Absolutely insane question regarding stock speedo gauges

[Neveragain55]

This truly is an insane question, but I’m desperate….

Here we go…….

We’ve tried everything under the sun to make the 2001 Bandit gauges work with our 89 GSXR110 engine, and all efforts have resulted in failure.

Many of you wrote me back saying it could be done, but we just couldn’t and I’m done trying.

If you can think of it, believe me we tried it, and rather than do any damage we’ve decided to just back away and go with a set of gauges from a 97 Bandit bike that has the speedometer cable that attaches to the front wheel.

We can get all the parts necessary to make it work and it won't be a hassle.

But, being the stubborn idiot that I am, I have one last idea……

 

Is there any way possible to place the guts of these 89 GSXR1100 gauges:

 

Into this 2001 Bandit 1200 housing:  

I know....crazy.

In other words (if the diameter of all of these gauges are the same) would it be possible to put the GSXR1100 gauges into the Bandit 1200 housing?

I honestly don't care about any of the indicator lights at this point.

I just want to know if it's possible.

If the answer is “yes” I win, I can simply swap everything out and be a happy camper.

If the answer is no, then I just go with these gauges (that I know I can make work) and I call it a day:

 

                                                                     Thanks in advance guys…..

[TonyGee]

can i ask why you want to use mk2 clocks and not the better looking mk1's ? 

[Neveragain55]

1 hour ago, TonyGee said:

can i ask why you want to use mk2 clocks and not the better looking mk1's ? 

I love these clocks....

 

They remind me of the bullet style clocks that were on the 1970's Kawasaki 900's & 1000's

For me, these are the best clocks for what I'm building....

Which will look very similar to these bikes when she's done:

 

 

These clocks, on the bikes above (to me) would look horrible:

 

Know what I mean......

 

 

[TonyGee]

yeah fare enough,  i like the old chrome Zed clocks as well but to my mine i think the Mk1 bandit clocks look more like em with them being 2 separate pieces.   

[TonyGee]

im assuming you used the mk2 front sprocket cover with the speed sensor in it ?  the problem their though is the output shaft isn't drilled for the pickup but it is possible to have it drilled,  or think of a way to fix the pickup to the front sprocket.  

[Neveragain55]

23 minutes ago, TonyGee said:

im assuming you used the mk2 front sprocket cover with the speed sensor in it ?  the problem their though is the output shaft isn't drilled for the pickup but it is possible to have it drilled,  or think of a way to fix the pickup to the front sprocket.  

That was scary, you nailed it.....

We tried every way under heaven to drill for the pickup but the shaft is hardened steel and we just sank thousands into the motor rebuilding it.

Rather than destroy the shaft we just backed off....

I'm ok with using the clocks from the 250 bandit.

The wheel from that bike is 17 inches and the wheel on my bike is also 17 inches, so all we have to do is mount the cable actuator to my front wheel so it can drive the cable, and the rest is easy.

The look is close enough to the 2001 Bandit 1200 clocks, and at least it looks better than those 89 GSXR110 "lopsided" clocks.

Swear to God, I have no idea why Suzuki would make such an ugly setup.

 

                                                                                                                         Thanks for the replies.......

[Gixer1460]

8 hours ago, Neveragain55 said:

Swear to God, I have no idea why Suzuki would make such an ugly setup.

Cos they are hidden away behind a fairing!

Never taken Blandit clocks apart so can't answer the question - have you tried? The GSXR clocks are 'sealed' units but can be taken apart if careful as seen by folks replacing broken needles, but how you'd then mount the guts and stop them falling to bits through vibration / water etc. is anyones guess!

[wraith]

The MK2 clock's you have are all electronic and when you remove the back they are just a sircuit bord.

The gsxr clock's are quite a deep clock compare to the MK2 bandit ones and you'd have to make a new mounting bracket.

I've got a set of bandit mk1 clock's on my gs1000 which look pretty good on.

Have you look at B4 clock's or even Zephyr clock's

[Joseph]

Drill the sprocket, fabricate a bridge shaped tab thingy that bolts to the sprocket, and fit the OE bandit pick up onto said tab ?

Something like that ?

Edited March 22, 2021 by Joseph

[Blubber]

10 hours ago, Neveragain55 said:

That was scary, you nailed it.....

We tried every way under heaven to drill for the pickup but the shaft is hardened steel and we just sank thousands into the motor rebuilding it.

Rather than destroy the shaft we just backed off....

I'm ok with using the clocks from the 250 bandit.

The wheel from that bike is 17 inches and the wheel on my bike is also 17 inches, so all we have to do is mount the cable actuator to my front wheel so it can drive the cable, and the rest is easy.

The look is close enough to the 2001 Bandit 1200 clocks, and at least it looks better than those 89 GSXR110 "lopsided" clocks.

Swear to God, I have no idea why Suzuki would make such an ugly setup.

 

                                                                                                                         Thanks for the replies.......

So it is just about getting the speed sensor to work?

It just needs 4 pulses per revolution of the output shaft.

 

You need something to mimic that rotor and get a castelated nut / castle nut or a slotted nut.  

 

i modified a standard EFE sprocket nut to work on my EFE engine with GSXR1000 clocks/ gauges 

The modification i made was to weld the new style rotor on the OEM EFE nut with a spacer to clear the output shaft thread and get into the sensor range. 

Sadly no pictures of it anymore -  in 2008 i used PB to host my pics and i closed that account. 

HTH

Edited March 22, 2021 by Blubber

[Neveragain55]

2 hours ago, Gixer1460 said:

Cos they are hidden away behind a fairing!

Never taken Blandit clocks apart so can't answer the question - have you tried? The GSXR clocks are 'sealed' units but can be taken apart if careful as seen by folks replacing broken needles, but how you'd then mount the guts and stop them falling to bits through vibration / water etc. is anyones guess!

True, they are hidden behind the fairing, but still.......I never liked them.

No I haven't tried to take the GSXR clocks apart because sadly I don't have an experimental pair that I could do that with, but honestly the more I think about it, and the more replies I'm reading from all of you - I'm just going to back off of that idea all together.

                                                                                            Thanks for the reply buddy, much appreciated.....

[Neveragain55]

2 hours ago, wraith said:

The MK2 clock's you have are all electronic and when you remove the back they are just a sircuit bord.

The gsxr clock's are quite a deep clock compare to the MK2 bandit ones and you'd have to make a new mounting bracket.

I've got a set of bandit mk1 clock's on my gs1000 which look pretty good on.

Have you look at B4 clock's or even Zephyr clock's

I did look at the Zephyr clocks and a few others from different bikes, and ultimately I decided on going with the 97 Bandit 250 clocks that you see in my original post.

I found a brand new pair on AliExpress.

I really hate the fact that I couldn't get the clocks I have to work, but at the end of the day, not having them is not a show stopper.

Everything else I wanted for the bike I was able to do, so I'll just have to settle for a different set of clocks other than what I originally envisioned.

Besides, the clocks I'm going with are a million times better looking than the GSXR clocks......

[Neveragain55]

41 minutes ago, Blubber said:

So it is just about getting the speed sensor to work?

It just needs 4 pulses per revolution of the output shaft.

 

You need something to mimic that rotor and get a castelated nut / castle nut or a slotted nut.  

 

i modified a standard EFE sprocket nut to work on my EFE engine with GSXR1000 clocks/ gauges 

The modification i made was to weld the new style rotor on the OEM EFE nut with a spacer to clear the output shaft thread and get into the sensor range. 

Sadly no pictures of it anymore -  in 2008 i used PB to host my pics and i closed that account. 

HTH

I wound up getting these:

 

I'm just going to go with these for now because they're easy enough to make work without having to make all kinds of welded up modifications.

I appreciate your input and I'm definitely going to show your post to the engine builder to get his opinion.

If I should ever revisit the idea of making the Bandit 1200 clocks work in the future, I'll refer back to your post.

We just need to get this sorted so we can move forward with all the other things on the punchlist to mock the bike up.

 

                                                                                               Thanks for the help........

Edited March 22, 2021 by Neveragain55

[Dezza]

If it's just the speedo not working then I agree with the above: it's a case of fitting a 'trigger wheel' to the front sprocket nut or output shaft, and a sprocket cover from a later Blandit that accommodates the sensor unit. The same sensor is used on multiple Suzuki models. If you use a MK2 600 Blandit cover, you can also do a cable clutch conversion at the same time. The sensor unit needs three wires: switched positive, earth (I think) and a new wire running to the clocks. The wiring wil be the same for e.g. GSXR 1000 clocks and even aftermarket clocks if you want to retain the stock Suzuki sensor unit.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Dezza

[Neveragain55]

2 minutes ago, Dezza said:

If it's just the speedo not working then I agree with the above: it's a case of fitting a 'trigger wheel' to the front sprocket or output shaft, and a sprocket cover from a later Blandit that accommodates the sensor unit. The same sensor is used on multiple Suzuki models. If you use a MK2 600 Blandit cover, you can also do a cable clutch conversion at the same time. The sensor unit needs three wires: switched positive, earth (I think) and a new wire running to the clocks. The wiring wil be the same for e.g. GSXR 1000 clocks and even aftermarket clocks if you want to retain the stock Suzuki sensor unit.

You're absolutely correct, I got a good, used Bandit 1200 cover that accommodates the sensor so no worries there.

It was just the fact that we couldn't drill the output shaft because its case hardened steel, and every bit we tried literally went dull, there was just no way of drilling it. (and the motor is completely assembled)

Then, we tried to tack weld a device in place to mimic "a trigger" and that didn't work either.

We didn't think about or mess with the sprocket, but at this point, I really think I'm done with trying to make it work.

So for now I'm just going to back off of trying to use the bandit 1200 clocks and go with something else.

You guys re awesome though, and I appreciate all the help..... 

[bluedog59]

I did it many years ago by welding the trigger to the sprocket nut. I can't remember if I used the original nut or not and I think there may have been a little bit of lathe work on the trigger so you could still fit a socket onto the nut but it can be done.

[davecara]

The sensor needs to see 4 pulses per revolution, wouldnt be too hard to modify the sprocket nut or maybe stick soemthing to the rear sprocket/disc?

[Askamaskinservice]

If it is 4 pulses on the frontsprocket you need ~12 on the rear

[ElBlandito]

It sounds like @fatblokeonbandit has done it, might be worth shooting him a PM or exploring the ZX10 sprocket nut route.

 

 

[Katana]

Or just get a machine shop to make you a sprocket nut with a bit on the end to fit the castle pick up to or make a cover that goes over the sprocket nut that has a grub screw to hold it on and have the castle pick up fitted to it. 

[fatblokeonbandit]

As above done it several times get good drill bits and correct speed and drill it

mom away working in Romania atm so can’t do pictures 

 

[Neveragain55]

2 hours ago, fatblokeonbandit said:

As above done it several times get good drill bits and correct speed and drill it

mom away working in Romania atm so can’t do pictures 

 

No worries,

 

I've learned quite a bit from all of these posts and I'll make one last stab at it.....thanks again for the replies.....

[Neveragain55]

17 hours ago, Katana said:

Or just get a machine shop to make you a sprocket nut with a bit on the end to fit the castle pick up to or make a cover that goes over the sprocket nut that has a grub screw to hold it on and have the castle pick up fitted to it. 

I think I'm going to try the ZX10 sprocket nut and see what that does, if the thread pitch matches the Suzuki output shaft I may just get lucky.

[gray711]

24 minutes ago, Neveragain55 said:

I think I'm going to try the ZX10 sprocket nut and see what that does, if the thread pitch matches the Suzuki output shaft I may just get lucky.

Keep us posted as the ZX10 nut is the route I thought I’d go after reading about it years ago somewhere .

[Neveragain55]

1 hour ago, gray711 said:

Keep us posted as the ZX10 nut is the route I thought I’d go after reading about it years ago somewhere .

Promise I will, I ordered a brand new one from Cheap Cycle Parts earlier today.

Once it comes in I'll take it over the shop and give it a try.

I'm gonna be honest, it it doesn't work, I'm just backing off of this idea altogether.

I know everybody keeps telling me it can be done (and I believe them) but I'm "seriously" not interested in welding or fabricating anything up in that area after all the money that's gone into this motor, with my luck, something will get f*cked up and I'll hate myself.

So if it works, great, if not, I'll just slap some Bandit 250 clocks on there (that have the cable that can be driven off the front wheel) and call it a day.