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How I fixed my speedometer!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Barneycanoe
  • Start date Start date
B

Barneycanoe

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I've recently acquired a 1982 GS850GLZ. So far I've replaced the stator and R/R. Tweaked the horn. Got a new seat from B & H. Seems like there's something to do every weekend!

Coming home yesterday my speedo went dead. I know the cable is new cause I put it on myself a couple of weeks ago.

I took off the front wheel and had a look at the drive. Thanks to the many posts here which told me how to put new grease in the worm gear part and clean the rest.

My problem was the seal, which (very roughly) resembled a spool of fishing line. The upper part stuck up so it was pushing the golden washer with its two tabs away from the engagement point with the gear that drives the worm gear.

I've attached a very crude picture which shows what the seal looked like.

Even after cleaning and regreasing the gold washer would not stay down and engaged. So I took a knife and trimmed back the upper part of the seal. (I can't figure out if it used to lay straight and heat/years/use has made it stiffen up?)

After I did this when I reassembled there was a gap between the circlip and the two washers that would allow the gold one to still slip out of engagement. I went around the corner to Jim's Small Engines where he found me a duplicate of the washer behind the circlip. I put that on and it all fit together perfectly. Now my speedo is working again (And the turn signals self-cancel!)

Suzuki still makes the speedometer drive. It would have to come from Japan (two-three weeks) and costs $110.40 CDN!

Nice to know but hopefully my cleaned and tweaked one lasts a long time!

Dave
 
Thank you for sharing Mr. Barneycanoe. That's some nice work.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
My speedo quit working a couple weeks ago too. I replaced the cable and still nothing. Luckily I have a parts bike ( 80 gs950g) and threw the donor one on my bike... works great now! Maybe if I decide to get the parts bike going and street legal, I'll see about tearing it apart like you did and getting that drive gear to work again.
 
Barneycanoe said:
I took off the front wheel and had a look at the drive. Thanks to the many posts here which told me how to put new grease in the worm gear part and clean the rest.
Click to expand...
What posts? I can't find much information here. The used speedo drive I put on a month ago broke yesterday. Still haven't figured out exactly how, but the problem is in the drive unit on the hub. (I have a new speedo cable, so the problem isn't on that end.) When the first one failed I couldn't figure out how to get under the seal without destroying it, so I got a used one which lasted about 600 miles.

I am thinking that $50 for a new OEM one may be a bargain. (They are cheaper here for some reason.)
 
Ah, figured it out. That piece that the speedo cables attaches to comes out with excessive force.

The tabs on the gold shaped washer are also supposed to bend in and engage the whats-it-called that goes under the seal and drives the pinion. I can see how you could get a little more life out of it with a thicker washer under the circlip. Hope it lasts.

I did think the take off the circlip and grease what I could when I got this speedo drive but didn't know I could get inside the housing. Oh well.
 
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