The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline speedometer woes.

I finally replaced the ole speedometer cable housing and all. A local old time speedometer repair shop built me one to the length needed and for a very reasonable price in my opinion, about $28 after the tax.

But, here is the issue. When I first installed it the needle was up around 20 mph before I even started the truck. I took it back out and got the needle back down to zero and reinstalled. Then the test drive, 1st gear tops out around 45 mph, 2nd around 80 mph and I think if I pushed it 3rd would bring it all the way back around easy enough. Do I have to back wind this thing somehow? It worked perfect with the old cable for about 300 miles until the cable broke.

Sounds like you might have a bushing going bad in the speedometer head, which is most likely what caused the original cable to fail. Went through this exact problem with mine, ended up being a binding bushing in the speedo.

Yeah I had a problem similiar to that. The original speedometer in the truck would read up to about 25 mph or so, then it would just flip over to the other side. I finally found one in an old Chevy sedan delivery that I took the head out of and mounted behind my speedometr face.... not sure how accurate it was, since the truck speedo read to 90 mph and the sedan delivery read to 100 mph.....

John

Mine is nice and smooth all the way but it just goes too "all the way".

That's what mine did. It worked smooth when tested, but read way off when I drove the truck. The part that the needle actaully mounted to worked fine, the ptorblem was the bushing where the cable attaches to the cup inside the speedo assembly. You mention having a speedo shop nearby, might be worth having him check the speedo head out and repair if neccessary.