On the first cable, which has been on the truck for about 10 years or so, has an almost "exploded" look, for lack of a better description, to the break. It broke pretty much right at the square end in the drive gear. The new cable did have a twisted look to the break, and it broke about 3/4" up the cable from the end. The only new components installed recently are a stereo amp under the seat, plus some speaker wiring, but those are on the other side of the truck. No changes where the speedo cable runs. I did try to work some more slack in the routing, just in case it was an issue of too sharp of angles, but the original was plenty long and wasn't routed with any tight bends. Both cables (or what's left of them) do turn freely in the housings.
I did have a similar issue a few years ago with the speedo reading funny, namely the bouncing part, which lead to a broken needle. That was when I swapped it for the '56 speedo that's currently in it.
