Speedometer/cable what's up!

oldbikenut · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:27 pm Post subject: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Okay as some of you know I've wanted a speedometer as the one that came on my bike never worked. I got a speedometer/tachometer off ebay and all looks good Very Happy

. Tach is fine, but the speedometer appears good but when I hook it to the cable there is no movement. The cable appears to be good but I did take it off cleaned and lubed it up. Now with the cable hooked on the lower end it spins fine but again when I hook it up to the speedometer there's no movement in the needle Confused

. So my thoughts were the speedometer was bad, but when I hook up my drill on the lower end of the cable and the cable is attatched to the speedometer, the speedometer appears to work good Razz

. Am I losing it? I don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas whats going or possible suggestions. I may pick up a new speedo cable tommarow, but again it appears good.

xsjohn · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:34 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Is the sending unit on the wheel spinning the cable........

xsjohn

Retiredgentleman · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:35 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Take some careful measurements of the length of the inner cable square end. It may not be far enough in to drive the speedo.

drifter · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:35 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Is you speedo drive unit working correctly? It could be bad.

Dave

penn71911 · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:43 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Sounds like the speedo-drive on the wheel is bad... I think you can check the speedo by plugging it into the tach cable. That will tell you if the speedo is good.

jayel · Posted: April 10, 2009, 10:50 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

the outer cable (Coil) may be stretched and not allowing the core to drive the cable or the drive unit itself maybe damaged, put the cable on the drive unit on the wheel, now you say it turns the cable when you spin the wheel, hold on to the upper end to put torque pressure on the inner core does it still turn or can you hold it against the turn force of the wheel? if you can the drive unit is damaged, it can be taken apart and inspected (a C-snap ring) but don't know if you can find parts

oldbikenut · Posted: April 10, 2009, 11:29 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

xsjohn wrote:

Is the sending unit on the wheel spinning the cable........

xsjohn

Yes, when the cable is attatched to the sending unit(front wheel)and I unhook it from the speedo I can see the innercable spin, hook it back into the speedo and nothing! Now like I said I left the cable attatched to the speedo and unhooked it from the sending unit and attatched my drill and I had it up to 20 mph.

I think the cables length may have something to do with it as it does seem a little snug to attatch so possibly being to short or possibly stretched like jayel and RG mentioned.

I do think I will pick up a new cable tommarow and keep my fingers crossed!

Penn71911, thats a good idea!

It does seem like both ends work, it's just getting them to work together!

Thanks everyone!

pumps · Posted: April 11, 2009, 12:52 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

penn71911 wrote:

I think you can check the speedo by plugging it into the tach cable. That will tell you if the speedo is good.

I tested one or two speedos that way. seems to work fine.

oldbikenut · Posted: April 17, 2009, 4:45 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Okay well I think I have definately lost it Shocked

I got a new speedo cable from Mikes XS along with a bunch of other stuff, but of course I put on the speedo cable first and guess what, that's right it's a no go. I did run the same test I had done before and the drive gear off the hub seems to drive the cable fine, even with my fingers making some resistance. The speedo seemed to work good with a drill attatched to the lower end of the cable.

I had a thought a little reversed but the idea by penn71911, I just went and hooked up the speedo cable to the tach and guess what the tach moved! So I would think this is definately a speedometer issue, but I do wonder why the speedometer appears to function fine with the drill attatch to the cable?

yamaman · Posted: April 17, 2009, 4:52 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Did you try hooking the tacho cable to the speedo?

oldbikenut · Posted: April 17, 2009, 5:02 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

yamaman wrote:

Did you try hooking the tacho cable to the speedo?

No. That would definately be a smart next step, I don't think the tach cable will reach(not sure)the speedo, so I may have to remove the speedo for the test. Thanks for the suggestion!

gordo · Posted: April 17, 2009, 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Swing the bar's to the right, fully. Should reach then.

oldbikenut · Posted: April 17, 2009, 8:38 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

yamaman wrote:

Did you try hooking the tacho cable to the speedo?

I hooked the speedo to the tach cable(new cable again from MikesXS)and gues what? The speedo works! This is the weirdest thing, why does the speedo work when hooked to tach cable and the tach work when hooked to the speedo cable? But when I hook it all up the way it should go the speedometer doesn't work? Oh well I guess I'll just keep having to mess with it. If anyone has any other ideas, please don't hesitate in letting me know! Thanks again for your ideas!

jimmythetrucker · Full Member Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 1283

It's possible to screw the cable housing coupler onto the speedo/tacho without the square end of the cable proper being enganged with the square socket inside the speedo/tacho. When you've done that, the cable can spin in the housing without driving the speedo/tacho.

The fix is to always make sure the square cable end fits into the square hole at the center of the speedo/tacho BEFORE you thread the cable-housing coupler onto the speedo/tacho housing.

pumps · Posted: April 17, 2009, 9:39 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

How about this? Dis-mount? Un mount the speedo.. Attach the cable . Without the speedo being mounted to the meter bracket. Get the speedo held on some how and ride it to see if it works. Somehow could the cable, upon being screwed into the speedo being pushing on something, thereby disengaging? Just guesssing here.

oldbikenut · Posted: April 17, 2009, 10:18 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

jimmythetrucker wrote:

It's possible to screw the cable housing coupler onto the speedo/tacho without the square end of the cable proper being enganged with the square socket inside the speedo/tacho. When you've done that, the cable can spin in the housing without driving the speedo/tacho.

The fix is to always make sure the square cable end fits into the square hole at the center of the speedo/tacho BEFORE you thread the cable-housing coupler onto the speedo/tacho housing.

Thanks Jimmythetrucker, I know what you are saying, I'm pretty sure I'm getting the cable in correctly as I try and make the cable go up into the speedo and then I screw on the nut.

pumps, I think that will be my next try. Maybe get the speedo in a different spot and be able to move it around.

I just don't get this as this is a pretty basic procedure, I sure have never had these kinds of issues before while replacing a cable.

pumps · Posted: April 17, 2009, 10:43 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

I would think it is a pretty straight forward procedure also but you know how things are.......

jayel · Posted: April 17, 2009, 10:51 pm Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

have you taken the drive unit itself apart and looked it over? it can be partially disasembled, it has a c-clip snap ring that you can remove, look at the speedo cable drive spindle make sure it's not cupped in the center and the ring gear itself isn't damaged, also make sure it's properly slotted into the drive notches of the wheel

oldbikenut · Posted: April 18, 2009, 1:21 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

jayel wrote:

have you taken the drive unit itself apart and looked it over? it can be partially disasembled, it has a c-clip snap ring that you can remove, look at the speedo cable drive spindle make sure it's not cupped in the center and the ring gear itself isn't damaged, also make sure it's properly slotted into the drive notches of the wheel

I did take apart and clean the drive unit while waiting on the cable, it all looked good to me but I have nothing really to compare it to. I should say nothing looked worn. after I put it all back together I tested it with the cable and the inner cable spun good, even with my fingers giving some resistance.

I'm going to get this thing working, I'm not giving up yet! And yes pumps I've been stumped in the past by different things but this is definately one of the weirder ones. I wish one of you guys lived a little closer so someone else could look at this and verify I'm not crazy. Confused

pumps · Posted: April 18, 2009, 6:21 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

The issue of your sanity is a WHOLE different subject! Smile

Possibly leave the speedo off, ride the bike around the block slowly to see if the cable spins?

oldbikenut · Posted: April 18, 2009, 9:53 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

pumps wrote:

The issue of your sanity is a WHOLE different subject! Smile

Possibly leave the speedo off, ride the bike around the block slowly to see if the cable spins?

You're right about the sanity thing Confused

That's a good idea to ride my bike around and watch what the cable does, unfortunately we had a few inches of snow last night, so I will have to wait til tommarow.

jimmythetrucker · Full Member Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 1283

I went through this whole thing myself, 22 years ago, before anyone ever head of the WWW or Mike's XS. You can try this and try that and fart around for weeks with it if you want. In the end you will find it is as I told you: You're not getting the end of the cable into the cable drive BEFORE you screw on the cable housing cap.

Only one other thing you MIGHT have overlooked: You say the old speedo was frozen and did not work. Is it possible that the frozen speedo twisted the end off the drive cable, shortening the drive cable by an inch or so?
If it did, that would mean that the drive cable could now slide down, inside the housing, just far enough to disengage from the speedo drive.

Scenario is: You pull the cable up, out of the housing, just far enough to grip it and make sure it's properly inserted in the speedo drive. Then you screw on the cable housing. And while you do that, the cable slips back down into the housing and decouples from the speedo drive. Solution here is a new cable of the proper length.

You might find out by pulling the cable out of the housing and measuring the length of the thing. Compare your measurement of the cable to measurements listed in the cable specs, which you can find (who the heck knows where?).

oldbikenut · Posted: April 18, 2009, 10:46 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

Well jimmythetrucker I'm at a week already. It's good to know that someone else has been through this and I do feel very fortunate to have this forum to be able to get suggestions and different ideas. I think the majority of the people who frequent this site have a knowledge of the XS that is pretty amazing and I appreciate anyone that is willing to share there experience.

I do hear what you're saying regarding the inner cable length and the possibility of not getting the square end of the cable in correctly. And I will definately take a closer look at these.

Things I do know:
1. New cable(from Mikesxs)
2. speedometer works when hooked up to the tach cable.
3. tachometer works when hooked to the speedo cable
4. I can also get the speedometer to move when hooked to a drill.
5. with the speedo cable hooked to the drive unit, the inner cable spins even with resistance applied.

Again jimmy I will definately take a closer look at things and thanks for the ideas!

yamaman · Posted: April 18, 2009, 10:56 am Post subject: Re: Speedometer/cable what's up!

How about this?:

Locate the cable as far as possible into the sender unit on the wheel, do it up firm. Now measure how much drive cable is poking out the top end!

I'm sure somebody will be able to tell you how much pokes out of theirs!
I'd do it for you, but I don't have a speedo!

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