Speedometer Problem

[firebush357]

So I have been having some issues with my Speedo. I recently took it all apart and found out that it was unplugged. I fixed it through yalls ultimate knowledge and it worked great after... for about half a day. I had drove it a few time that day but when I went to leave my moms job the Speedo was only reading like 10mph when I was doing 35ish. The speedo will move some but never to the correct amount, and then sometimes it pegs out at 85. I took apart the dash and tried to fix it again but it has never worked right since that day.

Is there a bad spring in the mechanism or something or do I need a new Speedo Cable?

I have an extra Cluster I could check with but I figured I would ask first.

Thanks!

[dliverance]

Interesting. I'm having a similar problem with a speedo i just bought. Mine is stuck pegged out though. I was droving and I could hear the cable moving but it just stopped. I'm in for finding a fix.

[ryanprins13]

First thing to try: buy graphite lubricant. In a spraycan is easiest. Then take speedo off at transmission, pull cable out. Clean cable with solvent. Hold sheath up high and spray a whole bunch of graphite lube in there so it runs towards the cluster. Then spray the cleaned cable well with it. Reinstall.
What happens is when the grease gets old, or you use the wrong grease it drags on the cable, and the cable gets shorter/longer/does weird stuff. I had lots of issues until i did that.


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[WmWatt]

While doing the above ^^ check the cable is not bent, ie no kink in it. Also if you take the lower end out of the transmission and pull it up into the engine compartment you can try rotating it between thumb and forefinger to see if it's turning okay and which way is right, then connect it to a drill (forward or reverse whichever is right) for at faster test.

[harpon]

Maybe you can get a new assembly. I was looking at old Geos in the area recently when I came across a bezel assembly for a Metro on ebay. It had 40 or 50,000 miles on it for $30 DELIVERED. Then I realized how any car I looked at might be Misrepresented in miles with such a replacement. In fact it was right before I saw one advertised with low miles and a bit of a high asking price- and when I saw the car, it didn't look as clean as it looked and sounded by the pictures and history as described to me. Bummer. And the car hasn't sold yet.

[firebush357]

Yeah I have one that came with the care that has a little over 100K miles on the odometer. I thought about that too after we bought my little brothers Festiva. It read 74K miles but then there was a sticker on the door jam that said that the odometer was changed at 36k miles or something like that.

I haven't had the time to check any of these repairs but I hop to get to it this weekend because I plan on driving it out towards Pensacola next Tuesday for a vacation with my dad and little brother out near St George Island.

[harpon]

You can always get a VIN report and that might confirm the miles better but I couldn't find one for less than $9 and it just didn't look like the car had been cared for whether it had 64 K for real or not.

[firebush357]

So I found the problem. After taking the cluster and Speedo cable apart numerous times... I pulled the cable out like stated above and cleaned it. It was a little Nasty inside, there were a couple spots that has a rusty goop stuck on that I had to hit with brake parts cleaner a few times and scrub it off. I then sprayed some WD-40 Dry Silicon spray on the cable and in the line and ran the cable through a couple times like a pipe cleaner and then wiped and resprayed after. Well after a quick test drive I found out that it was still broke! So I started taking things apart and compared the internals of my spare to the one in the car now and found that the clutch mechanism is a little loose and when the speedo cable pushes in with pressure then the clutch thingy stops working. I oiled everything and when I reinstalled it I pulled some of the pressure away from the cluster. I did not get to test drive it last night but I'm taking the car for a 3+ hour road trip to the Gulf tomorrow so I will find out then.

Oh and the last time i tightened the 19mm speedo cable cap thing it ended up crushing a little so hopefully I don't have to take it off again.



That little gold disc thing acts kinda like a clutch.

While I was there I went ahead and Wet sanded the clear plastic and polished it and painted my Cluster Gauge needles White.

[FestYboy]

I hope you didn't lube the "clutch"... That ruins the viscous coupling and therefore the accuracy of the unit.

[firebush357]

I sprayed it with the WD-40 Dry Lube stuff. If it decides to work on tomorrows drive I will make sure to check it via GPS speed.

I'm not sure if it is a friction surface that makes that thing work though. I'm thinking it that it might be magnetic, only for the fact that if I put pressure on it it would make the surface have more friction and therefore should peg the needle when I spun it with the drill but it actually only moves the needle a little if any.

Luckily I have an extra one if this one decides not to work.

[1990new]

Fantastic job on that cleanup of the cluster. Looks like you learned a lot about them in the process.
I have an orange tach cluster and the speedometer hand does not stop at zero. Is there a stop mechanism in there
that I may be missing? The tach hand extension is also broken off and I'm trying to figure out what I can replace the hand with or maybe glue an extension on to it.

[firebush357]

There is a stop mechanism inside but thats not the problem. The needle just needs to be adjusted to read zero when resting. There is no alignment for the needle so you just have to eyeball it.

As far as your missing tach needle, is it the same length as the speedo? I have an extra speedo needle that I can bring to Madness. They simply pop on and off.

[1990new]

There is a stop mechanism inside but thats not the problem. The needle just needs to be adjusted to read zero when resting. There is no alignment for the needle so you just have to eyeball it.

As far as your missing tach needle, is it the same length as the speedo? I have an extra speedo needle that I can bring to Madness. They simply pop on and off.

Thanks for bringing the needle to me at madness firebush and for putting it on for me. I'm going to put that cluster in Rosie tomorrow to see if everything works...since hers quit working on the way home.

On the way home from madness just as I was merging on to I94 from I40, I looked down at the speedometer on Rosie and it did something weird. There were no unusual sound at all coming from the speedometer. The hand jumped up to 90 and then back to 65 and then back to 70 and then back to 50 while I was going about 65 the entire time.
It stayed at about 50 the rest of the way home and didn't move much. Now it's sitting in the driveway and reads 31 sitting still.
I think firebush must have put a jinx on it at madness.

[dliverance]

I need to take my speedo apart and see if this "clutch" is the problem. Did you ever test it against the gps to see if the dry lube worked?

[firebush357]

It seemed to work just fine afterwards, it actually read about 5mph faster but that could be because of slighty shorter tires and I probably didnt put the needle exactly at zero when I put it back together.