My maxi sport speedometer has a warped needle that rubs on the glass and sticks. Anyone taken apart the speedo? Just wondering if I can bend the needle back straight or get a new one. Any advice would be appreciated!
My maxi sport speedometer has a warped needle that rubs on the glass and sticks. Anyone taken apart the speedo? Just wondering if I can bend the needle back straight or get a new one. Any advice would be appreciated!
Ive never done this. New speedos are cheep. How did it get bent in the first place.
If you are going to do it, take some pics along the way. I would love to see the insides.
Yup, should be pretty easy. Look through the hole in the plastic where the speedo cable goes in. You will see a nut going around where the speedo cable threads on. Get a needle nose in there and take that off. then the speedo should slip out of that housing. Then carefully pry the chrome bezel off (bend it as little as you have to cuz you need to put it back on). Pull that off and then you can take the glass off and pull the guts out. Not much to the speedo, Just bend the needle back and if you want you can lube the bearing.
Cool, thanks. I'll look it over closer when it warms up a little. The needle is just warped upwards, I'm guessing from the sun, or just age?
Yea the sun does that, and it'll just bend back after about a week. At least mine did. I ended up snipping off the little plastic needle and drilling a small hole where the needle was. Then I cut a paperclip to make a new needle and epoxied it in. Finally, I painted the whole thing red. I works smoothly now an it'll never warp up again. Just make sure you see where the needle returns to before you take the warped one off. you want to put the new or fixed one in the same exact spot or your speed will be off.
Good Luck,
Eric
Thanks, I think my needle is warped in that position for good, it's been like that since I got it. I will try that idea of fabricating a new needle.
I've taken apart a dozen or so Puch speedometers and the needle warping upward from the sun is a very common issue. Not much to the speedo as far as the actual insides are concerned. I believe it's a design flaw by VDO because most every Puch speedo has this problem. Basically you have to pry open the bezel with a tiny flathead screwdriver in order to get inside. The needle is just press fitted onto the shaft. I usually use a pair of computer pliers to gently pull the needle off. It is made out of plastic and if you're not careful it will snap off. Use a hair dryer on it and slowly and carefully bend it back straight. Take your time when doing this. It usually takes me a half hour to do this using a hair dryer. Then push the needle back on the shaft, replace the glass and carefully crimp the bezel back on using small needlenose pliers. Take your time doing this. If you try to rush the job in any way you will have a broken speedometer. Done right your needle won't be warped and will show your speed all the way thru the range (0-30 or 0-40 mph depending on what type speedo your bike has)
I've mentioned this a couple of times in the past.
I fixed this with a magnifying glass. It's a little involved but much much less so than dismantling the speedo.
Connect the speedo cable bottom end to a variable speed drill that you can set the speed on (little adjustment screw on the trigger. most cordless lack this.)
Run the speedo up enough to take the needle off of its rest and stay somewhat steady. rock steady is not necessary. Aim the hot dot from the sun through a magnifying glass back and forth slowly across the middle of the needle till it juuuuuuuuust starts to droop downward. Careful. Overdoing it can't be corrected easily.
Worked fine for me.
Yes fixed dozens of them but now I just buy the treats 80 mph speedo or nos 40mph ones,
It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive to take apart a vdo speedo because you have to use a small little screwdriver to start to take apart and then you have to re-crimp after you fix the needle or pull the stop pin,
I have all the tools and know how to do it but why bother, just buy the treats 80mph speedo or use a derbi 40 mph vdo speedo that has a thick needle that don’t warp,
As Ken said, it's time consuming to take one apart. The metal glass bezel just does not come off or snap off. The metal bezel is pressed into the body. You must pull it away prying around the entire ring before it'll come off.
If you're not skilled with tools I do not recommend doing it.
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