Speedometer not working??

[TheGingerBeardMan]

Hello chaps (n' chapesses lurking in the background),

Had to do a 100 mile Emergency run this afternoon. Little tread on de back tyre, screw shank still in the rear tyre, it's half light then dark, the roads are slippy as hell, can hardly see where the hell I'm going due to salt spray, and not even 2 miles into the run, my speedo stopped working and the trip stopped counting up.

Fech it, I can use the rev counter, as I know roughly what revs relate to which gear etc.

Can't really see much in the dark, so when I got home, I just washed most of the crap off and put her in the lock up, having sprayed almost a 1/4 can of ACF 50 in the hope that it'll not rust to a heap by the time I get round to looking at it.

Any chance of a heads up as to what maybe caused it, and where all the relevant plugs n' that are?

What are them sensor wires under the alternator casing? (covered by the rubber boot with thin black wire), and I see a sensor wire between the clutch slave and the sproket cover....They are still connected and not slack...

Lights are all working ok, pass button ok, indicators ok, clock lights all light up, horn good, starter button & kill switch fine. Rev counter working. All idiot lights functioning ok.

Took the seat off and the plugs are all dry and connected snug. Had a look at all me fuses - all ok.

Mega shrug of the shoulders on this....

[Wicky]

Speedo sensor not sensing anymore - it runs from the back of engine by the rear CCT to plug into loom leading near the indicator relay. Beat it with a stick until it sees sense and co-operates or replace...

https://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/par ... 700MBB010/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-VTR1000 ... SwYIxX4Rwv

[TheGingerBeardMan]

HOW FECHIN MUCH!!!????

Excuse me whilst I fall over and grasp me ticker on the way down.....

Well, even the one at 50 odd quid isn't gonna happen. I thought 20 quid-ish, 30 tops there-a-bouts.

But that's just bloody ridiculous. Can't afford that.

Seriously now thinking of packing all this in and selling the bike. It's wee things like this that makes me think ''sod it'', sell the bike and let some other poor sod worry about it.

[8541Hawk]

The issue is usually in the connections behind the instrument cluster (have to pull the fairing to get to them). This issue usually found after washing the bike and spraying too much water on the cluster.
I have never seen or hear of a sensor actually going bad, so that would be the last thing I would try.

Also the wires from the alt cover side, you have the stator, oil pressure and neutral switch. On the clutch side is the pulse gen. pick up.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

Thanks for that Mike - Well, it's another place to look before I pour a gallon of fuel over it, strike a match n' walk away....

The bike gets washed by hand (99.99% of the time), and the instruments never get wet - they only ever get wiped with cloth. The space between the horn and the cluster is usually always pretty clean and dry. As Wicky suggests, I'll follow the lead back, and I'll look under the side panels n' check the connections there, and make sure all is tight and dry with the plugs.

I can remove the cluster/instrument panel with the 2 bolts - as I've replaced the clock bulbs in the past without having to take the fairing off.

It's just that I dunno when the head and body will get me round to the lock up to have a look at it. This run this afternoon is already starting to take it's toll on me. I haven't the energy to walk round there now, even if a policeman knocked on me door and said the whole garage was up in flames!

Yeah, whatever officer....thanks for the info...come back and tell me when the fires out like a good chap will you?

Sorry. I'm being defeatest. I'm hurting bad, I can't get warm, and I'm starting to get stiffer than a mans dangly bits in a brothel.

[8541Hawk]

No worries and I do understand about the old body giving out at time..... went for a 80 mile ride a couple weeks ago and was sore for 3-4 days after.....

I brought up the washing as that is when you "normally" see this issue. Wash like a normal bloke and no issues.... spray water all over the place and the speedo turns off till things dry out.

As for access to the plugs, no might be able to get them out by pulling the speedo but there are 4 plugs all together and they have those foldy clips holding them to the front of the fairing stay...so it might be easier to just pull the fairing to get at them.

[Wicky]

http://www.partzilla.com/parts/detail/h ... B-010.html

50ish quid brand new in the US - but not inc postage or taxes.

[MacV2]

As said on the other thread I'll get Frank to have a look...I might have one.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

As said on the other thread I'll get Frank to have a look...I might have one.

No worries ands mega thanks for having a rummage - (for those reading, Mac asked Frank to have a hunt and do a stock take, but he didn't have a sensor in stock).

Mike (hawk) - again, thanks for the suggestions. I still haven't been back round to the lock up to faff about with the sensor wire, the clock plugs or anything. Was in bed most of yesterday. That run kinda floored me. But, I shall get round to it before the year is out!

[Furrybiker]

I may be too late but when I had this problem, all that was needed was to loosen one of the bolts on the gearbox that attaches the cable. So simply a poor earth.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

I may be too late...

Hello Furry. No, you're not too late at all, and thank you for the new suggestion! I have not even begun to think about looking at the problem. Yes, I have been down to look at the bike, but only to attempt the removal of the road salt, and to take the rainbow stains out of my stainless cans. (Council salt additives... )

I'm limited to what I can do at the moment, and being on me hands n' knees is fine for a short bit, but then I find myself ''locked'' and stuck down there - then I can be seen crawling on me knees over to the workbench where I can hoist myself upright again, grunting loudly and swearing at every move.

I fired the bike up, ran it to temp, tested all me lights n' stuff, and switched her off again. - Hasn't been fired up in a wee while, and it's sat in a cold /damp lock up....but, sitting on the bike (keeping the VTR upright is a MUST when starting from cold), half choke, clutch in, and a single push of the electric tit, and she barked into life. As soon as she does, I'm still sat on the bike, and have a strange habit of leaning the bike a fair bit over on the right (my dumb head telling me it'll help oil circulation on that side! )

But, as for the speedo testing - nope, not even thought about tackling that yet. I only really look at the speedo when coming into towns (for the speed camera things), but mainly use the rev counter when making progress. So, going for a blast round the bends (if and when I do again), I can just look at me rev counter.

Being a good boy when the van is out....



Making progress when the van is not out...



Making progress when the van IS out...



Only kidding with that last one - There was an fatal accident with the road closed, which I didn't know about as I was thumping along on prior bends and woodland. The Copper is local, and he was saying ''that wasn't 60mph you were doing coming up that hill - we knew it was you long before we saw you...'' -

The reason he's laughing and grinning like a Cheshire cat, is 'cos of the sound of the bike echoing through the dips and the noise bouncing off the sides of the hills on my approach. I was advised to turn the bike round due to the closed road - which I did - and shot off hard, hitting 90mph in the opposite direction so he could hear them from behind....



Ok - to finish: (Thank gawd y'all shout)

I've read stories on here (previous posts), about testing the wires with a meter, and getting the pink/white wire from the clock end and testing to see if it pulses at 5 volts...

...but it doesn't say if the bike has to be in gear (on a stand) and the engine run - or can it be done in neutral with the bike ticking over? (will it still pulse, or does it only pulse when the gearbox is spinning?)

Someone posted that with their speedo not working, they suspected their clocks were fecked. I hope to Christ mine aren't - as to find another set with the same mileage will be a nightmare.

But, all has yet to be seen. And found. And then a hole dug. And buried. And walked away from in the dead of night when there are no witnesses.

I shall take on board your suggestion, and make sure that all is clean and secure when it comes time to get my ''fum out o' me elbow''.

Electronic handshakes.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

...and if anyone is going to quote stuff....fer gawds sake, don't post the whole lot! There are people on here still trying to recover from the last fully quoted one.

Namely....everyone.

[Pete.L]

...but it doesn't say if the bike has to be in gear (on a stand) and the engine run - or can it be done in neutral with the bike ticking over? (will it still pulse, or does it only pulse when the gearbox is spinning?)

To keep it short Only when the gearbox is spinning. The flywheel pickup can be read when the engine is ticking over but that one is used for your spark timing, which makes that bit of information useless for this exercise.
If you have some paddock stands or better yet an Abba stand you can get the back wheel off the ground, put the bike in gear and take some readings whilst the rear wheel is spinning and the engine is running. An oscilloscope would work better but you might be able to read something with a digimeter. Either Way, good luck and happy hunting.

Pete.l

[sirch345]

Dave, nice screen shots from your video camera, what camera is that you're using

On another topic, I watched Jools Holland's TV programme last night, it had yer Man Seasick Steve on there

Chris.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

put the bike in gear and take some readings whilst the rear wheel is spinning and the engine is running. An oscilloscope would work better but you might be able to read something with a digimeter.Pete.l

A Cilla scope? Who the heck has one of them things in the garage? The only thing I can think of doing, is to use a digital multimeter, and put one probe into the pink wire at the clocks, and the other touching the frame somewhere? Not knowing very much about electrics, I dunno if this will pick up the 5v pulse.

Or, could it be unplugged from the speedo sensor end at the crankcase, and tested with the plug pins? I dunno. I have been out a couple of times on the bike, and as said, just ran using the rev counter. The only thing that annoys me, is the trip/mileage doesn't go up, and so I have to watch for running out of fuel.

Thanks for the tips!

What camera is that you're using ... and Jools Holland had Seasick Steve on there...

How Do Meester Chris. The camera is just a GoPro Hero 3 Silver. Nowt fancy. It's set on the lowest definition (720p), as my computer cannot handle the playback on HD. It's a fairly good picture on 720p, but car number plates are a tad out of focus (not too good if I have to run something back). I have seen the HD playback on someone elses pooter, and I'm quite impressed with it.

It's not good for sound though, as despite the sales pitch/blurb saying ''up to 30mph, use the open camera door'', and over 30mph, use the wind/sealed door''. I use the totally sealed case, and as soon as I hit 30mph, the wind noise on playback is horrendous! I've tried the chest rig to see if that made any difference, but nope - still very wooshy and drowns out the sound of the bike. It might not be helping having the camera on the side of me lid. Maybe it's in the airflow coming off the windscreen? I have seen others on the YouTube, using the same camera and same helmet placement, and they can be heard talking crystal clear at over the ton???

Seasick Steve wasn't seen by me last night (if yer referring to Jools' Hootenanny?) - I was in bed by 11pm. Took a cup of coffee upstairs and settled down with a dirty book that had a few pages stuck together.... (a Haynes manual that's been well thumbed with oily fingerprints!)