Jackfit

Simple question, what is the recommened lube used on the tach cable and speedometer cable?

Thanks

Jack

PS If you read to the bottom of this thread you will find yourself back here and maybe you will have the anwser

Shurshot

The old GM good stuff has been replaced with the new not so good stuff. I have tried the new stuff and it did not work for me.

So until I switch out to a mid 70 electric tach I have installed a column mount electric tach

Wish I had something better to suggest

Sorry

Doug

DZAUTO

For nearly 50yrs I've always used chassis grease. NEVER a problem. I have a 1/2gal tub of Valvolene grease in the cabinet that I use as a genreal purpose lube for many things and it seems to be excellent.

Tom Parsons

Jackfit

Thanks for the info, sounds good to me,,I have owned the car for almost 40 years, I am doing the 4th restoration myself, I am amazed at how much I have forgotten.

Jack

gldnkngt

Any quality cable lube should work fine. Just be careful not to over lube it. A lot of the repro or new cables come pre-lubed so you don't have to worry about it. If you're lubing your existing cable, lube it sparingly. More is not better and can create other problems.
A thin coat, and wipe off the excess, and you should be good to go.
www.harrisonspeedometer.com

Desert Nomad

White lithium grease.

65 vette dude

I had a speedometer cable made up at a speedometer shop and when I went to pick up the cable I asked the guy what they use to lube the cables,and he said wheel bearing grease. As I was walking out the door,he yelled to me not to use lithium grease. I didn't ask him why not since I had a can of wheel bearing grease at home to use.

Desert Nomad

Can't tell you where I heard heard that lithium grease was reccomended, but I won't argue with a "Speedo shops" reccomendation. I have been using white lithium grease on my motorcycle cables and also the speedo and tach cable of the vette for quite some time without any problems.

Jackfit

I ask a simple question and what do I get. No anwser yet to what lube to use.... Please ,, is there a Doctor in the house to give us the ""real anwser""

Jack

midyearvette

i have always used chassis grease with no problems.....im not a doctor but i have stayed at a holiday inn express a few months ago

Powershift

Go to www.huskey.com/s_autogen.html for Slipkote Speedometer Grease. Then order some.

Larry

65 vette dude

Well,I thought the wheel bearing grease, that the speedo shop said to use, was a pretty good suggestion......but if you don't like that one,I believe John Z uses Kable Eze. I think I remember he said he gets it at Corvette Central.

65 vette dude

I don't know what their reason was. Maybe that lithium grease is a little too thin and tends to thin out under heat? I will call them tomorrow and ask them,I would like to know myself.

65 vette dude

I called Lauderdale Speedometer shop today and asked them what they recommend to lube speedometer and tach cables, and he said brown wheel bearing grease. I asked him about lithium grease and his reply was, "absolutely not". He said that lithium is way to thin,and doesn't have the adhering properties to stay on the cable at the rapid spinning. He said it will thin out and be thrown off the cable to the inside of the jacket,and will eventually cause problems.

Jackfit

Sounds like we have a winner. Grease , brown or chassis, as long as it is petrol based.

Thanks everyone for their comments

Jack

Barrie Strachan

The tach cable on my '65 was squeeking when I bought the car. I didn't want to pull the instrument cluster (which you have to do in order to get the cable out of the housing) so I disconnected it at the distributor, held it with the open end up using a clamp, and put enough light gun oil in the end of the housing to sort of fill it up (maybe a dozen drops). I wiggled the cable around and up and down then left it overnight, by the next day the oil had worked its way down into the housing. Connected it back up and it's worked fine for months.

Yeah, I know you're not supposed to put oil in these cables, it gets in the hairspring and magnet of the tach and screws it up, etc etc etc. All I can tell you is I did it and it fixed the problem and hasn't caused any additional problems after more than half a year. And, it was easy.

FWIW, I've noticed some of the vendors sell a grease adaptor that screws into the distributor end of the tach cable housing and has a Zerk fitting on the other end. You screw it on the cable and pump some chassis grease (I guess) into the housing via the Zerk fitting. If my cable starts squeeking again, I make make one of these and try it.

gjfeng

This stuff works for me



Goes on like vaseline.