speedometer bouncing
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 668
Likes: 21
speedometer bouncing
I had my car out today and noticed that the speedometer was bouncing a bit. I believe that I have read in the past that sometimes greasing up the cable can cure this. I know that I saw a little adapter that connects to a grease gun just for this purpose but for the life of me I can't remember which catalog it was in. Anyone know where I can get one of these little gizmo's to grease up my cable?
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,700
Likes: 836
From: WI
You can just unhookd the cable at the back of the tranny and pull out the cable. Guys that have cruise control, they can unhook one of the cables at the transducer and pull out from there (but that's not your case I doubt). Anyway, grab onto the square end of the inner cable with a pair of pliers and the whole inner cable should pull out. Be careful that it doesn't fall in the dirt or touch the ground because it'll just pick up more dirt/sand and you don't want that. Wipe it off and liberally grease it and feed it back in. You may need to turn it a little to get the square end to 'seat' into the speedometer. Try that. If that doesn't do it, or if the cable appears to be boogered up in any way, then you'll want to replace the whole cable and housing assembly. Come to think of it, greasing the cable in my experience is buying a little time but generally I've had to replace the whole cable/housing eventually anyway, but that was back when I was using these kind of cars as daily drivers. You may get by a few years depending on how much you drive your car. Good luck.
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
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From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
Putting grease on your cable can and will most often lead to early speedometer head failure....
My suggestion is to take the cable loose at the tranny.. and spool it up with a drille. See if the speedometer keeps doing the same thing. If so, then you may replace the cable. If this results in the same symptoms then you may need to remove the speedometer from the car and have it repaired...
To explain this in a bit more detail... the cable is reverse wound and will pull the grease in to the speedometer head. The busing for the first worm and magnet is made from Oylite which doesn't take kind to grease. Once you have an abundance of grease in there you'll collect dust which will further accelerate failure. Grease is a band-aide.
My suggestion is to take the cable loose at the tranny.. and spool it up with a drille. See if the speedometer keeps doing the same thing. If so, then you may replace the cable. If this results in the same symptoms then you may need to remove the speedometer from the car and have it repaired...
To explain this in a bit more detail... the cable is reverse wound and will pull the grease in to the speedometer head. The busing for the first worm and magnet is made from Oylite which doesn't take kind to grease. Once you have an abundance of grease in there you'll collect dust which will further accelerate failure. Grease is a band-aide.
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; May 26, 2012 at 10:23 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
Likes: 3,118
From: Crossville TN
All C3's have a significant bend in the speedo cable where it attaches to the tranny (a worse bend on auto tranny cars). Eventually, the cable rubbing on that bend will cause loss of lube and even damage to the inside of the cable jacket. Lubing the cable properly can help for a while. Straightening the cable out with a right-angle adapter and using proper lube can extend cable life considerably.
Try lubing the cable first. If it starts acting up again sometime later, get rid of the cable bend to resolve it.
Try lubing the cable first. If it starts acting up again sometime later, get rid of the cable bend to resolve it.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 11,183
Likes: 3,335
From: North of Toronto - Ontario
I've got a small bounce at lower speeds, up to about 40 or so, then it smooths out.
I'll have to give this a try
Mooser
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 668
Likes: 21
I don't have cruse or servo. Sounds like I do not want to over lube this thing or I'll just create more problems. I should add that the car has been sitting a while. I don't know if that impacts anything with the speedometer.
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