Plastic display speedometer d-tracker 250 fading

[patthai74]

Hi all,

I have a 5 year old d-tracker250 of which the plastic display of the speedometer is fading. I can barely see the details during the day, but at night it looks all 'milky' and it is impossible to read the display. I reckon it is because of the sun and rain battering on it over the years. Any idea if just that plastic cover can be replaced or if the whole unit needs replacing?

Cheers ;-)

[JonnyF]

Not sure about the D tracker, but on most bikes you can replace the plastic part of the housing that contains the display (not just the display, but the plastic piece that contains the see through bit) without replacing the whole unit.

Normally the unit splits into 2, the bottom piece contains the major workings of the unit and the top piece is just a plastic shell with the display. Should be easy to take off and take a look.

[ll2]

yep, mostly screen is a separate part for easy and cheap removal and i hope it is the case with d tracker.

just ask Kawa.

[Shurup]

I've had the same thing on my Dragstar but worse, couldn't see anything at all in day time and barely see something at night time.

It's because of the sun, not rain. If it was the external clear plastic cover, it would have been a cheap fix, but it was not in my case and I'm pretty sure it's not in your case. To confirm, take the display cover off and look at the display itself. It's the LCD display that is screwed. You probably won't find the display by itself anywhere, and your one option would be to replace a whole assembly, which was close to $600 (I doubt it will be a cheap part in your case either). The other option is what I did, and it costed me a whole $10

Here are the before and after pics:

If you know how the LCD display works, the top part of it is like a polarizing film which makes crystals visible and it is the part what got damaged. On some displays the film is not glued to the glass (easy to change) but in most it's glued, still not a big issue.

The $10 that I spent on the fix was buying a calculator with the screen big enough to cover my bike's display. I then opened the bike's panel, pilled the film off the display's glass and cleaned all of the old glue which was the most time consuming part, as you can see from the Before pics, the top film looks warped. I then ripped the calculator apart, took the screen off and pilled the film off the glass. Next I cut it to the right size to fit my bike's display and stuck it on. Done!

For you the hardest part would be to find a calculator big enough to cover your display. Alternatively you can use a film from a few smaller calculators and use them to cover a whole area but then seams will probably be slightly visible.

Note: if you get negative colors on the display, you'd need to turn the film at a 90 degree angle.

Good luck.