Has anyone converted mechanical speedometer to electric?

[wingrider]

Hey all,

I am resto modding my 74 550, and am putting on a modern front end from another project of mine. One thing I am running into is that I need to somehow convert the speedometer to be electric instead of mechanical.

So far I haven't been able to come up with any easy way to do this. I know I could run a small digital speedometer, but would kind of like to see the stock gauge spin instead.

Has anyone found a gauge that the inner workings could be taken out and put in the 550 speedo?

Thanks for any help!

[Jimroid]

This sounds like a great science project. Looking forward to the results.

[tz375]

There are a couple of cheap Chinese electronic speedo/tacho/everything else that you may be able to cannibalize.

[wingrider]

Yep, have been looking at various types of aftermarket stuff to see if everything might line up...even looked at some Suzuki stuff, but it appears that they liked to link the two gauges on one circuit board.

I will have to pull it off and get some good measurements of it to see if it will even be possible.

[johnakay]

heres one...
http://www.digital-speedos.co.uk/mechan ... -113-p.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

google is your friend.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=conve ... o+electric" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wingrider]

Thanks for those links, but they don't work for an electronic signal to make the mechanical gauge spin. All of them seem to take the mechanical drive down by the wheel, and create an electrical signal for new gauges. None of them take an electrical signal, and make a small motor turn the gauge...which is a sad thing for me.

I had looked quite a bit on Google, but nothing exactly worked for this. I emailed Dakota digital to find out what would work, and the only thing they had was a $300 box that was designed for cars, and would be very hard to hide on this small of a bike.

[oldjapanesebikes]

Why not just use a GPS speedo ? There are quite a few available. Or take the poor man's route and just use your phone I normally run an app on my smartphone that uses GPS to display the speed in KM which is convenient as the clock is in MPH.

[wingrider]

Reason being, Because it doesn't look like the stock gauge...I tend to like the look of the stock gauges on this bike.

I have one of the gps setups on one of my bikes, and I do agree, it works great!

If I am going to go the add on route, it will be a small one mounted on the handlebars between the clamps.

[oldjapanesebikes]

Reason being, Because it doesn't look like the stock gauge...I tend to like the look of the stock gauges on this bike. .

Fair enough. In that case, what I would tend toward would be finding a GPS gauge that would fit inside the GT550 gauge housing.

[wingrider]

I am hopeful that I can find something that will play nice in the space, and perhaps have a face plate that can be made to look original...

[oldjapanesebikes]

I am hopeful that I can find something that will play nice in the space, and perhaps have a face plate that can be made to look original...

I don't have a set of GT550 gauges handy to check the size, but take a look at this web site - they seem to have a range of sizes and they look like analogue gauges. Might be worth a phone call. And you can copy your old gauge face and have it printed on vinyl which could be stuck onto the new gauge face - fairly easy to redo the numbering to match the calibration of the new gauge using a computer.