removing instrument cover

[Ouiji Veck]

You can get red anodized caps for your brake/clutch resv.

 

I tried to get in to my inst. and encountered the "free rotating" bolt problem.

I was tempted to drill in from the back but resolved my "charge" light issue elsewhere. (sorta)

Anyone else "been there-done that?"

[luhbo]

Trade it for shiny aluminium fluid container caps (if some one lets you).

 

Hubert

[pShenk]

You can get red anodized caps for your brake/clutch resv.

 

I tried to get in to my inst. and encountered the "free rotating" bolt problem.

I was tempted to drill in from the back but resolved my "charge" light issue elsewhere. (sorta)

Anyone else "been there-done that?"

I thought about the caps... still might do that.

 

Did you ever get the housing open? I did finally get mine open, obviously... I had to remove the four nuts at the rear (or front... front of the bike), disconnect the speedo cable, and unscrew the trip odometer reset knob. Then I pushed forward on the four bolts coming out of the housing. These are mounted to the tach and speedo, so they will wiggle out of the face plate. The whole thing should come apart then. And inside, you'll find the white plastic bulb-holder with the crumbling plastic.

 

The PC-7 epoxy works great. You can smooth it with a wet finger like I did, just for fun.

 

I posted before that I wondered what the plastic tab at the back of the intrument housing was for, and if it's supposed to come off. I snapped mine off... looks like it was plastic welded on. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be for... it covers up a small hole. I epoxied it back on as well.

 

Trade it for shiny aluminium fluid container caps (if some one lets you).

Yeah! Now you're talking. Are these a standard item?

[Guest ratchethack]

This thread got me wondering how I'd last fastened the instrument cluster cover piece on last I had it off a few years ago. I was hoping I'd had the sense to use Loctite Blue Threadlocker, as I didn't fancy another instrument cluster dismantling excursion followed up with J-B Welding broken plastic back together.

 

BUT RATCHET - don't you mean you were hoping you HADN'T used Loctite?!?! Surely those brass receptacles in the plastic would sieze hard enough to cause the very problem we've just seen here with the socket-head screws Loctited in place?!?!?!

 

No, Grasshopper. And stop callin' me Shirley. Loctite Blue is designed to YIELD to the force of unscrewing threaded fasteners. It ALSO contains chemicals that INHIBIT dissimilar-metal galvanic action that would otherwise be certain to eventually sieze the socket-head bolts in their brass receptacles in a much more permanent fashion.

 

Sure enough, when I took it apart, all 3 socket-head bolts yielded evenly. There was the familar powdery whitish-blue residue of two-year-old Loctite Blue on the threads. They came out as purty as you please.

 

Better living through chemistry.

 

O' course, I Locktited 'em right back in place, and Bob's y'er Uncle.

[pShenk]

Good advice Ratchet.

 

In this case though, I'm 99% sure that the plastic disentegrated due to vibration. The intrument cover is rigidly mounted to the face of the dash, and that's the only thing that the plasitc bulb holder is mounted to, behind the dash. My theory is that two 2 years of front-end vibration just shattered the plastic. There were stress cracks all over the place, and the plastic was all brittle and crumbly. The only thing I could do was remove it all and stick on a bunch of epoxy.

 

It was made worse due to the way the previous owner had the high-bars mounted. When I took delivery, the front-end vibes were so bad they made my hands numb in 5 minutes.