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What lubricant have you used when rebuilding the instruments

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The specific vehicle is a 1982 GS1100GK.

I'm sorry to start a thread over this, but I still find myself baffled by the search feature.

I currently have my gauges off and though I did go through them a while back, I cannot recall what lubricant I used and how well I may have lubricated them at that time. I would like to give them a little spray of something in the cable drives before installation, but I look around the room and there are enough options to make me hesitant.

I'm open to searching for anything if it's announced as best. Otherwise, I'm currently lost between spray silicon, acf-50, kano kroil, engine oil, or maybe some kind of waterproof grease, though I doubt it would penetrate.

Is there a go-to lubricant that you folks have generally accepted or at least a class of lubricants that are approved of or disapproved of?

Thanks for any assistance. I'll try to post a picture of the gauges to make the post interesting.
20190603_001931.jpg
 
Tried silicone on mine, sprayed it through a hole in the back per a suggestion found here. It seemed to do OK for about 1000 miles or so so I opened them up and tried again. Cleaned everything up with rubbing alcohol (don't get it on the face) and used 3 in 1 oil, that seemed to last a bit longer. Now that things have come to a stand still I might try petroleum jelly.
 
RedBaron said:
The specific vehicle is a 1982 GS1100GK.

I'm sorry to start a thread over this, but I still find myself baffled by the search feature.

I currently have my gauges off and though I did go through them a while back, I cannot recall what lubricant I used and how well I may have lubricated them at that time. I would like to give them a little spray of something in the cable drives before installation, but I look around the room and there are enough options to make me hesitant.

I'm open to searching for anything if it's announced as best. Otherwise, I'm currently lost between spray silicon, acf-50, kano kroil, engine oil, or maybe some kind of waterproof grease, though I doubt it would penetrate.

Is there a go-to lubricant that you folks have generally accepted or at least a class of lubricants that are approved of or disapproved of?

Thanks for any assistance. I'll try to post a picture of the gauges to make the post interesting.
View attachment 60733[/QUOTE

No suggestions for lube, sorry. Just wanted to comment on how nice your gauges look. I assume you did a complete gauge restoration? They look like new ones.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't done a gauge rebuild,but gears need a grease. White lithium or silicone,something light
 
Whatever you do, don’t spray anything up into the spindle housing. I had my tach off to try and quiet the whining a few weeks ago. I figured a blast of brake clean might knock out any debris in there. It did, but also fogged the red and blue lenses in there. Now the tach is quiet, I did use white lithium grease, but the fogged lenses look gross.

Yours doesn’t have those lights in it, but they’re so pretty and new, I’d be afraid of staining anything.

Maybe someday I’ll get bored enough or sick enough of looking at them to try taking it apart and attempting a clean/fix.
UAv6zN4l.jpg
 
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I wish I'd payed a bit more attention to lubricating them while they were apart. I was in there to reinstall a screw that vibrated out but I'm glad I went in because a minimal amount of cleaning on the lens made them nice. I've had the bike about 15 years and my godfather before me must've stored it well most of its life because the majority of sun damage was only on the bags and right side cover. I'm dying to find a new center light cluster. 20200416_135824.jpgThe old one is in good shape but I goofed up peeling a pad off of the top with a heat gun 15 years ago and I don't run the visor that covers it anymore as the bike is sans fairing these days.

I'm considering now perhaps a very light spray of contact cleaner, then maybe sneaking some moly lube into the cable inlets. If it made it deep enough in it might last a while. If not that I may go the 3 in 1 route instead.
 
RedBaron said:
I may not use any contact cleaner first on second thought.
Click to expand...

My thinking on using alcohol as a cleaner was to avoid using something that might react with the plastic housing. I've used it along with swabs to clean electrical contacts before and thought it to be a safe choice.
 
Well, I'm going to go against all the other suggestion here and tell you to do it right. :-k

You have seen a bunch of ways to do it wrong, so you know how NOT to do it. You have hinted about the correct way, you may as well do it.

Yeah, you really need to open them up again. Once you have them open, you can see exactly where to direct any cleaner and/or lubricant. You will also see why simply spraying into any random hole is a very bad idea. You need to hit specific points (ONLY) and you just can't do that with a random poke and spritz.
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I have only had to do this a couple of times. I think I sprayed some WD-40 to clean the suspect areas, then used a drop of oil at any pivots. My go-to "oil" is just from collecting the drippings of my oil jugs when I do an oil change. That means that it's primarily just engine oil. Depending on which vehicle donated the drippings, it will be either Mobil1 10w-30 or Rotella T6 5w-40. Nothing fancy, I think it's more important to have oil in the right place than worry about what the oil is.
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One thing about the lubrication is that its not for a heavily loaded gear\drive mechanism.
Also unlike a clock which needs specific lube applied in a specific way to maintain precision operation this is just a crude indicator.

The only lube I have seen in a set of suzuki gauges is a very small bit of what was probably a white grease that was yellowed with age.
 
I still haven't gotten around to it as I keep running around on different projects. I have GL model headlight ears I'd like to powdercoat so the front of the bike is apart anyway. I may pull the gauges back apart, should come apart easier this time. I've noticed so almost invisible hard water spots on the clear lenses and im considering taking a run at them while I'm at it.
 
Unfortunately the instruments are not exactly sealed, and various contaminants can get in but I agree with Big T on this. Grease the odmeter's plastic gears lightly, in fact resmear the existing grease is likely better. Oils will not help nylon gears.

Certain oils and solvents will vapourise and condense on glass as will moisture. Be very careful to note the order of the glass,seals, and orientation of the"ring" when you pry it off.

The bearings of the actual speedo needle MIGHT be improved with a teeny-tiny needlepoint drop of clock or sewing machine oil . AVOID the speedo needle spring and generally avoid lubricating by force through the outside cable bearing or through lightbulb holes etc.

Consider that cars seldom need odometer-speedo service. They are meant to be lifetime devices, but they do not live outside the vehicle either...

Bathrooms are one of the most dustfree rooms in your house- the moisture generally settles dust BUT of course you want it very dry when working in there. It can get right down to weather and ambient humidity of the day when you get finicky...
 
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