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Hi guys, I have a 1981 kz550 ltd and was wondering if there is a way to disassemble the speedo and tach for cleaning/painting purposes. The bike is in kind of rough shape and I want to clean her up as much as possible. Thanks.

Steve

somewhere in the archives is an article and how to about this...search for it i know its here someplace...steve

i've taken the tach apart but not the speedo. it's real easy if you use a dremel to cut the chrome ring, and then some jweld and hose clamp to cement it back together.

Read this thread

Post edited by: steell, at: 2007/03/03 15:51

The old article suggests removing the band around the gauges by levering it up from the underside. I have found that results in too much damage to the band to make it look good after it is put back on, and crimped down. Therefore, I instead took a dremel with a cut-off wheel to the band, and sliced through it, being carefull not to damage the gauge cover. Then I slipped off the band, and did my gauge clean-up. To reinstall, I assembled the cover onto the gauge, slipped the band on, and held it tightly in place with a rubber band. Then I placed a drop of JBweld epoxy onto the gap in the band, and let it dry. (Make sure you mount the gap in the band at an location that will not be readily visible when the gauge is remounted onto the bike.) That has been working well for over a year.

there is a link on z1enterprises to a sight that does speedo/tach resto work if this sounds to scary to attempt on your own.

Thanks for the responses, I will check out the article and try not to destroy my gauges, but if I do there is a new speedo on ebay @ $50.00 right now. Hopefully I won't need it. Thanks.

Steve

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Thanks for the heads-up H1. I have no clue as to the age of the brakes, but the bike has less than 11000 miles on it so I am pretty sure they are pretty old if not original.

One more thing, I got the charging system working, but it puts out about 14.3 volts at all times (idle and revved up). Is there an issue with the regulator or is this fine. Thanks.

Steve.

Don't be afraid to tear into the speedo actually. I redid mine and it was not all that complicated. I followed the old article with prying off the ring and putting it back on and it's not too bad. Though I did not rechrome the ring or anything, just did many coats of rattle can on the speedo housing. Looks a lot sharper and the best part.. works!

I found that mine had an excess amount of dirty grease inside. I cleaned out most of it and left it on the parts that needed it. I'll try to get some of the pictures up sometime.