The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 1965 Chevy C10 - instrument cluster blues

1965 Chevy C10 - instrument cluster blues

I was riding down the highway and looked down at my dash. The speedometer needle is just floating back and forth, back and forth... and the odometer went to roll to 80000|9 and stopped.

Hmnn.

I haven't checked the cable or anything yet, as it was dark when I got home.

Any ideas on things to check folks?

Thanks.

-W

Cable is easy...you'll want to look at both ends.

cm

i know that the guage cluster in the Chevy is a little different than my GMC, but I still believe that it has a basic mechanical speedometer. It is the simplest fix for the entire guage cluster. The cable either came loose from the back of the cluster or it came loose/broke near the mounting point on your transmission. I had a similar problem on my truck. Turns out that the speedo cable caught on something and ripped out of the transmission. I bought a new cable and had it installed in under 20 minutes...problem solved.

the cable has usually been my problem. as long as i'm not lazy and wait, then the cable breaks. it's pretty easy to take the inner cable out of housing and lube it with some dry graphite. i have never had a gage fail, but i have had 3 cable failures over the years- due to my waiting. i have some dry graphite made by napa i got used years ago that works great.

The exact same thing happened to me. I took the head apart. It was one of the gears that drives the odometer. It had broken and jammed up the mechanism.

Howdy folks... a little update, not sure if it works or not:

I took the cable off the back, and rode around the neighborhood, it was turning like a champ.

I took the cluster out, check out the speedometer and I found something to slide in there so I could turn it from the back... I could turn it so many times, then it would bind up a bit and I could feel and hear a click. Hmnn.

I took it apart further and eyeballed it, put a dab of grease on the moving bits, plastic gears... spun it some more, somewhere in there it stopped clicking and turned nicely, no more of that click.

I dunno if that solved it or not yet tho', but the odometer was turning past the |9.

I have the cluster back in, but of course I broke something else while taking it out... old trucks are fun.

Now I have to plug it all back up and get it sorted out.

Thanks for the tips folks.

If this doesn't work, I guess I'll have to buy one.

-W

Thanks for the tips folks.

I took it for a spin yesterday and the speedometer is working again.

07/29/2012 : instrument cluster taken apart, speedometer close up

-W