The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Fix or replace?

After months of fighting with a speedometer that will jump around while driving, the speedo in my 55 2nd gmc quit working, sort of. The needle now points at 40 but the odometer still works. Is this something easily fixed in a home garage or is it time to have a talk with the minister of finance? I've had the cable out a few times to clean and lube [white lithium] and had mixed results with that. I have the phone ap so I can tell how slow I'm going, I'm now fishing for opinions on my next move. I don't like finding out after the fact that I paid good money on something I could have fixed myself, especially if I can keep the minister happy!

Many folks have removed the unit from the dash and taken it apart for a good cleaning. Go slow, take photos as you go and don’t be heavy handed on the small parts. Go for it. You might save some bucks and teach the better half some new words along the way.🛠

Here's some help. One of the most fragile items during disassembly is getting the needle off the stem.



http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/bulletins/ums/52UMS3d42501.html

Someone posted a link here not long ago where you could get the little "tool" to pull the needle off......I think it was only 99 cent....at the time. Slow and careful is the word!

If you want to send it someone D&M Restorations in Greenville, S.C. has been doing stuff like this for over 20 years. Fixed some for me back in the mid 90's and does good work.

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1247255/re-speedometer.html#Post1247255

I got one (just the tool) for 20 cents, plus free shipping.

It us now over one dollar with more parts/tools, with free shipping.

Be carefull removing the needle; I have a 56 with the same type speedo head and I was unable to remove mine. I slowly put more and more force on it until the shaft finally broke and I had to replace the whole speedometer unit. You can with care pretty much completely take apart the unit to clean the speedometer magnet and cup ( which was what mine needed to work again) without removing the needle, but you have to be very careful as all the parts are very delicate, especially the spring inside.

Thanks for all the responses, I guess it doesn't work now so I really can't break it, might as well give it a try. I'll be on the road for a week or so then get after it and let you know how things work out. Thanks

I tried to remove the needle "hub", button, center - whatever, with a small screwdriver. The shaft broke, as I should have expected. The actual needle was sorta' melted away. Anyway I got the broken piece of shaft out the hub. Super glued a toothpick to the hub, and glued that assembly onto the shorter shaft. That part of the procedure worked - the needle stayed on, but the speedo bounced all the time. So I pulled the cable and did without.

Another rebuilder is Bowtie Bits.

The symptoms you describe are usually caused by the cable. If the housing is worn the cable will hang, no matter how you lube it. Also the lithium greases stiffen too much in the cold Nebraska winters. O'Reilly sells a lube, American Grease Kable-Ease Cable Lubricant that is advertised for speedo cable lube. Haven't tried it myself, but I used the last of my graphite based cable lube.

This is what I've always used on my speedometer cables. https://www.oreillyauto.com/search/1970/chevrolet/monte-carlo?q=speedometer+cable+lubricant

I used Bowtie bits for all of my 39's gauges. It was well worth the expense, particularly since the truck was converted to 12 Volt by the PO.

Well I finally got some time to work on the speedometer, maybe not a good thing. I did what everyone said not to do, broke the shaft removing the needle. Next step is........well I'm not sure. I can get by without speed readings, odometer still works, might not do anything, except that blank gauge looking back at me isn't all that great to see. Not sure about this, but does a spray lube tube (the little hose that goes in the cap) fit the shaft? I was thinking about a small a bit of epoxy to glue the tube to the shaft and a short bit of straight pin in the needle might just work, it would be a very short piece of tube that would splice the two together or would that be adding too much mass for the delicate mechanism? Oh well, it wasn't working before so not out much.

You could go to hobby shop, and look at small brass or aluminium tubing,that and a little epoxy will get you up and running .Also clock parts could work. Nothing to loose now ,its broken now. It can be fixed.

I can think of very few things which have brought me more sadness as when I broke the speedometer needle shaft on my baby. I still have it in hopes of some day I can either figure out a good way to fix it or hear of a way someone else has done it. Carl

I bought one complete gauge cluster for my 59 on e-bay. Used the parts to build mine . Now everything works including the odometer. And it is right on point with my phones gps