Posted: Apr 10, 2010 09:29 PM  (Msg. 1 of 5)

The odo/speedo quit on me last fall.  Actually it was briefly intermittent before it quit entirely.

I finally got around to isolating the problem last weekend.  It is the axle gearbox for the meter's cable.

I pulled it off, there was some loose material floating around in there - perhaps the remains of some kind of gasket but not sure.

Also, it appears that the two tabs that mate with the wheel (thus turning the gear) are bent back slightly into the housing but without seeing a new part I can't be sure about that.

Is it a common issue for these to get road dirt inside of them and then fail?

2005 + 68-7? CB450

Posted: Apr 26, 2010 03:29 PM  (Msg. 3 of 5)

For all the riders that contribute here, I've seen a few posts on problems with the drive unit. So, it's not unheard of for the units to fail, but the cable seems to fail more often.

Those tabs should engage the wheel, and they do seem to bend out with age. Unfortunately, the diagrams I've found on-line don't show them, and I didn't measure mine when I had the unit off last time. I did manage to screw it up then; when I attached the cable, it didn't slide into the drive unit, so was just pressed against it. It worked that way until I got to Nashville, then started jumping around, then just quit. Boy, did I feel stupid when I found out the cable wasn't broken.

Posted: Sep 2, 2010 08:01 AM  (Msg. 5 of 5)

Furthermore, I would add that after getting the new part and comparing it to the old one, it was clear that the tabs were bent WAY BACK.  How that all could have occurred outside of factory mis-assembly is a mystery to me.

I put the new part on, tire back on the bike, and everything is working again.