Cold Weather Causing "Lazy" Instruments???

I know there are a few of "The Frozen Ones" who have dusted-off their bikes and gone-out and done a little Battery Charging / Oil Pumping run's to get things moving again after this ... hopefully over now ... brutal Winter we had.

Are your Instruments "Lazy"?

Particularly ... the Tach.

Mine don't want to wake-up yet. It's taking forever to read right and its hanging-up like it can't deal with the cold even a little bit!

 

Mine works just like it did in August.

Maybe something decided to set up housekeeping in yours over winter.

 

I synced and tuned the carbs on Sunday (I rebuilt them over the winter). When I finished The cold front was just starting to come through, but I couldn't wait, I filled the tank, hopped on and rode until I was too cold. It felt goooood.

The instruments worked just fine, but after I filled the tank, I wanted to reset the odometer. It didn't want to reset. The knob would turn, but the dial wouldn't reset. I kept turning, and after about 20 turns, it kicked in and I got it reset. I don't think I had unscrewed the knob, so I figured it was the cool weather.

 

My Xj does not do this, but my old CX500 used to. Have you ever a set of clocks completely apart? Highly simplified explanation next!

You'll find the indicator needle is oil-damped. The needle sits upon another needle, which in turn sits in a small brass housing filled with oil/grease type substance, which is then spun around by the mechanism in general. The inertia of the viscous oil/grease then turns the needle, and it's this viscosity that keeps things nice n smooth, stops your speedo/tach from bouncing all over the place.


When things get a little chilly, as you can imagine, this oil gets a little too thick, causing the lazy needle.


Try repairing one! My 550/Four had a speedo that jumped all over the place.. At any one time I had a spread of around +/- 25mph either side of the real speed I was doing. Anyway, I had an old CB200 speedo which was perfect, so I stripped them both down, and found that the oil/grease had disappeared on the 550. So, I scooped out the gunk from the 200 speedo, smooshed in into the 550 speedo, and job was done. Almost

Not quite as perfectly as I had hoped, but at least it now keeps me within +/- 5mph of my real speed..

 

Rode mine in November at -7C (20F) with no effect on the tach, or any other instrument - just lucky by the sounds of it.

 

my SEca Turbo did this..

i took the gauges apart and cleaned and lubed both speedo and tach..

but the tach still was "lazy" in cold weather, but after lube, and some warm weather / alot of 1k rpm to 9k rpm, it woke up and has worked fine every since...

was really annoyng before, as it wouldn't read the right tach.

 

My 900 tach was always like that. It never failed to set itself right within a few blocks.

 

Sounds like it is time to lube up the meter movement pivot pins. Clean out with contact cleaner, apply a TINY amount of clear sewing machine oil (Good heavens, DO NOT use 3-in-1) or instrument grease (Lubriplate comes to mind). See if that doesn't free up the movement for you.

 

My 83 XJ900 had a tach like that, but once it warmed up it worked fine.

 

My bike hasn't become lazy because of the cold but the rider has. I can't seem to pull my nonexistant backside off of the couch.....which reminds me. I need to order some new foam for my seat d/t the lack of flesh on my back side.

 

My 550's speedo and tach are both lazy in the cold (around freezing temps). They bounce around just a bit.

The 750 is not afflicted.

 

Mine works just fine--- it's digital.