Speedometer / Odometer Stopped Working!

[benny]

so I took apart the gear unit at the wheel, and it's not spinning properly, but I can't figure out why or how to fix it / what part to replace. has anyone experienced this before? the bike is a 2004 R1150R non-ABS. any advice is appreciated!

[CycleRob]

You most likely have a broken internal drive cable, the part that connects to the speedo. It's actually a very tightly wound compound spring. Remove it from the speedo and turn the front wheel. If the cable does not turn, grab it with needle nose pliers and gently try to pull it out the top. If it comes out and it's short with a broken end, that's it.

[benny]

thanks for the advice, but I don't think it's the cable... where the cable attaches to the gear unit at the wheel, it is not spinning. by it, I mean the little cylinder that the cable attaches to. I took that unit apart, and I can see how it's supposed to work... there's a plastic gear with two tabs on it that looks like it's supposed to meet up with two little metal tabs attached to the wheel, but for some reason that I can't figure out, they're no longer making a connection. sometimes, they do connect... the speedo will occasionally work, but the needle is jumping around, as if for every other turn, the unit works. strange problem... I can't figure it out! HELP!

[boxermania]

benny

There are two components, the driving dog, the small part with the two tabs that is driven by the wheel and drives the speedometer drive, which is the second part.

If the two parts are accessible, take the speedometer drive and turn, by hand, the part that the driving dog fits into and verify that where the speedometer cable fits turns as well, if so that component is OK.

Then take the driving dog and see if the tabs that fit to the speedometer gear are damaged or broken or for that matter the slots inside the speedometer gear.........likewise, the inside of the driving dog has a shape that is retained by the wheel and provides the rotation of the speedometer gear, cable and speedometer. Need to insure tha the driving dog fits snuggly and is retained by the wheel to insure the proper operation of the speedometer.

Go to the link below, on the left, scroll down until you find the fiche for the wheel and click on it to expand the picture, the components in question are #7 and #14, part numbers are also provided.

http://www.ascycles.com/illustrated_par ... _main.aspx.

Good luck

[benny]

thanks for the advice boxermania,
that website is a great reference... I think I may have to go to the dealer on this one. when i took it apart, the speedometer drive unit was working fine... for some reason the driving dog was no longer making steady contact with the plastic part inside the drive unit. however, the driving dog was moving around. it did spin with the wheel, but it was moving back and forth within the wheel. so i suspect that maybe it slides back away from the drive unit so it can't make contact... but how would I fix that? Is there some spacer or something that is missing? and if so, where in the world did it go?? well, I'll look into some more and see what I can figure out.
I thought that maybe someone would have had this problem before. the bike has about 57k on it, and everything else still works great! thanks again for advice.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Maybe this will help also?
The housing for the speedo gear at the wheel has a couple of tabs that makes the unit sit at the correct angle. I think if you have those tabs rotated too far forward you may not get the proper engagement with the slotted cable.

Did you just have your front wheel off? It is easy to put that housing in the wrong position on reinstall, ie too far forward or to put it another way rotated to the front or counterclockwise. BTDT.

John

[benny]

I have never taken the front wheel off of this bike until this happened. The problem seemed to come from out of nowhere... One day I jumped on for a ride and the speedo started jumping around, then stopped working.

I would like to try to fix it but this is the time of year in new england where there are not many more opportunities to ride so it may become a winter time project. but of course that means that I'm putting more miles on the bike that aren't clocked i.e. the odometer is no longer correct. But when you gotta ride, you gotta ride!

[boxermania]

If everything is together, disconect the speedometer cable at the speedometer and routed it to were it can be seen while riding the bike......if it turns while riding the problem is not down at the wheel but at the speedometer gears. BTW, if this is the case that would be the first time something like that makes it to this forum.

[Dr. Strangelove]

did you pull the cable to make sure it's intact?

[benny]

I have not pulled the cable, however I believe it is the gear unit. when I disconnect the cable at the wheel, I see the little pin that the cable attaches to. and when I spin the wheel, it spins a little, then stops spinning, then spins a little, then stops. sometimes it doesn't spin at all. this behavior matches exactly with what the speedometer does... sometimes it moves a little, but usually nothing. I suppose I should check the cable anyway, but I can tell what makes it spin and it's seems like it's not working properly. I'm going to call my local dealer this weekend and see what they say. thanks everyone for all the advice.

[CycleRob]

benny, It very likely is the drive tab plate (3) held in the wheel with a snap ring (2).

Sometimes the person replacing the front wheel does not align the speedo drive tabs with the open slot in the wheel. Then, as the axle is tightened, the tabs get crushed flat and are no longer able to drive the speedo cable. The fix is to remove the snap ring and drive plate, then rebend the drive tabs to a right angle like in the pic above.

.

[benny]

thanks for the pics, cyclerob. I think I need to take it apart and look at that drive tab. when I took it apart, it looked like the drive tab plate (or driving dog, as it was called elsewhere) still had it's tabs bent at right angles, however it was sliding back and forth within the wheel. I'm wondering if it's supposed to do that, or if it somehow came loose. for example, if it was able to slide farther towards the center of the wheel, it would lose contact with the gear unit. but maybe those tabs gradually got bent somehow... i've owned this bike since 50000 miles and never taken the front wheel off, now it's at about 58k. and the speedo stopped working suddenly. i think i'll try to get the drive plate out this weekend and see if I can figure it out. thanks again, I'll keep ya'll posted on what I find.

[CycleRob]

That drive plate is designed to be normally loose and "move around" a little bit so it self aligns to minimize wear. The flat steel snap ring keeps it in place. You'll need a heavy duty grip on the snap ring pliers to release/remove the snap ring if the drive plate's bent tabs require "reshaping". If they're too damaged or snap off while being rebent, then a replacement is needed.

.

[benny]

FIXED! at least for now... the drive plate was a little bent, and I bent it back into shape a little, and it works. I am a little bit concerned with the amount of corrosion I saw in there, though. also, it looked as if some force had acted upon the components. Hard to explain, but the the drive plate was bent as if some force had pushed in towards the center of the wheel from the side. there was also some "damage" to the bearing on that side... the black cover on that bearing assembly was bent... and I took it out and bent it back into place. it all went back together fine, and it works, but I'm just wondering what would have happened to cause all of this.

anyway, thanks for the responses. hopefully this can be a reference if anyone else has this problem.

[CycleRob]

benny, If the bike has 57K on it, the wheel has come off at least 5 times for tire changes. It was likely the last tire changer did not engage the narrow drive tabs with the wide internal slots of the hub on the speedo drive gear. He may have thought he did, but really did not. Then, when the axle nut is tightened, the drive tabs get crushed and bent. It also puts a high axial force between the drive gear and the speedo housing (zero end play), generating a lot of heat. Wear particles may be the systemic "rust" you noticed. Those fine particles can also chew up the seal, allowing water to get in. You need a complete disassembly to degrease/clean/regrease the internals so it doesn't continue to grind itself to dysfunction. Act soon, a new speedo drive assembly is $62.94 from BMW.