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Old October 26th, 2019, 12:05 PM   #1
Hoodratrace
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Broken speedo/odo cable

Hey y’all, first time making a post and I have a question. So yesterday my speedo stopped working, found out it was a broken cable. The only thing that’s got me wigged out is that the bike only has 1300 miles on it, it just seems kind of early for it to break like that.

I already ordered another cable but I’m just worried that the drive might be busted or something that caused it to fail, I would just hate to wait for the cable and install it to have that one break on me y‘know? I just want to know if this is a common issue on our bikes or if perhaps the place that changed my tires put stress on it which made it break later, it looked like a fairly clean break. I also mostly ride highways since this is my commuter vehicle, idk if that makes a difference or not. Thanks!
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Old October 26th, 2019, 12:49 PM   #2
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Stick the end back in the tach and see if it's easy to turn. If it's hard to turn or locked up you know you need to fix that before installing the new cable.
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Old October 26th, 2019, 01:03 PM   #3
Hoodratrace
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Stick the end back in the tach and see if it's easy to turn. If it's hard to turn or locked up you know you need to fix that before installing the new cable.
Good idea I think I’ll try that, it broke closer to the drive unit on the wheel so that’s why I was worried about the drive but I didn’t even think about checking the cluster
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Old October 26th, 2019, 05:44 PM   #4
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The drive can't break the cable. All it can do is quit turning it. The tach can break the cable if it jams. It's also possible that as you said, the guy changing the tire did something like forget to disconnect the cable and pulled the wheel out, bending the cable housing badly. You should be able to see if that happened. Even it he bent it straight you can probably see some evidence if you look hard. That's the kind of thing that makes me do all my own work.
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Old October 26th, 2019, 10:10 PM   #5
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My 250 had very few miles on it when it broke a speedo cable too. Just get a new one, but be very careful screwing the housing on to the back of the speedo. The speedo has fine plastic threads and you can easily cross-thread it. Hook that end up first, being careful that it's going on easily. My old cable was dry, almost no grease on it. The replacement cable was well lubricated. If your new cable doesn't seem to be adequately lubed pick up a tube of speedo cable grease from the auto parts store.
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Old October 27th, 2019, 07:40 PM   #6
Hoodratrace
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So I noticed the cable popped out today and realized that the drive was clocked wrong and the cable doesn’t quite reach like its suppose to
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Old October 27th, 2019, 11:04 PM   #7
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That can bend cable at extreme angle and cause break. Cable should be as straight as possible. A lot of people drip oil from top. Better to completely to remove inner-cable from housing and use light grease.
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Old October 28th, 2019, 06:21 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoodratrace View Post
So I noticed the cable popped out today and realized that the drive was clocked wrong and the cable doesn’t quite reach like its suppose to
Not having the drive socket and the tach socket aligned can easily happen when a cable breaks. Anything that turns the cable or the socket it goes in to a little will fix it. Moving the bike to turn the front wheel a little is an easy way.

But what do you mean by "the cable popped out"?
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Old October 28th, 2019, 09:11 AM   #9
Hoodratrace
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Not having the drive socket and the tach socket aligned can easily happen when a cable breaks. Anything that turns the cable or the socket it goes in to a little will fix it. Moving the bike to turn the front wheel a little is an easy way.

But what do you mean by "the cable popped out"?
I guess when I checked it a couple days ago I didn’t screw it back in tight enough and found it had made its way off the drive but after looking closer it was kinked right where the metal sleeve ends, to point where the outer cable housing got cut. Then when I tried to reinstall it was pulling too tight so it barely couldn’t reach, it just looks like the drive was clocked at the wrong angle, of the part you put the cable was angled a little different it wouldn’t have broke
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Old October 28th, 2019, 01:56 PM   #10
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Oh OK, now I understand. That would explain the broken cable.
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Old October 28th, 2019, 02:56 PM   #11
Hoodratrace
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Yeah I’m glad I figured it out and it should be a fairly easy fix, I’m guessing to reclock it to the right position I’d just have to loosen the front wheel then turn it then tighten it back up
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Old October 28th, 2019, 08:09 PM   #12
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My pregen is keyed to keep the position fixed while you tighten things up. Check and see if yours is the same. If you're way off, you can put it together without the keyed parts engaged.
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Old October 28th, 2019, 08:39 PM   #13
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Okay y’all I have definitively solved this mystery, so I was playing around with the drive to see if I could reclock it and upon moving it and looking at it and the end of the fork the drive has two nubs with a space between it and the fork and one nub that fits in the space, and ofc the single nub fits between the two.
Well needless to say I’m changing my own tires next time, or at the very least removing the wheel myself lol
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Old October 29th, 2019, 06:56 AM   #14
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...the end of the fork the drive has two nubs with a space between it and the fork and one nub that fits in the space, and ofc the single nub fits between the two..
Yes, that's the keying I was talking about above.

I hate letting someone else work on any of my vehicles. It's very common that even if what I pay for is fixed, something else will go wrong in the process. I had a transmission worked on in my Taurus, and got the car back with one of the engine mounts missing its bolt so the engine was just sitting there unattached. My father had some warranty work done on his car and the mechanic brought it around with the idle at about 3,000 rpm. He had bent the linkage and didn't bother to investigate the ridiculous idle speed. (Etc.)
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Old October 29th, 2019, 07:47 AM   #15
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Ugh right?? Thats the exact reason why I do all my own work too, other people just don’t put the same care into your vehicle majority of the time. The last shop I worked at one of the mottos was “is it your car?” I think that’s more of a reason to be careful but not everyone thinks that unfortunately
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Old November 21st, 2019, 10:04 PM   #16
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Is there specific Speedo cable lube? I ended up just using graphite spray as I already had it out. Does to be holding up ok but it's only been like 300 mi since I did it last week
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Old November 22nd, 2019, 10:44 AM   #17
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Light grease with moly works well, like lithium stuff.
Or hypoid gear-oil, which has ET/EP additives that motor-oil lacks.

That's why motor-oil doesn't work well for chain lube. Honda recommends 75w90 gear-oil for lubing chains because that's an easy source for ET/EP stuff that does hard work in contact situations. Many of boutique bicycle chain-lubes are just re-packaged gear-oils.

Fortifying either with graphite should help longevity when lube dries/drips out.
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Old November 23rd, 2019, 03:00 AM   #18
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Recently got the rear tyre replaced on my 2003 Honda Sabre sidecar outfit. Got lazy and decided not to remove the wheel myself this time but let the dealership do the whole job. Big mistake. They left an axle spacer out and the only thing holding the back wheel in place was the brake pads and brake rotor. Won’t be going back there and from now on will go back to removing and replacing my own wheels. The dealer concerned is getting ready to retire and seems to have lost interest and the person who is taking over has no idea! Bit like when you pay big bucks for something like a valve check/adjustment - was it done properly? Was it done at all?
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Old November 23rd, 2019, 11:48 AM   #19
Hoodratrace
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Recently got the rear tyre replaced on my 2003 Honda Sabre sidecar outfit. Got lazy and decided not to remove the wheel myself this time but let the dealership do the whole job. Big mistake. They left an axle spacer out and the only thing holding the back wheel in place was the brake pads and brake rotor. Won’t be going back there and from now on will go back to removing and replacing my own wheels. The dealer concerned is getting ready to retire and seems to have lost interest and the person who is taking over has no idea! Bit like when you pay big bucks for something like a valve check/adjustment - was it done properly? Was it done at all?
Yeah right!? Thats what i started thinking about after this happened, im thinking i might do my valve adjustment myself, i know how to do it on a car and have feeler gauges and all that. Id imagine it cant be much different
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Old November 23rd, 2019, 02:05 PM   #20
Triple Jim
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...i know how to do it on a car and have feeler gauges and all that. Id imagine it cant be much different
It's he same idea, except with the newgens you need to change shims to make adjustments.
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