GS450L gauges

[spwalker09]

Hi all,

I'm just getting around to fixing up my bike that I bought in November for a project. I originally bought it for the engine to be set up on a dyno to test the dyno's functionality, but now that's done, and the engine/rest of the bike is in pretty good condition, I'm getting to the niggly little things the bike needs to get back on the road safely and legally (the bike was last on the road '96 as far as I can tell).

So my problem with my gauges is that the speedometer doesn't indicate speed, but the gearbox @ the wheel spins and the cable is in good shape. The odometer turns, so something is working inside the speedo, except for the readout. Is there any way to non-destructively access the gauge to determine if there's anything that I can fix to make speedo work again?

Alternatively, what are you guys' experiences with buying clusters off of Ebay? I found a cluster that "works" (according to the seller) from an '82 GS450L that looks exactly like mine for $30 shipped, does that sound like a fair deal? What clusters from other years/models will fit my bike?

Thanks!

 

[Dave8338]

I bought a set for my 650L off of Fleabay and everything worked just fine.
I only needed/wanted the tach (mine was slightly faded in the red zone)and the Ebay speedo was an 85MPH unit and I already had the 140mph speedo.

If I remember correctly, Bill (Chef1366) hooked me up with the link.

I'm thinking that Steve broke a set of clocks apart and even did some soldering IIRC. Have you done a search for gauge repair?

 

[spwalker09]

I did a search and people had either replaced their cluster entirely or the whole gauge. I'm not sure how to do the latter other than what was instructed in a "how to" thread on this forum - where you use a cutting wheel to open up the cluster and then epoxy it together; but now looking for who it is, I cannot remember.

The schematic on BikeBandit leads me to believe that there's another way to break apart the cluster without cutting into it. But if there isn't, I might just buy the Ebay cluster if it doesnt go high in price, and maybe turn around and sell my old one to someone who's a little more daring than me.

Do my symptoms (speedo not working, but odometer is working) sound like this is something I would be able to fix?

I also forgot to mention - the tach doesn't work either. When the bike was running, there was a humming noise coming from the tach housing, and the needly slowly rose; after about 5-10 minutes of running the needle would probably be hovering around the 1000 rpm mark. Does anyone have an idea of what might be happening? Again would I be better off just to swap the whole cluster out?

Thanks for your help!

 

[spwalker09]

bump?

The winter is nearing the end up here in NH and I'm just getting back to working on the bike. Ideally, if I could find a cheap '83 cluster (theres a bunch of differences from the '80-'82 clusters) I would do a straight swap, but my second option is to repair my current one (same symptoms as above) if thats possible. Third option is to swap to a different vintage cluster but I wanna avoid that as much as possible

Do clusters from 550s and above fit and function correctly on 450s?