The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Oil or grease 1938 spedo?

Well I have an a part I wondering if I’m supposed to oil or grease any of these areas thanks

I took mine apart a little further than that (watch out to keep the odometer lined up properly), and used a little red axle grease. My speedometer has worked great ever since. Before hand I had disassembled to where you are now, and eventually my needle started bouncing, skipping, and then the needle fell off. I had to redo the whole thing and fix stuff whilst in there, then applied new lube.If you go a bit deeper, you will find the 80 year lube that is in there on the gears. It will be cracked, hard and brown and it is wonder that the speedo worked at all given how crusty it was inside.

I only greased the gears that run from the cable input to the “number Rolodex”, not the numbers on the odometer.

It is delicate inside, so go slowly and don’t lose anything.

My personal opinion is don't use grease inside the speedometer. I did when I rebuilt mine long ago. In a couple years the grease dried out and got hard. A speedometer may look sealed pretty well, but I have a little very fine dust make its way into mine. I think it helps harden the grease over time.

One day while driving the speedometer started making a load noise with the needle bouncing erratically. I pulled over immediatly and disconnected the cable. Only one small geared part in the speedometer was ruined, I was lucky. I had a junk speedometer laying around and replaced the part, I suppose nowadays I might have to buy the whole head to get a replacement part.

I would use a little light oil like 3in1 or maybe a dry lube spray with teflon.