85mph, I have proof!

Ok, that title may have been a little misleading for my very first post to these forums. By the way, this site has been helpful for my 1982 Yamaha XJ750J rebuild. I have everything finished except my speedo which came to me broken. Apparently the bike fell over in the garage and the needle shifted from the zero position to the maximum position. As a medium-ranked DIYer, is this repair easy? I figure my options are:
1. Try and repair it (like every other job on this 38 year old beauty)
2. Replace with new
3. Replace with used

 

i suppose it depends on what broke which you dont know until you take it apart. it is driven by a magnet so its not directly attached to the speedo cable. i think there is a spring though that is supposed to help return it to 0. so mabye that broke and popped out of alignment. or it might be as simple and getting in there and using your finger to move it back counter clockwise and it will just be fine.

 

Take the cover off and give the needle a careful nudge back. Do it from the round part, not the needle tip.. they are very brittle and fragile now...probably just stuck a tiny bit

 

Or it went counter clockwise when it jumped over the little peg at zero.

 

Guys, that’s perfect thank you. The advice on the magnet was spot on, so I’ll tear it apart and see what happens. I might be searching eBay for a replacement soon