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Speedometer Issue

pablo

Member
The speedometer quit the other day on my 1994 R1100RS. I removed the cable assembly and the inner cable had broken in two. I got a new assembly from the dealer and installed it. Simple job. Seemed straight forward. Well...it still doesn't work at all. Any ideas? Did I miss something?:dunno
 
The speedometer quit the other day on my 1994 R1100RS. I removed the cable assembly and the inner cable had broken in two. I got a new assembly from the dealer and installed it. Simple job. Seemed straight forward. Well...it still doesn't work at all. Any ideas? Did I miss something?:dunno

You have what is called the speedo drive unit on the wheel. This is the part the speedo cable attaches to. Two things:

1) Have you removed the speedo drive unit? If so, there a 2 vertical tangs within the unit that need to be placed properly in order for the drive unit to work correctly. However, even if you did remove the unit it may not be necessary to remove again so proceed to #2
2) Unscrew the speedo cable at the speedo drive unit. Within that circular threaded area where the speedo cable attaches is a small part that the cable inserts in that spins when the front wheel is spinning. With the front wheel in the air spin the front wheel. That small part should immediately begin to spin when the wheel is being spun. If there is zero movement you will need to remove the speedo drive and reinstall correctly. Keep in mind it is possible for a speedo drive to work sporadically and 1100's in particular seem to be prone to that problem. It might be required to bend the vertical tangs a bit in order to get them to work the way they should.

There is also another way to verify this. Detach the speedo cable from the speedo itself and then spin the front wheel. You should see the cable spinning. Long story short on older bikes most speedo issues are speedo cable/speedo drive-related. Verify the speedo cable spins. If it does not you may have a broken speedo.
 
Those tangs inside the cable drive hub at the wheel can also fail, like it eventually did on my 94RS. Good place to use a salvage part fro BeemerBoneyard.com
 
I think my broken cable caused another problem. I removed the speedometer drive last night and found 4 teeth on the plastic gear had stripped. Maybe the cable bound and caused this? Anyhow I just ordered a new drive unit and will see if things work now.
 
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