K75c Instrument cluster issues

[Tmcdan2550]

Hello,

I have a 87 K75C and I'm having issues with the instrument cluster, the speedometer, odometer, and trip meter are not working. The digital gear indicator works and that's it. The shop that I take it to said they could replace it for $750 but I want to try to keep it because I'm the original owner and it has around 75K miles on it. Any ideas on what might be wrong and is it possible to fix?

Thanks,
Thad

[Martin]

You need the gears replaced, they turn to cheese and disintegrate. Look on line they are available. It is a fiddly delicate job that requires patience and a delicate touch but is doable. Or there are Instrument Workshops that will do it for you. There are two different brands of speedo in metric or imperial so that gives you four possible sets of gears, the brand is on the face.
Regards Martin

[Bill]

It may also be an electrical problem.... all those indicators - speed, odo, trip counter are driven from the same signal.  Do the turn signals self cancel after the usual distance ?  That is also driven by the speed sensor.  Check the connector on the cluster for corrosion - bad contacts.

[Martin]

+1 Bill definitely check indicator self cancel, that should give you the direction. Try cleaning the sender unit located on the final drive. I'm not sure if when my gears disintegrated, if I was still able to zero the trip meter. Did the shop give you any indication of what they thought the problem was. It would also help if we knew where you are located.
Regards Martin.

[Martin]

I have been trying to remember what the symptoms were when my speedo failed, and I do believe that my speedo was still working, but I had lost function of the odometer & trip meter.
Regards Martin.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

75k miles.  Have you ever pulled the sender in the final drive to clean the surface?  Metal particles from the wearing of the parts causes the pickup to stop working.

Have you checked the connector where the speed pickup connects into the wiring harness.  It's behind the battery cover on the right side of  the bike.

I don't think it is your odometer or tripmeter gears if the speedometer needle doesn't move.

Does the tach work?  Not that it has any bearing on the speedo, but it may indicate other problems in the cluster.

Would be cool if you posted  where you live so we can suggest other service alternatives.  There are instrument specialists we could refer you to if we knew where you are.

[Tmcdan2550]

Hello,

My turn signals work, they cancel after the normal distance and the tachometer works and I can still turn the numbers on the trip meter.
I think it might be electrical and I will check the connectors this weekend.
I remember the problem gradually got worse, the speedometer and odometer slowly started to fail.
I live in Chicago and Motorworks wanted to just replace the whole instrument cluster and not really trouble shoot anything.

Thanks,

Thad

[Martin]

If it ends up too expensive to repair rather than spend $750.00 I would look for a second hand one. Somebody on the forum probably has one left over from a café conversion.
 Regards Martin.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

What is the condition of the rest of the bike as far as corrosion?  Hit all the connectors with DeOxit.  From there you might want look at the circuitry inside the cluster.  There is a small solenoid coil in there that flips the digits in the counters.  There is an outfit in Texas, I believe, who can rebuild speedometers and odometers.  However, I am pretty sure that going with a used replacement would be the most cost efficient solution.