Latest Update! 

Not much has been done to my bike since my riding accident of Nov. 2, '05.  Of course I repaired the damage, but since then it just didn't seem to run right.  It was missing on a couple of cylinders, and I assumed it was a carburetor problem.  While troubleshooting, I found that most of the spark from the plug wire was shorting to ground through the spark plug boot.  I also could feel the spark through my hand, but it didn't really feel like much - not a jolt like you would expect.  So I ordered a pair of Accel Coils!  Just got them in and installed them right away!

Here they are as they looked right out of the package!  Aren't they pretty?  Except for the location of the high tension towers, they appear to be a perfect fit in the stock location on the bike.  Below you can see where the stock coils are on the bike, right under the fuel tank.  This is before removing them.

Now you can see what it looks like after installation of the new coils.  Surprisingly, they were a perfect fit under the tank using the stock mounting stand-offs.  The difference in how it starts now is like night and day!  It hardly cranks before it fires and starts running!  And smooth!  Just like it used to when I bought it new 25 years ago!  I really didn't know how bad the ignition circuit was until these new coils brought the engine back to life!

The next job I tackled was to fix the speedometer and tachometer.  Both were sluggish, and the speedometer had completely failed to register at any speed!  I found this procedure on a web site and thought I'd give it a try.  After removing the gauges from the bike, I removed teh protectuve black cover and O-ring.  Then I setup a saw blade from a Dremel onto a threaded rod mounted in my drill press.

Setting the height of the saw blade a set distance above the table means it would cut into the gauge without damaging anything inside.

Keeping the face of the gauge down on the table and rotating it, I was able to cut around the plastic case, allowing me to separate the bezel from the body.  It looks in the picture like it's tearing it up, but it really isn't.  A little cleaning up with a utility knife and there is quite a smooth edge by which the two pieces will mate together.

They separate nicely, allowing me to remove the internal mechanism, lubricate it, test it, and make sure the needle mechanism is freed up again.  Before cutting them apart, I scored the side so I would be able to put them back together in the same orientation as when I separated them.

First I did the tachometer, below is the speedometer.

Below is the mechanism from the speedometer.  You can see the mileage counter and the gears that drive it.  They all look good, just the "Bell" part that rotates the needle is gummy and doesn't move freely.  I squirted liberal amounts of WD-40 to free it up, and then sprayed a dry teflon lubricant on all the gears.  It seems to work much better now.

After cleaning up the edges with a utility knife, you can see that the surfaces are quite smooth and uniform.  However, due to the time constraint of the 5-minute epoxy, I was unable to capture any pictures of the bonding.  If you decide to try this, just be careful not to glob on too much so it doesn't squeeze out inside the case.  I used electrician's tape to hold them in alignment until the epoxy cured.  I them slipped the rubber weather gasket back on, and finally the outer black shell.

The last thing left to do is reinstall them on the bike and see if they work.  Put  in the odometer reset, mount them, and run start the engine to see if the tach responds.  As you can see, I have the engine rev'd up to about 3500 RPMs, and it seems to be much more responsive than it's been in a long while.  I put the speedometer onto the tach cable earlier, and it seemed to work just fine also.  Next up, a road test to check the speedometer.