Out riding today....after a few hours riding speedo stopped working....tach still works, any suggestions where to start what to look at?? I don't have a manual it's a 91 fxr. Thanks.

 

First thing you need when working on your own bike is a manual.
That said you should check your speedo cable to see if it is broken.
Disconnect it from both ends and spin one by hand and see if the other end spins too.

 

Thanks....I bought the bike about a month ago, still waiting for the owner to dig up the manual and send it to me....if they don't find it soon I'll look else where for one...in the meantime I'll ask questions on forums and search the net.

 

Does the previous owner have the owner's manual or the service manual? You need the service manual which is available on Ebay and other places. The owner's manual will tell you how to start your bike and maybe how much air goes in the tires and is pretty worthless.

Most common cause of the old speedometers to just stop working is the cable broke or frayed. Take it off at both ends and see if it's still in one piece. If the cable is fine, it's time to buy a new speedo.

 

You should be able to pull the cable from the speedo head, and from the sensor, hook a drill up to it and see if it spins. My sons stopped working, I tested it by hand and it spun, but when i hooked it up to the drill it didn't. If it spins when hooked up to the drill, re-attach it to the speedo head and see if it works. That will tell you if it's the cable or the speedo. If both work when hooked up to the drill, make sure it is seated really well at the sensor and the head, After my accident I thought mine was broken but it had just pulled loose at the sensor.

 

The speedo cable inner is fitted from the top, so if you disconnect the cable at the speedo you should be able to gently pull it out. Would be better to disconnect it at the bottom end as well, to disconnect the inner from the drive unit first.

There was a similar question recently from someone asking about repairing a speedo and we have a link to a firm that rebuilds old ones. Could be important if yours is original and you want to keep it.

 

Just to add, check the speedo gear housing down by the wheel bearing. The tang on mine snapped. Do too the gears just plain getting hard to turn.

 

Thanks guys....manuals are are useful but they don't have all this help experience and info in them...I can't post pics in them and wait for responses either haha thanks for the help...gonna take your ideas and check it out today.

 

So I found the problem...speedo cable broke inside the speedo mechanism at the wheel....can't get it apart to remove the broken part of the cable...anyone ever take one of these apart??

 

Are you sure there is something in there? That end of the cable inner is simply squared off, so is no larger than the round part. You should be able to see a square socket in there, around 1/8" or so across.