My speedo hasnt worked since I bought it, Does anyone know where one can be had for cheap? Or how to fix it?
Article:
Authored by: Julius
Tools Required: Small plastic bag, Rubber band, Oil (10W30 or oil with teflon will probably do better)
Skills Required: Moderate Skills
My speedometer started making noise and the speedo needle jitters between 15-60 MPH. I suspected that problem is due to dried out/lack of lubrication between the speedo cable sleeve and the internal drive cable. Since removing it entirely is a lot of work, I thought of an idea and tried the following idea first and see how long this last.
1. From the passenger side just under mid point of the door, the speedometer cable is coupled to a shorter cable that attaches to the tranny. Uncouple this connection, and unclip the speedo cable leading to the engine compartment. There are 2 clips that you need to slide off. One is just near the coupler, the second one along the wheel well.
2. From the top, pull the free end up so that it is above the relative height of speedometer.
3. The speedo drive cable has a square end about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, and is terminated by a white plastic piece with a rubber ring around it. You can pull this slightly and notice that there is some room for oil to flow into the sleeve. The problem is how? Here's what I did:
4. Cut off one corner of your small pastic bacg and slide this onto the end of the speedo cable. Then tie a runbber band around this cut end so that the coupler is inside the bag.
5. With the coupler in it, and the drive cable slightly pulled away from the sleeve (I removed the rubber ring temporarily and save it), pour about 1 oz of oil (I used 10W30) into the bag, closed it, and hang the end of the closed bag with a piece of wire/string to the hood. The goal here is to let gravity do the work and allow the oil to seep the length of inside of the sleeve over several hours (I did it overnite).
6. The next day, I put everything back together (don't forget that litle rubber ring that you took out. It goes between the sleeve and the white plastic end of the drive cable!).
7. Test drove it, and my problem went away! The noise is gone, and the jitter is also gone. We'll see how long this fix will last.