Modern Vespa

OK.. I had a good excuse to just enjoy the ride since my speedo needle is deadpanning it. Totally out of the blue, and no bumps or words of encouragement #$%$# worked.
Where do you suggest I look for the problem first... the headunit or the front wheel/cable?
Thanks for any input, oh wise ones, and hope everyone is having great weather, like here!!

My speedo's broken too, so maybe I'm not the best person to take advice from but... I'd say start with opening up the headset. The "gland nut" on the cable occasionally comes unscrewed from the speedometer body. Easy to rescrew. But before you screw it back on, raise up the front wheel (put it on the center stand, then lift up the front end and slide some blocks of wood under it to support it), spin the front wheel with your foot, while looking at the top of the speedo cable. You should see the little square thingie inside the cable turning. If it doesn't then, the problems at the wheel end. If you don't see a little square thingy sticking out of the top of the cable end, then it might have broken off and you'll need a new cable.

Search for speedometer on here, and you'll find a thread that talks about putting a brass shim on the end of the speedo cable which sometimes helps also. (Although I tried that and it didn't do any good, so now I'm thinking my speedometer unit is shot).

Good luck.

-Dan

Thanks for responding Dan! I did catch a glimps of the shim idea and hoped it would not involve that mickey-mouse scenario. (Didn't look to succesful..)
I will take a look at it tomorrow (late now) and let you know what I find.

Anyone else out there deal with this problem??

OK.... so now why EAR WAX is brought up...
Did the spinn the wheel test after taking the head unit apart and speedo cable, and nix on any cable movement.
Pulled the wheel apart, and geeez! We knew this bikes wheel didn't roll quite as easily as some other bikes, but didn't expect to find the black tar/ear wax that the speedo drive gear was sitting in! Got the piece out, then had to dig and scrape the built-up crud out with a screw driver and order the battered gear. (notice missing teeth and one end on pic)

Seems my grease was so thick, the gear just bound up and sheared while the cable itself is fine. Do you think the grease is original 2003? Or some poor excuse of...

Repacked and loaded, the bike is up and running!
What did we learn....

When I saw speedo I thought...

yea, me too..you guys get me with the "speedo" thing each time.. i prefer speedometer..

LOL Considering that we are moving into fall/winter weather here, you'd have to be participating in the polar bear plunge to bring one of those out!
I see my photo of Mobil 1grease and gears got knocked.. not sure why.
It would be interesting to find out if others have had thick binding grease issues. How often do most of you check/change your grease??

8)

Good job finding the problem! Mine still isn't working, I'll have to take out the gear and see if it's binding. Don't know why the grease would be so messed up, it should be sealed in there... I just took apart the front wheel bearing and speedo(meter) gear on my 1961 VBB, and the grease was clean and in perfect condition -- and as far as I can tell nobody had done any work on the bike for 40 years.

-Dan