First off, I asked in the Sportster forum but never got a response mostly because a 96 Sportster is getting up there in age I guess. Lol. Anyway here is the scoop. I picked up a 1996 Sportster 1200 Classic a fee weeks ago. Speedometer works fine and is accurate, trip Meter accurately counts miles as well. Pushbutton on the back fails to cycle the Odometer to Trip Meter or reset the trip. So I jumpered the pushbutton as I know they seemed to have been failure prone for a while and I still was unable to cycle the trip Meter. I checked the button and it is indeed closing as well, so that rules out the button it's solder points to the PCB are also good. So I did the unthinkable and took the speedo off the bike and did careful surgery to open up the speedo and have a look to see if I could spot a defective component on the board or trace paths on the PCB. Well it got me nowhere without a breakdown schematic of the speedometer itself. And Harley uses some strange propriterty parts I'm sure. Now here is the goofy part. Every one I talk to says 1996 didn't have an electronic Speedometer it had a mechanical, well then I've had 2 oddball 1996 Sportsters. Both had Electric Speedos. It has about a 3 foot 3 wire lead soldered to the PCB that runs back to the "failure prone" pickup sensor connection under the seat behind the battery. It has 3 more wires coming from a connector hidden behind the bar riser cover. One is Orange with a white tracer, that is key in hot that powers the speedometer, and turns on the 2 backlights. One is Black, that is ground, and a white with a green tracer that is the trigger to cancel the turn signals. (They do cancel, a bit quicker than I remember, but do cancel at about 7 mph) and The the 2 black wires connected to the push button. I tired many tests, even a power drain test to see if I could just get it back to the Odometer at least. No matter what I do it powers up to the trip Meter, with the same miles as it had when I disconnected it. (we don't have the official mileage of the bike, but it's supposed to be under 10k miles) has it's original by date code front tire, and a tire with a 2000 date code on rear with about 80% tread) so unless someone rode the snot out of it for 4 years 9k is a huge possibility, but I'd live to know it as it's a flip bike and it's in pretty good shape for sitting since the early 2000s.

Anyway does anyone have experience repairing these 2 year only Speedometers? (Back of speedo does not have a plug like the later ones, all the wires are either direct solder or held on by a 9/32 nut in the PCB. (not a fun removal). Or happen to have one laying around that works??

Also from what I gathered with the lack of wires, the milage is only stored in the speedo and there is no ECU on the bike being a carb bike. So there should be a way to get the info off the Chips even if I have to transfer the microchips to a different speedo.

OR

Anyone know of a good drop in replacement that's NOT GPS, that looks proper and fits proper on the cluster. (no tach, but want to add one) Harley says it's all obsolete for anything older than 98, eBay spits out nothing but mechanical Speedos, and even talking to Fallen Cycle in Daytona Beach I even had their guy Zuber confused. He had never seen a Harley Speedo like this. All he has record of is Mechanicals.

So for now I'll just live off the Trip Meter, and jot the miles down on the gauge face with a dry erase marker from the trip to estimate my range with the 3.5 gallon tank.

Thanks guys! Hopefully someone on this section can help square me away. And yes I'm. It afraid to solder or change parts if someone knows a fix. I'm a Hobbyist that repairs Electronics and vintage radios, and knows automotive and wiring fairly well. And have tools like a oscilloscope if needed.

For now I reassembled the speedo and it's back on the bike so I didn't break or lose any of the small parts or damage the gauge face. (comes apart far different than any you tube videos as well) you have to remove the gauge face, to get at 3 screws to remove the guts out of the basket after carefully unrolling the chrome bezel from the back edge.

Again many thanks.

-Numinex

 

pictures say a lot.
you could possibly find a speedo repair shop, google is your friend.
hd probably third party the speedo. if the discrete components are not house marked, you can use the identifiers on the components and google to find pin outs and data.
you will have volatile memory and non volatile memory. if you can find the erase pin and bring it high, should dump memory.
off hand, i would say the processor is corrupted. (possible crack solder joint, use magnifier)

 

Thanks, I did some poking on Google but without any real information other than a date code on the CPU I just found some generic info on the Chips. I also did some calling and emailing to places that do Speedo repair and some basically said nope and others said they wernt allowed to touch a Harley Speedo and only one said for me to mail to them for evaluation, but repairs started at $300-500.. pretty much why I slapped it back on. And started hunting for a generic.

thankfully this post put me over the entry post limit so I can now post pics. I was unable to last night when I posted or these would of been attached. The front side is essentially blank other than a few solder points and the LCD for the Odometer. No traces of components all protected by a plastic shield the face sticks too and was not removable due to the speed generator being secured to it.