phillybean
XS400 New Member
Hello all, long time lurker and first time poster...
I have a 84 Maxim 400 that I purchased last year. I did not ride it at all last year. Over the winter/spring I replaced the carbs (tried to rebuild but a jet broke), replaced with stock used ones. I did fork seals, new tires, front & rear brakes, plugs, oil change, air filter, fuse block and general clean up. Bike is finally up & running.
When I bought it, the tachometer cable was unhooked from the tachometer, during maintenance I hooked it back up. On the first ride, there was a loud hum coming from the tachometer. It worked properly, however 20 minutes into the ride it started bouncing up and down and then the needle broke off. I did not disconnect the cable from the back of the tachometer afterwards. Second ride I put about 50k on. During the last 10k the speedometer started bouncing up and down. There was still a intermittent loud hum/vibration type noise coming from the tachometer. Once I got home I unhooked the tachometer cable from the back of it. I figured the vibrations from the tachometer were impacting the speedometer. Yesterday was the first ride since, everything started to working fine, until 5 minutes into the ride I started hearing that vibration noise again. When I looked down I saw that my speedometer needle broke. What was left of it was not moving at all.
I've ordered a new cluster from a wrecker, but am a little concerned something else might be causing the issue. I don't want to wreck the new cluster and be out $170.
A couple notes that might be applicable -
I did not install the front fender again, so cable isn't mounted to anything, but doesn't have any damage on it.
New at working on bikes, if there was anything I could have done wrong when reinstalling the front wheel, I could have done it.
I have a 84 Maxim 400 that I purchased last year. I did not ride it at all last year. Over the winter/spring I replaced the carbs (tried to rebuild but a jet broke), replaced with stock used ones. I did fork seals, new tires, front & rear brakes, plugs, oil change, air filter, fuse block and general clean up. Bike is finally up & running.
When I bought it, the tachometer cable was unhooked from the tachometer, during maintenance I hooked it back up. On the first ride, there was a loud hum coming from the tachometer. It worked properly, however 20 minutes into the ride it started bouncing up and down and then the needle broke off. I did not disconnect the cable from the back of the tachometer afterwards. Second ride I put about 50k on. During the last 10k the speedometer started bouncing up and down. There was still a intermittent loud hum/vibration type noise coming from the tachometer. Once I got home I unhooked the tachometer cable from the back of it. I figured the vibrations from the tachometer were impacting the speedometer. Yesterday was the first ride since, everything started to working fine, until 5 minutes into the ride I started hearing that vibration noise again. When I looked down I saw that my speedometer needle broke. What was left of it was not moving at all.
I've ordered a new cluster from a wrecker, but am a little concerned something else might be causing the issue. I don't want to wreck the new cluster and be out $170.
A couple notes that might be applicable -
I did not install the front fender again, so cable isn't mounted to anything, but doesn't have any damage on it.
New at working on bikes, if there was anything I could have done wrong when reinstalling the front wheel, I could have done it.