Repairing my speedometer

[Lap202]

After trying kawiforums and getting no reply to anything I post -.- I have decided to try my luck here.

I bought my first bike last week with a bad speedometer and improperly installed fairings. The odometer worked which I should have considered when I bought a new speedo drive gear and cable. I just purchased a new speedometer to put in my cluster and have some questions on the whole process.

What grease and how much should be used in the gear on the front tire, how tight does the cable need to be to the gear and the back of the cluster (finger tight, wrenched tight?), and is it possible to easily adjust the odometer to the mileage on the original odometer (is it even legal?).

Thanks for any advice, not a mechanical whizz so!

[Triple Jim]

General purpose grease should be fine. Tightening the cable fittings isn't critical. I like to use pliers to go slightly tighter than finger tight. Changing the reading of an odometer is usually a complicated, tricky, and tedious process that I wouldn't bother with. Just engrave a small note in the housing like "add 3,200 miles" for example.

[InvisiBill]

Are you trying to add or remove miles? If you just need to add some, hook it up to a drill and spin it for a while. If I were doing this swap on my bike, my anal-retentiveness would require me to make sure they matched, even if that meant spinning 99,000 more miles on to loop it back around.

There are probably laws about what needs to be done for an odometer swap to be official, similar to swapping parts that carry the VIN. However, if you're just trying to make the replacement part match the original, I don't think most people would care. Heck, they probably won't even know about it unless you tell them. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to take pictures during the swap showing that they both had the same mileage on them.

I doubt that odometer fraud on cheap little bikes like ours is a big deal, considering how easy it is to just unhook the cable for a while. Mine fell off while riding the morning after I bought it (I suggest a drop of blue Loctite on the threads).

[Lap202]

There are 9400 more miles on the speedometer, will just be putting a sticker under the seat with the milage difference listed. Get new speedometer friday and then I'll replace all the parts and be riding by sunday!

[CaliGrrl]

I think there's a space on the title to note odometer inaccuracies, so just keep track of the mileage and declare it when you sell it.

[InvisiBill]

I think most newer odometers are designed to prevent this, but older ones would remove miles if you spun them backwards. Our simple bikes might be susceptible to this as well. Might as well give it a shot when you get it.

Or just ride 9400 miles real quick so it matches when you do the swap. =)

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

I think most newer odometers are designed to prevent this, but older ones would remove miles if you spun them backwards. Our simple bikes might be susceptible to this as well. Might as well give it a shot when you get it.

My '05 will go backwards, but I'd wear out a couple drills trying to take 9,400 miles off. It's not like a drill will spin it faster than driving it does.

[Lap202]

My drill tops out at 45 :P

[Lap202]

So I got my replacement speedometer and the dial was broke, so I took the dial off my bad one and put it on the new one. It was siting at like 10 mph, so I slowly twisted it till it was sitting at 0. How concerned do I need to be about the accuracy of the speedometer and is there any way to "calibrate" it

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by Lap202

So I got my replacement speedometer and the dial was broke, so I took the dial off my bad one and put it on the new one. It was siting at like 10 mph, so I slowly twisted it till it was sitting at 0. How concerned do I need to be about the accuracy of the speedometer and is there any way to "calibrate" it

OEM is 7% off so...

[Lap202]

My concern is the twisting it back, if that's a bad way to handle that.

[allanoue]

test the drill speed again

[Lap202]

Think it's 5 miles low now -.- if they would have properly packaged the Fricken speedometer I would be riding by now

[Triple Jim]

Check it with GPS. You may be accidentally perfect.

I've had to replace both the speedometer and tachometer on my '05, and decided that next time one goofs up I'm going to try one of these. Does anyone else have experience with one?

https://www.dan-moto.com/DM_US/danmo...e20bf9f6d2861d

[Lap202]

Looks interesting, wonder if there's a speedometer only model I could print a plate and implement it into the original cluster

[Lap202]

UPDATE
I took the bike out and had my roommate follow and the speedometer is low by 7 mph. May go to the local pd and see if they can clock me to confirm. Should I just twist the dial into the pin and hope it fixes it (means taking apart the bike again) or just adjust my speed. Also is there a small GPS that I could make a mount right under the windshield above the speedometer. Wiring is there to run a positive and ground to it.

[Triple Jim]

If you have a smart phone you can get a GPS ap. For a short term test, you can tape it to the tank or handlebar and save having to get someone else to drive with you.

[Lap202]

So reviving this thread. My replacement speedometer went bad 2 weeks ago and I can't afford to get a koso rx2, and the used speedometer I spent money on has me regretting going used.

Am I stuck buying dashes with 20k miles on them till 1 works and I wish I had dropped the 400 on the koso in the first place.

Has anyone tried mounting a different speedometer inside the cluster?

[Lap202]

So saw this on ebay. Pretty much a super cheap knock off koso looking digital speedometer.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Moto...305?nav=SEARCH

Would it be worth the trouble to mount it and make it look like it belongs. It's only 35 dollars.

[NevadaWolf]

Not sure if it will help or not but I have the stock cluster out of my '12 that was working when I took it off back in 2013. White faces on the gauges and has 13,216 miles on it.

It's just gathering dust right now if you want to make an offer.

[Lap202]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

Not sure if it will help or not but I have the stock cluster out of my '12 that was working when I took it off back in 2013. White faces on the gauges and has 13,216 miles on it.

It's just gathering dust right now if you want to make an offer.

Shot you a PM. Really appreciate the offer!

Have also had someone post on the marketplace to send me their dash and I can't tell if by send they mean I pay for it and they send it, or they are nice as all get out and want to send me a working dash for little or nothing.
---

I am still interested in creating a mounting plate similar to the koso rx2 plates for the ninja 250. It's simple enough creating a metal play and drilling the holes to mount the plate to the dash housing and then drill holes for mounting the digital dash.

Hard part would be cutting or 3d printing black plastic to go behind the speedometer and hide the metal plate while also making it all look good.


Thinking if I get it figured out, I can throw together a plug and play kit with the wiring done and mounting plates. Be a much cheaper option for those of us that don't want to drop 400 on koso. Fall in price range of 50-60

[Later2day]

I’ve got a 2010 Ninja 250 that I took the cover off of because it was cracked and cannot for the life of me get the new one back on the assembly. Does anyone know a trick to make that happen? I figured if anyone had to replace a component in this cluster that they had the same issue i am facing.