'00 sporty speedo/tach bezels

 Shirley, a big bowl of Doritos on the bar please.

I managed to dent the speedometer bezel on my long suffering (but not filthy
dirrrrrty) 00 sportster by toppling a dirt bike against it.    By the bezel
I mean the metal ring that fits around the face.  The glass face itself is
fine and the speedo still works OK.

I go to the nearest sdealer and one of the two orange-and-black mohawked
dudes at the parts counter shows me oh yeah, looky here, see the diagram of
what I got (the basic black speedo/tach kit side by side in a black
bracket).  BUT, he says, the bezel is part of the speedo and "can't be
replaced."  To take care of the bezel I would "need" to pony up $271 for a
new speedo.  HAWWWWWWKKKKK!!!

Knowing that google and ebay are my friends, I go google and ebay.  Sure
nuff, I see there's a chap auctioning some chrome bezels for this model and
vintage, MoCo part number 74541-00.  That would look snazzy enough, I don't
mind creeping chrome if it's not too pricey.  But how the ??? does this
work?  The sdealer's diagram shows the bezel seemingly unitary with the
speedo and the tach.  Will this part switch out with the old speedo's bezel
and the old tach's bezel?  Does it unscrew?  Pry off and glue on?  Held by
hardware such as clips, screws?  I'm not willing to trust the sayso of the
guy in ebayland who is trying to sell these things.

Thanks all,
Redneck

 

While your on ebay, you should buy yourself the manual.

BrianB

 BrianB(at work) wrote:

That wouldn't help.  The manual won't tell you how to be the bezel off
because you're not supposed to take the bezel off.

But if you do want to take the bezel off, you should be prepared for the
very good chance that you're going to fuck it up irreparable, crack the
glass, and fuck up your speedo.

Remember I said that, OK?

I removed my bezel by taking a small screwdriver and prying the lip away
from the body of the speedo around behind the lip it's wrapped around.
DO NOT TRY TO PRY THE SIDE THATS ON THE GLASS, YOU'LL ABSOLUTELY FUCK IT
UP.  Once that lip was a bit loose all the way around, I used some small
channel-lock pliers to gradually pull the lip up enough so that it
cleared the body of the speedo.  I took me maybe three times around the
speedo to get it right.  When I knew for sure, and only when I knew for
sure it would clear I slid the bezel off and dropped the glass onto the
floor.  Fortunately at that moment I was standing over a piece of carpet
and the glass didn't break.

To reattach the bezel I rebent the thing with the pliers until it
wouldn't fall off.  I then used a tiny little mallet and, holding the
speedo in my hand so I didn't put any undo pressure on the glass, gently
tapped the back of the rim into place.  If you didn't look at the back
you'd never know it had been removed.

I've alwo heard of people using silicon to glue the bezel back in place
and that probably has a much smaller chance of cracking the glass.

If you try this and fuck it up, remember I warned you.  The only reason
I did it is because I was considering putting a new face on my old
speedo.  I wouldn't do it for a small dent in the bezel.

Good luck and be gentle.

--

Spunky Hussein Tuna
radical ChristoIslamic fundamentalist Pescasupremacist
and frankly exultant...

 

Hmm, even if the glass did break seems to me it would not be expensive or
difficult to have a garden variety glass shop make an identical size glass
(or even Lexan) circle.  IF it is a circle and not oddshaped at the edge to
keep it from rotating.  Can you tell me if it was a circle?  If the MoCo
itself sold the bezels, obviously there had to be a way of installing them.
Was it like, you could get a new speedo sans bezel and the decorative bezel
of your choice was field installed upon it once and for all?

Redneck

 

DUH!  I should have googled just once more.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/gma_product.jsp?WebLogicSession=I8Buu3PtNn1Etk6eAxY7SyTL08aUJqL7j8n1xXsplgpSDVZhyDLA !181385344!hdijunapppr10.ihd.hd!7005!8005&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id„5524441988543&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id%34374309247465&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id%34374309247465&bmUID11892015300&bmLocale=en_US

(sorry about the long URL)

Judging from the size of it in the picture, looks like this "installs
easily" $13 chrome thingy is meant to slip (and glue?) on over the stock
bezel.  Prolly can get it through the sdealer themselves, no need to pay the
ebay ripoff.  Looks like the thing to hide the dents.  Time to see the
Mohawk Brothers again, this time with a part number?...

Redneck