GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

Weird problem.
I noticed tonight, riding out on my second night with the bike, that my speedo is slow to respond. I hit the highway and punched the throttle a bit. I expected to look down and see 60mph or so, but it was like 30. It gradually caught up. Same on slowing down. I'd drop down to about 20 but the speedo was around 40.. Eventually it caught up.

Any clue as to what's up with that?

I will add... This afternoon I lifted the speedo and tach out to replace their bulbs. Far as I know I reattached the speedo cable correctly. But it does seem like an odd coincidence. At least the bulbs work now. :)

-h

Quote from: hulap0prAny clue as to what's up with that?...

Well you could have a balky speedo cable. It could be broken and rubbing at the break junction and slowly causing the speedo side to catch up.

Or it could be slipping at the connection to the front wheel...not likely.

You could try unscrewing the cable from the speedo and then reattaching it as a test. Your bulb replacement seems very causal to this problem. The speedo cable is prone to wear because it spins around anytime you go anywhere.

If you take the weight off the front wheel and turn it by hand...in the right direction...you should see the speedo and/or just the cable move if you have disconnected it.

It is a simple mechanical connection. Use your powers of inspection.

they make cable lube for a reason.

I think I may have figured out whats causing it, but not how to rectify it...

I just took the bike out of my garage and went for a ride. Speedo seemed normal. I let the bike sit in the sun while I was visiting family and came back and rode home -- speedo was sluggish again.

Could it be heat that's causing the speedo to bog down? If so, is there a way to lube the speedo up? (Not the cable, but the speed itself?)

Thanks for the help.

yep you take it all apart, clean it, and use some light weight grease
then spent the next three hours trying to get it back together

Quote from: davipuyep you take it all apart, clean it, and use some light weight grease
then spent the next three hours trying to get it back together

Noooooo. Really? Is it that intricate? Damnit.
I guess that's a project for next week...

Had the same problem on my goldwing..

What it turned out to be was a glob of grease had worked its way into the needle shaft while I had the speedo off working on something else..

My fatal mistake was sitting the speedo face down while I worked on other things..

The good news is, after about 3 weeks of "just live with it" The speedo finally went back to normal..

Quote from: FaxxxyHad the same problem on my goldwing..

What it turned out to be was a glob of grease had worked its way into the needle shaft while I had the speedo off working on something else..

My fatal mistake was sitting the speedo face down while I worked on other things..

The good news is, after about 3 weeks of "just live with it" The speedo finally went back to normal..

That's EXACTLY what I did yesterday. I pulled the speedo to replace the bulb. Left the speedo on my seat (in the sun of course) while I went out to buy the replacement bulb... I bet that's what did it. Thanks Faxxxy. I will wait it out and see if it fixes itself.

It probably will..

Good luck..

usually I took them in the house and worked on them on the kitchen table, which is close to the frige, so it was a 4-5 beer job

Quote from: hulap0pr

Quote from: davipuyep you take it all apart, clean it, and use some light weight grease
then spent the next three hours trying to get it back together

Noooooo. Really? Is it that intricate? Damnit.
I guess that's a project for next week...

Note that that the extra 2.75 hours required by davipu is for drinking beer.

Quote from: dgyver
Note that that the extra 2.75 hours required by davipu is for drinking beer.

Oh, it's noted!

I had too many lights on my goldwing and the sheer amps burned up my ignition switch..

In order to change it out, I took the entire dash panel and laid it over on the tank so I could get to the back..

It only took me about a half hour to change the ignition switch, but that was long enough..

Quote from: hulap0prI think I may have figured out whats causing it, but not how to rectify it...Could it be heat that's causing the speedo to bog down?

These are some pics of the insides of the speedo and tach. Just click on the thumbnail for the full size pic. The speedo and tach both employ the same eddy current coupling for operation. The spring you see adds resistance and the instument also has some sticky goop on the needle bearing that also seems to be used for dampening.


The possibility that you moved some of the "goop" that is on the bell side of the speedo is high if it was upside down and warm. My previous post was dependent on correct speedo operation, but as you can see, it would not take much inside the mechanism to cause a change of operation.

I agree with the "wait and see" philosophy. If you want to see more stuff on how I get into these instruments, click here.