jhall
BMWMOA #24809
Recently the speedo began to squeak on my 95 R100RT. I had refurbished speedos on a few other Airheads, but it was many years ago. Luckily I found an excellent article on gunsmoke.com, which included several pics to help jostle my memory. Over the decades I have also refurbished speedos on a few old Harleys and 1950s-60s Studebakers. They are all similar; not difficult, but painstaking and time consuming. When I say refurbish, I only mean disassemble, clean and lube. On speedos with readily accessible needle hairspring, I've had good luck calibrating them, e.g., 80 MPH indicated on my 1956 Studebaker is an actual 80 MPH, and has been for 30 years or so, since I calibrated it. But that spring is not readily accessible on a BMW speedo.
The 95 RT's speedo refurbishment went well, nothing worn out, just dry of grease and oil. I used something akin to 3-in-1 Oil for oil can points. For gear grease, I used distributor cam grease, made for points type ignitions; not sure it is still available, but luckily I still have some left. It's just the right texture, and spreads easily and thinly with a q-tip.
I am strongly considering a Kat Dash, and woulda preferred to coordinate installing one with the speedo refurbishment, but did not wanna let the speedo go too long, lest something wind up self destructing.
Here is the link I mentioned. If it looks like something you're comfortable doing, this article is about all you need, even if you've never done one before:http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/r100rt/instruments/index.html
The 95 RT's speedo refurbishment went well, nothing worn out, just dry of grease and oil. I used something akin to 3-in-1 Oil for oil can points. For gear grease, I used distributor cam grease, made for points type ignitions; not sure it is still available, but luckily I still have some left. It's just the right texture, and spreads easily and thinly with a q-tip.
I am strongly considering a Kat Dash, and woulda preferred to coordinate installing one with the speedo refurbishment, but did not wanna let the speedo go too long, lest something wind up self destructing.
Here is the link I mentioned. If it looks like something you're comfortable doing, this article is about all you need, even if you've never done one before:http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/r100rt/instruments/index.html
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