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/5 speedo broke.... where to sent it to

1961BMWR69S

1960R100S
Yep the /5 speedo broke last weekend, know i need to send it out to some one to have repaired. not sure where to send it, any ideas will help.
 
broke speedo

overseas speedometer in San Antonio did a good job of mine. It now reads within 1 mph of the garmin.
 
Terry "Wirespokes" Vrla gets my vote :thumb:thumb

Terryvrla@hotmail.com

He is an independent speedo repair shop in the Portland OR area - did the instruments on my R65LS & now is in the process of overhauling my speedo/tach on the R60/5
 
Other choices for instrument repair are in the Speedometer section of the resources link in my signature line.
 
Yep the /5 speedo broke last weekend, know i need to send it out to some one to have repaired. not sure where to send it, any ideas will help.
They break all the time. I finally gave with such junk on my 71 R75/5 and put a Garmin GPS on top of the speedometer / tach assembly by using a HFT "Magnetic Cell Phone Mounting Kit." The Garmin GPS I am using has a very large MPH display page. And it can also be used as a GPS, when needed!

And then for the tach, I am using a Harley Electronic Tach.

I couldn't care less about keeping the bike stock, I just want things to work well.

-Don- SF, CA​
 
Different Strokes, right? I like the romance of having all the features working on these old bikes - had the instruments cleaned up on the R65LS and the speedo is just about as spot on as my GPS. Part of the the thrill with Airheads is the low tech simplicity. I like fixing them so everything works. My 2c

They break all the time. I finally gave with such junk on my 71 R75/5 and put a Garmin GPS on top of the speedometer / tach assembly by using a HFT "Magnetic Cell Phone Mounting Kit." The Garmin GPS I am using has a very large MPH display page. And it can also be used as a GPS, when needed!

And then for the tach, I am using a Harley Electronic Tach.

I couldn't care less about keeping the bike stock, I just want things to work well.

-Don- SF, CA​
 
Overseas Speedo did good work for me. Based on my experience, I would avoid individuals who work on these as a home side job.
 
Palo Alto Speedometer is another option. http://www.paspeedo.com/

I have no relation to them, nor I have used them. Some people have commented good things others have not. Do a search and read for yourself. On a side note, they are located in one of the most expensive places-Palo Alto. If my speedometer needed repair, I'd probably use Palo Alto because they are local. If I had to ship it somewhere I'd do a bit more research.
 
Terry "Wirespokes" Vrla gets my vote :thumb:thumb

Terryvrla@hotmail.com

He is an independent speedo repair shop in the Portland OR area - did the instruments on my R65LS & now is in the process of overhauling my speedo/tach on the R60/5

Big plus for Terry. I rode with him to the Redmond BMWMOA a few years ago. He has decades of Airhead experience. He has a garage and shed full of all the best models of Airheads. And he works in the electronics field.

He has become a specialty supplier of Airheads instrument repairs. He is an honest person and happy to earn every cent he might charge. No way to go wrong or be dissappointed with what Terry does for you. If I needed any help with my instruments, no one else would be considered.

Yo, Terry, looking forward to seeing you at the Airheads Central next summer in Salem.
 
+1 for Palo Alto

I've used them twice, once on a /2 that was busted up in a get off and once on an '84 RT that just needed a clean up. Both times I was more than happy with the quality of the work.
 
Alternative Tachometer 77' 100/7

DonTom-

What Tach details do you use to select the model you're going with? - I'm going away from stock too. Specific models?

Thanks- D


They break all the time. I finally gave with such junk on my 71 R75/5 and put a Garmin GPS on top of the speedometer / tach assembly by using a HFT "Magnetic Cell Phone Mounting Kit." The Garmin GPS I am using has a very large MPH display page. And it can also be used as a GPS, when needed!

And then for the tach, I am using a Harley Electronic Tach.

I couldn't care less about keeping the bike stock, I just want things to work well.

-Don- SF, CA​
 
DonTom-

What Tach details do you use to select the model you're going with? - I'm going away from stock too. Specific models?

Thanks- D
Let me go check right now . . .

It has no model number, but here is some info. It says "Harley-Davidson" It has a red line at 5,400 RPM's ( a bit low for us). Has a max reading of "80" or 8,000 RPM's. It jhas a high beam indicator (I use it too, along with the stock one). It also says "RMP x 100". I have it mounted to the left fork cap on a bracket. It's 3.5" display. On the bottom it says "Nippon Seiki Japan".

I purchased it at the Harley Shop in San Francisco, but around 15 years ago.

Mine works with 2 cylinder engines that have a waste spark, such as with the stock points. If you have an electronic ignition, like mine has, be sure yours is the one that still uses a waste spark. It will read 50% if you have the type of after-market electronic ignition that gets rid of the waste spark.


I took a picture, but I am now in a hurry to get to work and it didn't come out all that great:

IMGP0073.jpg


-Don- SSF, CA
 
What broke? Describe what happened. Did the odometer fail? (unlike the newer ones, the /5 odos seem to seldom stop working). Commonly the lube dries up, bushings/shafts run metal to metal, and next thing you know the needle jerks erratically (all the while howling like a hurricane), then slams against the pin breaking the needle. Now the mechanism is unrestrained and the needle shaft spins with the input shaft, wadding up the hair spring. As if that's not enough damage, the needle shaft now is restrained from turning by the clumped up hair spring, and the input shaft grinds away at the needle shaft. Once the small end of the needle shaft is ground away or breaks off (It's only about .030" in diameter - about the size of a sewing pin) the magnet rubs on the speed cup, grinding both of those into oblivion.

But wait, there's more!

As if that's not bad enough already, it gets worse! The metal grit generated from the speed cup/magnet deterioration process now wears the housing that the input shaft rides in and hogs it out. Now the input shaft is floppy in the housing.

The /5 doesn't have an angle drive into the gauges, but the ones that do can see other damage from this scenario - the input shaft can jam solid. Because the speedometer cable is still rotating (speedo input shaft isn't) something's gotta give! Usually it's the plastic helical input gears.

None of this stuff comes cheap! And new parts from MotoMeter aren't available - they've been out of business for decades.

If you've been through this scenario and it made you sick - I can relate! I wasn't always this smart and had the exact same thing happen in 2004 riding my 'new' low-miles (14K) /5 home from San Francisco. When the speedo needle started jerking around - I watched annoyed. When it howled like a banshee - I hoped it would go away. And then when the needle whipped around and smashed to smithereens, I was getting upset. But did I disconnect the cable?

Nooooooo. I was stupid.

Did I disconnect the tach when it started going through the same routine?

Noooooo.

So learn from my mistake! Disconnecting the cable when the needle first starts jerking around saves major headaches! At that point a general clean/lube and adjust will probably fix it. If you leave it like I did, the whole insides get trashed!

Not a pretty sight! And a major operation to resurrect.

One more thing - these gauges are actually high quality instruments. Just because the odometers tend to screw up (there is a fix for that) and they fail eventually, or the speed indication is way off, doesn't mean they can't work as they're supposed to, reliably and dependably. Another thing to consider: most of us grew up in the days of mechanical watches and clocks. The recommended service for watches was a yearly cleaning and lube. Consider how long these gauges tend to go with no service what-so-ever! A good inspection, cleaning and lube goes a long ways to keeping these things operating as they should!

And if you've got a bike that sat idle for many years, it's especially important to service the mechanical gauges - lube dries up and gets sticky increasing friction, then disappears allowing metal/metal contact - and then the serious wear begins!
 
What broke? Describe what happened. Did the odometer fail? (unlike the newer ones, the /5 odos seem to seldom stop working).
It was the very first thing to fail on my 1971 R/75/5. And the speedometer assembly was replaced three times in a few years, and I've had everything in them break, tach, speedometer as well as the odometer. For years, I used the speedometer which still worked, with the tach that didn't. I finally gave up on it, moved all the indicator lights to the headlight shell with larger bulbs, and started to use the GPS for the speedometer and a separate electronic tachometer. I removed both the tach and speedometer cables permanently.

-Don- SF, CA​
 
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