Speedo noise

[PBJ]

Okay here's one i've never heard here before. Since I've had my 85 there has been an intermittent noise like a bad bearing somewhere in the front end. I finally located the noise as coming from my speedometer. It happens most on cold mornings and is high pitched and at times so loud it leaves my ears ringing when if finally stops. It used to stop after i got below 15 mph. Now it will continue until the bike is fully stopped. It will stop after a few miles and then only periodically return while riding before stopping all togther.

 

I pulled the speedometer cable and oiled and greased it . I checked the ends for wear but there is none. So its not the cable it has to be in the speedo itself. What the heck could it be and is there some way to fix it without having to replace the speedo all together?

 

Its so loud that my son could hear it while riding beside me as we rode through town.

 

Help!

Edited October 19, 2009 by PB&J
spelling

[utadventure]

PB&J-

 

I had the same thing on my '86 when I first bought it and changed out the speedo. Since then I learned that the gears inside the speedo need lubrication and that many have removed the speedo, turned it upside down and added lube through the cable connection.

 

Others will chime in here with more specific info on solving this.

 

Dave

[skydoc_17]

Hey Phil,

Utadventure hit the nail right on the head with this one! Pull the windshield, 4 Phillips Head screws on sides of dash unit, just loosen them, dash cover comes off, 10MM nuts on back of dash unit, (be careful not to drop them) Rock the dash unit forward after disconnecting the speedo cable, 3 in 1 oil, or motor oil works just fine, (not WD40) button everything back up, (don't forget to reconnect the speedo cable!) and you should be good to go.

Earl

[6m459]

I took my red '84 up to my dad's place for winter storage yesterday.

 

Now, I am too cheap to pay to plate and insure both bikes so RED hasn't been used at all this year except for the occasional run around the block to test out my brake & electrical repairs etc. Basicly she is a hot spare for old BLUE, just in case.

 

Anyways, the trip is about 25 km / 15 miles.

 

I was pleased with the way she ran till about 3/4 of the way there when I turned onto a secondary road and hit a bump in the road. I suddenly had a quite alarming noise like you describe from the front end. I got off the throttle immediately and slowed down to plan a stop to take a look, but when the speed came down to about half the 80km/hr speed limit, the noise suddenly stopped. I resolved to press on, since I was so close to my destination and not strictly speaking street legal, but a bit further along, I had the same thing happen all over again at another bump.

 

It sounded like something was rubbing on the front tire but I have examined it since and find nothing like that going on. I am reasonably sure it wasn't the speedo so I have concluded front wheel bearings. I have experienced w/b noise in cars and it doesn't come on suddenly like this, and yet it had all the characteristic sounds of a w/b.

 

I did notice that out on the highway, before turning off onto the secondary road that the bike did have a bit of a tendancy to wander. I wondered about the health of the w/b's as a cause of that too but rationalized that the different feel from Old Blue might be due to RED being equipped with an aftermarket super fork brace.

 

Ironically, I have a fresh set in the RHS dash pocket that I never got around to installing this year.

 

Has any one else had front wheel bearings suddenly go noisey like that?

 

Thoughts / opinions / wild speculations ?

 

Thanks,

 

Brian H.

[Venturous Randy]

To fix it right, and this is a real common problem on the 1st gens especially when the weather turns cooler, is to get grease up around the bearing, or some from the top of the bearing. I made a cheap fitting that works great. Remember, the hole the cable sticks into is a blind hole so it is not open to the inside of the speedometer.

Look at this post.

RandyA

http://venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36254&highlight=speedometer

[rjg1985]

You should also pull off the front wheel and clean and re-lubricate the speedometer worm gear. I had a bad squeak at the front wheel and thought it was the wheel bearings. The grease in the worm gear was dried up.

[Condor]

I had that exact same problem on the '83, and it didn't have a thing to do with a bad or dry bearing. The speedo cable cover had come unscrewed from the back of the speedo fitting behind the dash. It happened on Kurt's (Gone14s) '84 too....

[84xj1100]

I so agree........I have had this happen to me on my 86 as well as my xj1100. Anyplace you find gears you must also have lubrication. If the speedo has never been opened, cleaned and lubricated the noise is screeming out to tell you so.

 

I actually found that the grease itself of course would have a tendency to dry out a bit however over the course of 20+ yrs the grease accumulates little particles of dust, dirt and metal filings. All this junk balled up rather than acting as a lubricant becomes a hinderance and will actually snap your speedo cable if you don't take care of it pretty soon.