mine too.

I pushed my '82 1100G up over 100mph yesterday, the speedo is limited to 85mph, I planned to remember my tach reading and calculate my speed. The tach was accurate up to 5000 in 5th, over that the needle was swinging like an angry drunk! Most cars were driving 75, it looked like I was going 30 to 40 mph faster than them. When I came back down to below 85, the tach sobered up and read accurately again.

[trdhrdr007]

I had a similar problem with my speedometer cable. Did the clean/lube by disconnecting at the speedo, didn't fix the problem. Someone here suggested disconnecting from the wheel & elevating the cable above the speedo & lube again to let oil get into speedo. Worked great, may work for your tach.

[twistedwankel]

1983 suzuki gs 850. The needle sometimes sticks when say about 3000 rpms then it jumps to around 5-6000 rpms. Needle goes up and down. Hard to explain but i think you get what im saying.I checked the cable and it looks fine. Oil and everything. Thanks in advance.

OEM cables are cheap. Replace speedo cable too. The original grease is no longer available anyhow as they have used electronic units for years. I bought equivalent high grade grease from Bike Bandit in "huge" tube for about $10 a 20 lifetimes supply for these bikes and about equal to the cost of a new cable. My old cable lasted 27 years and it wasn't happy with any suggested lube alternatives other than very stiff sticky grease.

If it's your tach mechanizm they are still available new from various sources at a reasonable cost.