Speed,and RPM guages are becoming unbearable

[Mike m]

My guages are really a pain anymore bouncing and erratic.can I do anything to help this,buying new guages are  interesting,can I get a set with a reasonable price,what are the dimensions I need to look for?

[Pat Conlon]

The tachometer is electric driven off the signal from the #2/3 coil (right side) IIRC it's a grey color wire that goes to the coil terminal that is the signal wire to the tach. Clean your coil connections, including the grounds.
Check the ground at the instrument cluster. The bouncing needle most commonly comes from dodgy connections.

You have options on the speedo.
1) clean and lube the speedo cable and grease the speedo drive on the axle.
See if that helps...if not,
2) take your gauge cluster out, box it up (entire cluster) and send it to Foreign Speedo in San Diego, CA. For ~$125 they will rebuild the speedo and your needle will be rock steady. http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=5718.0
3) most expensive is to convert over to GPS speedometer from Speed Hut. Aviation Fred, Axiom-r Tim, and a couple others have done this and the install looks straight forward and the results are trick. You can even get a new matching tachometer and custom fuel gauge.

Some folks have taken their speedos apart and injected lube via hypodermic needle into the gear housing. Results are mixed.

[Mike m]

Thanks

[Canadianlocost]

I have a cluster from a 84 with a MPH speedo in it, but the clear cover is wrecked. Not sure what year yours is. 15000 miles on the clock. I got a deal on a whole cluster with the bodywork I bought, so I would sell it cheap. I would ship from Sumas Wa. 

Chris

[red]

My guages are really a pain anymore bouncing and erratic.can I do anything to help this,buying new guages are  interesting,can I get a set with a reasonable price,what are the dimensions I need to look for?

Mike,

Just so it does not get lost in the conversation:

A bouncing speedometer needle is almost always a neglected cable.  Remove the core, clean, and lube with high-quality petroleum grease.  Work to eliminate any sharp bends in the cable housing, and Ty-Wrap the cable to various places to keep it as straight as possible, with only large curves, no sharp bends in the cable.  A new speedometer cable is a great idea, also.  They are still available, and not very expensive.  If the instrument itself needed maintenance, usually you would hear it howling when you ride.

A jumpy tach needle is often just a matter of flaky ground connections.  Best plan: run dedicated new grounds with new wire to the existing ground terminals on the bike and instrument cluster.  Cleaning the terminals on the existing wires may fix things, but not if the wire has failed in the middle somewhere.

[Hemi Bob]

After getting tired of the bouncing needles, and seeing a couple others buy speed hut gauges
I decided to give it a try. Waiting till there was a 15% sale. The 3 gauges really its 4 cost $600 Canadian
There was a problem and I did send them back twice the remove buttons of the face and install remote cables. Here are the final gauges installed in a second cluster I bought off ebay so I didn't have to cut up my
original.   Last night I tested them on the bike with the faring off and everything seems to work.
now Ill put them in the fairing and program the fuel gauge.


Bob

[Bones]

That looks great

[Flynt]

After getting tired of the bouncing needles, and seeing a couple others buy speed hut gauges
I decided to give it a try. Waiting till there was a 15% sale. The 3 gauges really its 4 cost $600 Canadian
There was a problem and I did send them back twice the remove buttons of the face and install remote cables. Here are the final gauges installed in a second cluster I bought off ebay so I didn't have to cut up my
original.   Last night I tested them on the bike with the faring off and everything seems to work.
now Ill put them in the fairing and program the fuel gauge.


Bob

Do you want to make another one for Wizard?  Not kidding...  once you've done it you'll be much better and faster the second (and third) time around.

Nice little side business here I'd guess.

Frank

[Country Joe]

Bob,
I will second that. Those gauges look awesome. Well, other than those kph thingys.... :wacko1

[Hemi Bob]

Hi Frank,
Your right the 2nd and 3rd would be much cleaner in terms of wiring. I did find out the cost of shipping back and forth
is pricey. I did ask for no buttons all remote cables. So they sent me two with buttons on the face one with button on rear.
So it took two returns for speed hut to get it right. Once I spoke to William at speed hut everything was fine from then on.
Also I took advantage of the right ups by aviationfred & urban legend. It made my install seam like id been there before.
I didn't grind of any thing of the mounting rings just turn the gauges into the rings until they were in the right position.
You do have to remove everything inside the housing to make room. I did keep the rev limiter By extending the wiring  and
laying it flat on its side under the tech. Speed hut gives you lots of wire to make connections and there is lots you wont use.
If I was doing it again Id  make all the connections inside the housing and making it a lot cleaner looking. Might even do it anyway
but have to replace the clutch and shift detent kit first. and the 16" Avon radials.

Bob

[Hemi Bob]

Country Joe
KPH thing ? I thought it was 260 MPH lol
Let me share another 2 pics

[ribbert]

Bob, they look absolutely fantastic!

I like the illumination colour and the clean look. The "FJ1100"and "Hemi Bob" are just the right size and the font just right.

I notice you have a foot in both camps, metric speed and imperial temp. 

Yessiree, that is a great FJ mod, well done on the detail.

Noel

[ribbert]

My gauges are illuminated, but with a less than red(orange) needle, ever older eyes, and the glare from all of the Waffle House signs, I thought of upgrading the gauge lights.  Any suggestions short of a SpeedHut improvement.

My guages are really a pain anymore bouncing and erratic.can I do anything to help this,buying new guages are  interesting,can I get a set with a reasonable price,what are the dimensions I need to look for?

As Pat says, the tacho is usually a fixable electrical problem.

Another option for the speedo is a dashtop GPS digital unit...



.......they are cheap, effective, plug and play. Ebay has pages of them for less than $50, and that's AUD, they would be even cheaper in the US.
My speedo needle is rock solid but I still had problems homing in on it at a glance. Where I live you need to exactly how fast you are going, not somewhere near it.

Another option is this, a GPS/HUD



They are now about 1/2 the size and half the price from when I bought that.


This remains one of my favourite and most useful (and cheapest) mods. Even if I had the whizzo SpeedHut speedo I'd never look at it, which is a shame because I'd love a set of gauges like Bobs.

Noel

[Wedge]

ribbert, just ordered one of those dashtop gps speedo's. Had no idea something like that existed. My cabled speedo doesn't bounce since I replaced the cable and the entire cluster but I know it's off after comparing it to my Garmin Zumo which generally live on another bike. So this is a very cool addition! Thanks!

[ribbert]

ribbert, just ordered one of those dashtop gps speedo's. Had no idea something like that existed. My cabled speedo doesn't bounce since I replaced the cable and the entire cluster but I know it's off after comparing it to my Garmin Zumo which generally live on another bike. So this is a very cool addition! Thanks!

Excellent, you'll love the easy to read display and not having to drop your eyes to the speedo. Then again, if I had Bobs instruments I'd probably ride straight through the first corner while admiring them.

I don't know why folks here are always surprised when they discover their FJ speedo reads fast. So does the speedo on just about everything you've ever ridden or driven in your lifetime. Speedo error has been by design for as long as I can remember.

OMOOC

Noel