speedo needle

[billy192]

hi,
just noticed my speedo needle is in half the other half is inside. i would love to keep the original unit so... is there anywhere i can get one please?

thanks

billy

IMG_6298 (1).jpg (999.6 KiB) Viewed 699 times

[Kurt in S.A.]

Glue the piece back on?? One has to wonder why it broke in the first place, though.

Kurt

[billy192]

i know nothing of its history got it from a barn find
if i glue the bottom bit it will only be half the length as i would need to over lap but thanks for the idea


billy

[Kurt in S.A.]

Not sure internal parts are generally available. There are speedo repair shops of course. There's Overseas in Austin TX and a small one-man shop run by Terry Vrla. Search his name on the forum.

Kurt

[billy192]

Thanks Kurt will do

[barryh]

You wouldn't have to overlap the needle parts if you used a short strip of something to reinforce the joint underneath.

But why did it break ?

Could an internal fault have wrapped the needle hard around to the stop. That's a common enough failure mode in which case the needle would be the least of your worries.

[Rob Frankham]

I would recommend having the speedo repaired by a professional.

You really need a special tool to remove the old one with any certainty of not damaging the spindle and perhaps more to the point, setting the new needle in the right place is difficult if you intend to have any resemblance to accuracy. Because the needle normally rests against the stop, simply pressing it on to the spindle at 0 will give an instrument that overeads by a substantial amount. In reality, it should be calibrated... and that all assumes that the rest of the instrument is in good condition.

If you do decide to go it alone, your best bet for getting a replacement needle is to look around for a 'spare or repair' unit at a reasonable price although finding a white needle is likely to be difficult.

[barryh]

You really need a special tool to remove the old one with any certainty of not damaging the spindle and perhaps more to the point, setting the new needle in the right place is difficult if you intend to have any resemblance to accuracy. Because the needle normally rests against the stop, simply pressing it on to the spindle at 0 will give an instrument that overeads by a substantial amount.

The OP's speedo appears in the photo to be already resting at 0 mph which is odd as my experience like yours was that when not constrained by the stop, the resting position should be a fair bit below 0 mph. That doesn't bode well for the basic condition of the speedo.

What I did is flip the needle over the stop to find it's natural resting position and then mark that position as a reference for when the needle was replaced before flipping it back over the stop again. There is no hole in the needle boss to use a proper needle extraction tool so I had no choice but to carefully lever it off the spindle using the minimum force necessary. Although I was apprehensive it didn't seem to cause any damage.

[SteveD]

There was an interesting older post in the now defunct bmbikes airheads forum that showed (a French guy I think?) a repair using a piece of beer can creased, cut, painted and glued back on. From memory it looked pretty good, but you'll still be left with the issue of why?

Then there's something like this...I wonder if they'd work?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005 ... 18QAvD_BwE

Pointer Needle Speedo Pins - AliExpress.png (172.22 KiB) Viewed 633 times

Pictures worth looking at here...http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/r1 ... index.html

https://advrider.com/f/threads/airhead- ... t-32457369

[billy192]

thanks Steve, just ordered. fingers crossed
i put a drill on the cable and the needle moves ok well it did for 5-6 mins. i can only try