The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 54 speedo screaming

54 1st series 3600. Speedo screaming, and needle flipping from 0 to 90. Took cable off at speedo, no noise from cable test drive. Thanks,Dennis

probably bearings/bushings in the speedo. May be time to replace or get it rebuilt.

You might remove the speedometer (4 nuts hold it plus hi-beam bulb and night illumination bulbs) and see if you can use some naphtha to free up the wheel where the cable connects...this wheel is brass and is about 3/8 inch in diameter. Usually there will be dried old grease there and this could be causing the problem you described. See if the wheel (you can turn it with two fingers) back there turns easily and see if you feel any resistance or scratchy areas. It sounds to me like your speedo unit needs lubrication. I have one for sale here. Another fellow has asked about buying it, but I haven't heard back from him yet. I don't know where you're located but pickups from the late 40s to the early 70s used basically the same speedo guts. Below is a look at the wheel you need to turn...

Just below the bolt shown in the above picture there is usually a small cup soft plug.
If you pry it out with a small sharp corner screw driver you will find a felt wick.
Add a few drops of light oil to the felt.
This most likely will cure it.

That's a good point and that plug might be hidden in a different spot. Let me give you a couple of images showing how the one above was made:

Here is a better picture.
The speedo head needs to be removed from the housing to remove the soft plug.

Jon G, your speedo must be a later model where they dropped the soft plug.

Yes, it is Dave...it is the one I had offered for sale a few weeks ago (which one fellow has told me he wants). Apologize for any confusion. It came from a 1969 pickup but like all these (up through around 1973 or 74) it fits right in and it looks like the plug was up inside by that time. Sorry...I didn't have one of the earlier ones handy. Now everyone can see early and later.

If you want to see something interesting, I'm still working on adapting the 1995 S-10 speedometer plus tach & vacuum gauge into the 1952 speedo unit. Take a look at the screw pattern on the back side of the electronic unit (first image) compared to the screw pattern on the old 1952 speedo (next image). Not only is the angle and orientation the same, the distance between screw centers matches...although you would need to use a washer to use the smaller diameter screws:

The first thing to do is pull the core out of the cable. Feed some grease to it as you feed it back through the casing. Put a little oil on the spindle in the back of the speedo. Usually that will fix it.

George

Thank you everyone for your fast reply and help! Happy New Year!! Dennis

Maybe if you didn't drive so fast........the speedo wouldn't be screaming so loud. LOL

I'd buy a new cable and see if it improves. You're located in the US. Cold weather, perhaps? My old cable would grind and bounce fro 0 MPH to pegged when it got below 10 degrees or so. I'll bet it's a sticky cable.

The same thing started to happen to me yesterday driving my 51 3100. I think it was the freezing temp, but it didn't stop as it warmed up, just got louder and more erratics. Then it got weird: the speedo needle started spinning around very fast BACKWARDS , counter clockwise that is, and continued for maybe 20 seconds that way, then settled back to jumping around again , sometimes 20-40 sometimes 40-60. The odometer seemed to be working normally the whole time.
Did I fry the spring or something? Is it terminal?

Lubricate your speedometer cable. 🛠