Speedo gear keeps breaking

[nateberkopec]

Hi all,

Well, my speedometer gear (the drive at the front wheel) has broken twice now in a span of about 1000 miles. The first time was the one I got with the bike - figured heck, it's an old part, stuff breaks. I replaced it, and now my brand-new one has broken again.

Unless I'm mistaken, these things aren't supposed to bust every 1000 miles, but sure enough, I put her up on the centerstand and disconnected the cable, shined my flashlight at the gear and realized it wasn't turning.

So what could be going wrong here? Is it possible my cable is old and causing too much resistance, wearing out the gear at a superfast rate?

I'm considering just buying a GPS and not having to futz around with buying speedo gears and having to take the front wheel off every 3 weeks.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Oh man, that sounds really inconvenient.

Is the axle bolt too tight? Is the cable input set at a severe angle? Are the slots and/or tabs bent or misaligned? Is it lubricated well? Maybe you're just having a bit of bad luck?

Did you get your charging system straightened out?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Kaiser Sosei]

Are you buying used ones?

When mine crapped out, I bought a used one and it didn't last very long so I bit the bullet and grabbed a new one. haven't had any issues since.

[Ekko]

Clean speedometer gearbox?

My speedometer gearbox just broke down also. As I use my GS1000 to work every day I can't just take it apart and fool around. I thought about taking it apart and put on new lubrication (seemed overly 'sticky' when I took the wheel off and turned the gearbox around by hand). Does this seem sensible? What sort of lubrication to use?

Ekko

[nateberkopec]

Yep, Basscliff, turned out it was a dead battery the whole time (thankfully, I guess!). I thought the guy at the store hooked it up to a load tester but he actually hooked it into a voltimeter, so when I did get it hooked into a real load tester it showed up "weak". Replaced it, no problems since.

As for this speedo gear, my family's got a TomTom laying around which theyre not using, so I'm considering just mounting that right over the speedo gauge instead But I'm thinking that wiring in the TomTom's power to the accessory fuze could be even more of a can of worms than this speedo gear...

But yeah, the speedo gear replacement was a brand new OEM part. Should I have greased it before I put it on? Guess I figured it was ready to go, maybe not?

Also I think my speedo cable might have been at a funny angle, but you'd think that would bust the cable and not the gear.

[jermee47]

Drive gear repair... Simple and cheap

"drive cog the tabs that interface with the main gear were worn down to half thickness and would not engage at all"

CHECK THE TABS THAT ARE UNDER THE SNAP AND WASHER ON METAL PART OF THE DRIVE GEAR THAT FITS INTO THE FRONT WHEEL..... THEY ARE TINY TABS AND MESH WITH A GEAR THAT TURNS THE WORM GEAR WHICH OPERATES THE CABLE....


THE SAME THING HAPPEND TO MY DRIVE COG, SO I HAD THE TAB BRAZED USING A GAS TORCH AND FLUX AND BRAZING WIRE.... THE BRAZING LEFT A NICE PILE OF METAL TO GRIND AND FILE BACK DOWN TO REFORM THE DAMAGED TABS....

I DID NOT HAVE PICS, BUT THE BRAZING METAL SEEMED TO ME A HARDER METAL THAN THE STEEL COG ITSELF.....

I HAVE NOT HAD A CHANCE TO INSTALL BACK ONTO THE BIKE, BECAUSE THIS ALL OCCURED TODAY.

THE TABS ENGAGED WELL AND THE UNIT TURNED AS SHOULD AFTER THOUROUGH CLEANING AND GREASE PACKING.

CERTAINLY A CHEAPER FIX THAN A USED CABLE DRIVE ASSEMBLY AND WAY EASIER THAN TRYING TO FIND A REPLACEMENT COG..... ALL SITES I HAVE VISITED DO NOT SELL REPLACEMENT PIECES TO SERVICE THE CABLE DRIVE ASSEMBLY