Jumping Speedometer
Guest
Posts: n/a
Jumping Speedometer
My Speedometer started jumping at low speeds.. very low speeds. Looks fine over 20mph. I believe it's a sticky speedometer cable. According to the Haynes manual..yea..yea.. I'm waitting for my real manuals to arive, it said to disconnect the cable from the back of the speedometer and pull out the inner cable, lube the lower 2/3's of the new cable with general purpose lube and reinstall.. First off, I tried to pull the cable and it didn't budge. Has anyone done this.. I tried a few "medium pulls" with no luck. I didn't have time to disconnect it from the tranny and try pulling from the other way BUT can I just change the interior cable in the first place? Doesn't it spin pretty fast and don't you need to use something other than general purpose lube.. something like graphite? Is the cable something the local tranny shop should carry or am I junk yard hunting again..
Drifting
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 1,468
Likes: 1
From: Kirkland WA
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Koz)
The speedo cable also connects to to another cable down by the transmission. You should be able to undo the two cables at this point, then fish the cable up and lube it. That's what I did, anyway...
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Corellian Corvette)
I have only one piece.. well it looked like one piece that attached to the tranny and I followed it up over the tranny as far as I could see. I'm guessing it comes in from the body right above the tranny. Could be I have an aftermarket cable already that doesn't allow relubing? Was yours hard to pull out?
Pro
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 500
Likes: 0
From: Michigan
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Koz)
I just had mine out a couple weeks ago. I unhooked it from the back of the speedo, pulled the cable out of the casing. It went all the way to the trans. I cleaned it with brakeclean and then coated it in high temp wheel bearing grease, slid it back in and now it is fine.
Dwayne
Dwayne
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 10,051
Likes: 677
From: FL
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Koz)
Koz,
There is a clip on the back of the speedometer that has to be depressed to let the housing be pulled off. Just reach up there and push it (the clip) while pulling on the cable housing.
Haynes seems to omit that bit of important info. BTW, you can't pull the cable out from the housing from the transmission end. There is a shoulder on the tip at the speedo end that prevents this.
As for lube, go down to Napa and buy a tube of cable lube for about $3. It is powdered graphite in a liquid form. Can be very messy.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
There is a clip on the back of the speedometer that has to be depressed to let the housing be pulled off. Just reach up there and push it (the clip) while pulling on the cable housing.
Haynes seems to omit that bit of important info. BTW, you can't pull the cable out from the housing from the transmission end. There is a shoulder on the tip at the speedo end that prevents this.
As for lube, go down to Napa and buy a tube of cable lube for about $3. It is powdered graphite in a liquid form. Can be very messy.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Jumping Speedometer (BigBlockVette)
Did it come out easy? I grabbed the end of mine with some needle nose plyers and tried pushing and pulling a few times. Did a couple of what I thought would be "good enough" pulls but it didn't budge. I'm guessing that it's got to come out of there.. you think if I disconnect at the tranny it would make it any easier?
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 49,198
Likes: 0
From: All in!
Cruise-In IV Veteran
St. Jude Donor '03-'10
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Corvettj)
When I got my car, the speedo would bounce around 5-10MPH at lower speeds. Then it suddenly stopped doing it.
I thought about it yesterday and realized I hadn't seen it do that in a while.
Get in the car today. What happens? Speedo bouncing ;)
I thought about it yesterday and realized I hadn't seen it do that in a while.
Get in the car today. What happens? Speedo bouncing ;)
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Posts: n/a
Re: Jumping Speedometer (Chris Fowler '80)
I disconnected the cable at the transmission and was then able to pull it out. Cleaned it with brake cleaner and went to napa to get some speedo lube. The guy at NAPA said that he uses white lithium grease so I lube it with white lithium grease. Test drove, worked fine..washed and waxed for my first debute at the local hot rod night. On the way there the speedo started to jump a little but by the end of the night she was doing the full swing.. 0 to 85 all the way home. I was going to disconnect it from the back of the speedo but I took a chance it wouldn't do any damage. Next morning I pulled the cable again.. cleaned it again and applied a coating of general all purpose grease like the book says..no white lithium.. just plain old grease... no problems at all..
