Hi all, sorry for the amount of posts in a short amount of time. My speedo on my 89 EG is not working. Is there a common fail point or an easy way to test what may be the issue? Also my radio does nothing but light up, I doubt it is related but an fyi in case it is or you know the answer to that. Thanks for any and all help!

 

Speedo drive gear is a common fail point.
It could also be the cable or the speedo it's self.

I would start with checking the drive gear.

 

If it's like mine, your speedo has a pickup that controls the volume of your radio. Possibly, the speedo trashed the pickup and that's why you have no volume. Just a guess.

 

Speedo cable and drive gear are about the only recurrent issues I've had. Pull the headlight bucket. Pull the faring outer shell, disconnect the speedo cable. Lift the front wheel, spin the wheel. Does the cable turn? Pull on the cable part that is inside the cable sheath. If half of it comes out in your hands, you found the problem. If not, disconnect the cable at the wheel sender. Spin the wheel. Does the inside part turn? Oh, and I've done it so many times, I can remove and install the cable without pulling the faring half, just reaching up into there. I can even do it by feel and have done it at the dealer parking lot somewhere several times. You can try it and save an hour.

I think in the later bikes (87 up) that the wheel sender goes more than the cable, but a bad cable will take out the wheel sender too.

 

One more failure point: The bent tab on the sender that fits in a notch in the wheel. They break off. I have successfully got an extra few thousand miles out of one by putting what's left of the tab over the hole and beating it down into the hole with a punch.

 

Wow thank you for the speedy responses! I want to take the rest of the day off work and get into this already. Seems like I am going to want to buy a lot of stuff for this and not work because of it.

 

That's a common problem.

 

Better keep your job. Harley's are expensive ******.