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I have a gremlin. It followed me from my 1972 Datsun 510 and has found a home in my wing. As soon as I repair one part, my gremlin goes after another. He's pretty consistent. I learned with the 510 to leave one minor part broken and all would be well. He's getting bold lately; the last thing he broke was in anticipation of my next repair. He saw the prep work for a head job and went to town.

So anyway...

Tach has worked perfectly. Responded instantly and accurately. Now, it seems to stick and wander around slowly. I checked and double-checked the routing and there is no binding. There is no discernible noise from the cable or housing. The only thing I've done is removed the fairing and slap on a headlight, but the tach cable doesn't even touch any of that. Any ideas?

mine was doing that when i first bought the bike, it turned out to be just a loose connection, make sure both ends are tight, they loosen up after a little while

Might help to squirt a little graphite powder down the cable housing to kinda lube it up

Additional note: My tach had been sitting for 8 years in the garage without moving -- NOT your situation, but --

When I got it apart, I found that whatever original grease had been applied in Japan in 1980 had congealed around the little "drum" that is supposed to move, and was restricting it. Cleaned off the old grease and re-lubed and it works fine.

Getting the tach "can" apart and back together requires great patience, and it beyond the scope of this note. However, there is NOTHING to a mechanical tach, once you get to the innards -- I think it may be true that they usually just require a clean-up, and they'll work fine.