Hitchcocks Forum

Speedo stopped working today, broken cable I thought.... certainly was, due to the drive spinning round with the hub!

Due to work, I won't get a look at the bike / wheel off until next Saturday. What's gone wrong? What horrors can I expect?

Is it a plastic speedo gear? I have gone through two cables due to salt corrosion now and the plastic speedo was really bad for the cable-speedo connection corroding solidly together. You have probably lost the lugs on the speedo drive itself but I would suggest upgrading to the metallic one offered by mr h.

It's the opposite of lost lugs - It has bound up solid and the entire speedo drive is turning with the front wheel. I guess it's a new drive needed or can they be rebuilt?

I stripped out my plastic drive once, and dismantled it to add some grease. Some gentle prying with a sharp knife gets them apart but it is the connection to the cable which is tricky - it corroded solidly on my drive on two or three occasions, and the only solution to get them apart was to damage the worm drive with force... so I went for the steel alternative from our hosts - that way heat will be an option in the future. But I guess the down side is more lubrication needed? If your cable comes out easily enough the refurb should be easy.

My plastic one gave up the ghost going through the middle of Bridgnorth on a market day !!! Sounded like "snap"----"crackle"----"pop" (almost literally !!)..........Plastic body had broken outwards....Metal one from a place that sounds like Free-Way did the job !!

The (metal) speedo drive did come to pieces apart from the worm drive in the casing. The worm drive was the culprit, there was one very worn tooth adjacent to a fairly worn tooth which every few revolutions managed to 'lock' against the driven gear. This locking was so severe that the speedo drive broke loose against the lock nut. New drive and cable being ordered tonight.