Repair needed for my speedo!

[HERRBAYEMVAY]

My speedometer's needle on my '84 R65 has been bouncing up and down when I ride since I bought it last year, regardless of the speed, and now my trip meter has jammed and won't reset, so I guess I'm going to have to get it repaired. I have heard that there is some place in San Diego that specializes in repairing BMW speedos and tachs. Anyone have info on this place? Thanks!

[Kev M]

I plan on using Palo Alto to rebuild the Speedo (actually it's the ODO that's the problem on my wife's R65).


Hartmut C. Mees
Palo Alto Speedometer, Inc.
718 Emerson Street
Palo Alto, CA. 94301-2410

tel : 650.323.0243
fax : 650.323.4632

www.paspeedo.com


Kev

[HERRBAYEMVAY]

Kev,

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the place I was thinking about, now that you mentioned the name of where it is located. Thanks for your help!

John

[Rbike]

A friend and I have had speedos rebuilt by Palo Alto and when they came back they were not accurate...off by about 15%. So check yours when you get it back, they did correct mine after I sent it back and it's been trouble free ever since.

[donkey doctor]

Hello; I had a similar complaint so I took it all apart and found a little mis-alignment, corrected it and re-lubricated it all. The main spring was covered in a whitish buttery stuff. I cleaned all that off and put some fresh lubriplate in there. I had a bit of a problem getting all the idiot lights working, I covered all joints with di-electric grease, now everything works great, the speedo is a little optimistic, but is a reliable constant. Now if I could get to my tachometer.

[RebeccaV]

Aren't ODO and Speedo problems fairly common in Airheads? Before you send it to Palo Alto, is there an experienced Airhead person who can look at it?

I had a similar problem, my mechanic had seen it dozens of times before, and was able to fix it in 12 minutes.

Palo Alto unnecessary for now, although I've heard that their service is good and that they are reasonably priced.

[GlobalRider]

When I checked with the two outfits that repair speedos and got quotes, a new speedo from Competition Accessories (a BMW dealer at the time) ran me $20 or $30 more. I went for the new one.

You might want to call around and check pricing.

[HERRBAYEMVAY]

Yeah, I plan to contact Palo Alto first and see if they can give me an estimate on what it might cost to repair the speedo before I ship it out there. I'm a little hesitant about opening the speedo up myself and trying to fix the trip meter (plus, I have no clue whatsoever as to why my needle bounces up and down all the time). Maybe buying a new one (or rebuilt) might be the way to go.

[Kev M]

Local dealership quoted me something like $300 for a new speedo.

Palo alto won't quote you a price for a fix, until they've looked at it, but they say that overhaul is TYPICALLY about $150...

...at about half new, sounds like the way to go for me.

I'm just waiting for winter so I don't have to take the bike down for a couple of weeks when Jenn wants to ride it.

Kev

[GlobalRider]

Originally posted by Kev M
Local dealership quoted me something like $300 for a new speedo.

$300! Yikes!

I guess I lucked in when I bought a new R80 G/S speedo for US$160 (CA$240). Up here the local stealer wanted CA$464 and a rebuild was about US$150. In my case, the rebuild wasn't worth it.

[Kev M]

Price differene could also reflect the relatively smaller production numbers on the R65 (mine) vs the R80 (yours)....