Speedometer erratic

[stubbe4916]

Hello everyone coming to you from central Missouri. I recently bought an 03 Voyager and am having a problem with my speedo it works fine for awhile then starts acting very erratic needle bouncing a lot then will straighten out work fine for a while then start all over again. I have noticed that when this happens my stereo speakers act like they are going out and when the speedo starts working again they go back to normal. I have changed the gear on the front forks
and no change. I thought this was mechanical cable driven but it is acting like it is a ground problem. Any one have any ideas what this might be before I have to remove the fairing? I can fix anything including my wifes attitude with duct tape.

[Tonyvdb]

Its possible that the speedo connection at the rear of the dash is loose. You will have to remove the front fairing to access it.

[jre258 in SoDak]

You can access the top speedometer connection by removing the headlight. You don't need to take the whole fairing off. The speakers acting up is the bouncing is affecting the automatic volume control.
Jim

[stubbe4916]

Never thought about the auto volume on the stereo. That makes sense. I will double check my work on the gear on the front forks and make sure everything is still good. If it's the wrong gear there probably won't be much left of it. It might have been the wrong # of teeth on the gear. If all is good there I'll pull the front light and check the back of the speedo make sure that everything is tight. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Mr Jensee]

Pull out the core of the speedometer cable out and grease it with white lithium grease. That should correct your problem. If that core is dry it is only a matter of time before it snaps. You can remove it from the wheel side and not have to worry about trying to work inside the faring.

[chevyman1]

Also if you have the drive unit off check to make sure that the drive keys are in the slots in the cone on the wheel if they weren't it could have damaged it.
If the drive is bad I think 96 600cc Ninja drive is the one that has the right gear to correct the speedometer error, Can find them on ebay for less then $20.00

[iowawill]

Seems like that may be a symptom of soon to fail speedo cable....a common problem for me...have you had it apart? I have replaced the drive unit in the front hub as well but can't recall if the speedo just quit or there were pre-failure symptoms. It did work fine afterward. I can't think there is any connection between the speaker and speedo issues..it is a direct mechanical drive as far as I know. I am currently experiencing a similar problem in that my speedo needle has a come and go vibration it now...was thinking it may be the drive unit again as the cable is fine and well lubed. I do wonder if it could be a problem in the speedo unit itself as my trip reset on the odometer broke not too long ago. We shall see.

[stubbe4916]

Okay everyone I took the cable loose again and didn't need to lube it looks like it has graphite grease on it and plenty of it. Either way stuck it back in and did the drill test on while listening to see if I could hear anything in the cable housing and it didn't sound like it was binding anywhere and it maintained a constant speed for a full 5 minutes with the drill. Couldn't get over 25mph though as drill wouldn't go any faster. Gonna try to take the drive unit off tomorrow and double check that on my installation. It's just kind of strange that it works fine for awhile then acts erratic then goes back to fine then back to erratic. Usually these either work fine or not at all in my past experience with speedo cables & gears. If the gear is wrong it either grinds up into nothing or the cable breaks and nothing works. Either way it just stops working. Not the back and forth that it is doing. More to follow after I take the drive unit off. Thanks everyone.

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

Is it possible that the cable connection was just a tad loose and slowing it to skip free once in a while?

[stubbe4916]

Okay everyone I took the speedo gear drive off and it looks like the thin sheet metal cone that sits behind the snap ring on the wheel itself had the shoulders rounded a little bit. Since that is where the speedo engages from the wheel to the gear housing I am thinking that might be the problem. Anyway I took it out and used the dremel tool to square up the notch's in it so that the gear housing has a nice square shoulder to engage against and will see if that fix's it. It won't be a tight fit anymore but the wheel only turns one direction 99% of the time. More will follow if it looks like it fixes it. If not I will have to try and order a new one because that is the only thing that I can find that isn't perfect, unless it is the head unit itself.

[Bill O]

Okay everyone I took the speedo gear drive off and it looks like the thin sheet metal cone that sits behind the snap ring on the wheel itself had the shoulders rounded a little bit. Since that is where the speedo engages from the wheel to the gear housing I am thinking that might be the problem. Anyway I took it out and used the dremel tool to square up the notch's in it so that the gear housing has a nice square shoulder to engage against and will see if that fix's it. It won't be a tight fit anymore but the wheel only turns one direction 99% of the time. More will follow if it looks like it fixes it. If not I will have to try and order a new one because that is the only thing that I can find that isn't perfect, unless it is the head unit itself.

I have replaced a few of these over the years and even tried your fix. But, I found out that even if the repair worked, it would be short lived. The part is not much $$ through the various parts outlets so I'd go ahead and get one on order. I keep a spare in my parts box. When I have to use it, I get another to throw in the parts box, again.

Bill O

[stubbe4916]

Your right Bill I had it out today and it's still eratic not as bad but hard to tell how fast your going with the needle bouncing 10+ mph going down the rd. Looks like I'm going to be ordering a new one tomorrow from the dealer. Thanks for the input everyone its nice to know there is such a good group of people out there willing to help others when in need.

[HawkeSHR]

I have experienced the same thing. I just put a brand new cable and speedo gear on the bike and it is doing the same thing. I will check things over again when I get the chance but I will say, although I do not have a lot of complaints regarding Kawasaki bikes, one item that seems to have had problems is the speedo gear units. I have a KLR650 and in 70k miles I replaced the gear unit 4 times (2 were under warranty, fortunately). One of the things we learn to live with (I call them Kawasaki Quirks).

In any case I get better at re-installing each time I need to do it.