Tach whine?

Hi guys, I took my 81 550 out for the first time in quite awhile, and I noticed a godawful whine after a bit of riding. It sounded almost like a mix between a starter motor and supercharger. I pin pointed it at the tach, which was reading about 5000 rpm high. I gave it whack and it stopped and read correct, but it came back a few times again on the way home.

What would be the remedy for this, oh wise ones?

 

Your tachometer needs to be cleaned and lubricated. One of mine did that and was screaming so loud onlookers could hear it over my engine and their lawnmower.

Fortunately, on the XJ550s, the instrument cluster comes apart rather easily, but you'll need to do some "surgery" to get to the instruments themselves. (If needed.)

Once you can actually GET to the instrument guts, here's what you'll find:
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15303.html

In your case, I would try lubricating the input bearing (where the cable attaches) before cutting the can open to get at the instrument itself. (see pictures in above post.) In the case of the one that started screaming on me, it was the input bearing. (Unfortunately, mine FAILED and no amount of lube would save it so I had to replace it. The bearing had packed up and "gone crunchy" big time.)

The fact that a good smack cleared yours up tells me a bit of lube may do the trick.

 

Fitz, do you still advocate TriFlow with teflon as the lubricant of choice for squeeling speedos/tachs? I took my maxim for a spin yesterday and the speedometer is squeeling again after my great fix last fall. I saw some spray lithium grease with teflon at Lowes the other day but was afraid the lithium grease might be too heavy for the application.

I will get a can of whatever you recommend and fix that squeeling SOB (Squeeling Old Bugger) once and for all.

Once again, thanks for an excellent "how to".

Thanks

 

Yes. TriFlow is the only thing I've found so far that seems to be COMPLETELY UNAFFECTED by temperature. The other thing I like about it is it does NOT dry out and even though it's quite "thin" it is some truly slippery stuff. It's an excellent cable lube too. I got turned onto it years ago when I discovered the bad qualities of WD40 with a stuck throttle on the Norton, and I've been using it ever since.

 

Thanks and done!

Wamaxim

 

Thanks!