The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Broken Speedo cable

Yep, it broke, but it broke inside the speedo. The end was plastic and likely for a good reason so as not to trash the speedo when it got gummy inside. So, need to remove it and get that plastic end out. It may fall out but Murphy's Law says not. Any way once removed what do we use to clean and lube it to get it working again. I did find a reference to Autoinstruments if it needs total repair.

Mark, only about 1/2" of the square end of the metal cable core goes into the speedo, it may look broken off, but there's no plastic involved until further into the speedo ... see the tech tip for an idea of what's involved

Bill

Thanks Bill.
Just looked at the tech tip... Dunno if my shaky hands can do that. Re: that plastic piece...are you saying it is part of the speedo ? Yikes...if so that ain't good. Might have to send this off...

Walter -

The vinyl covered speedo cable that was in my truck when I bought it had a plastic end that went into the speedo head as you describe. The new metal covered cable has a metal end that is part of the metal drive cable. The plastic end was twisted and probably near breaking when I removed it.

Like Bill said, the end only goes in about a half inch. Check the depth of the hole. There may not be anything in it.

If the plastic end is in the hole, then it probably won't fall out on it's own. if it doesn't, you might try heating a needle and inserting it into the head to melt into the broken plastic. You may be able to pull it out after the needle cools and bonds to the plastic. If you can put a tiny bend on the end of the needle, it may improve the holding power. Don't get carried away with melting. You don't want to bond the plastic to the speedo. (Just my uneducated guess. I haven't done this.)

Good luck,

- Lonnie

Lonnie,

Strange.... I had EXACTLY the same thought re: the needle... brilliant minds..I guess...LOL.. That plastic piece was completely twisted off

there may be some plastic as part of the input socket on the speedo, but basically the speedo just has a square socket that the squared end of the cable fits into - if the end of the cable actually broke off the speedo would really be toast as those cables are quite strong .... pull the speedo and take the cover off, you might find an easy clean up job, complete disassembly for a total rebuild isn't really necessary, some carb cleaner and compressed air, then a dab of dry graphite might fix it up ... also pull the full length of the inner cable and clean it well, see if the end is still well squared and fits into the speedo socket ... and you can use a drill motor to drive the speedo to see if it's turning or seized, don't know about the AD years but some series require the drill running in reverse

Bill

...click...

The brass looking hub to the right shoud turn as bill describes.

OK...so this white plastic thing on the end of my cable must be a broken part of the speedo ?

DADs pic is the only type I've ever seen, no idea about any plastic ended cable that Lonnie describes, don't see how a plastic end could be held to the metal cable for any length of time .... but if that was a type available sometime, you should be able to tell from looking at the end of the cable compared to that pic, and be able to remove the bit from the speedo, then replace the cable with a "real one"

Bill

I'll have to go check the cable and see if that plastic pulls off the cable end...if so, it's part of that speedo that's broken. May be toast.. Film at 11:00

I did some Googling about plastic tips on speedo cables. They are pretty common. Also, pretty common for them to break if there is resistance in the speedo head. One guy used dental picks to remove a broken plastic tip from the head - but I'm not sure if it was a standard mechanical speedo cable tip, or some new fangled electronic cable.

The plastic tip on my old cable was red. The tip on this vinyl covered cable from Eckler's is red and may be plastic (gotta blow it up by holding Cntl and tapping the + key).
> Eckler's speedo cable

You will have to remove the speedo to extract the broken tip. Follow the Stovebolt Tech Tip to lube the speedo. A few drops of oil on the wick after I removed the brass plug solved the "Erk, Erk, Erk" noise from my speedo. The dragging speedo probably was responsible for the twisted end on the plastic tip of my old cable.

- Lonnie

Thank you Lonnie,
I just took a few pics of mine and will post later. The plastic (nylon?) tip was square but now twisted and is bonded to the cable. I'm thinking it was made that way to be a weak link to break before the speedo did. Once the speedo is out I'll go from there and see what it needs

Update... Here's a pic of the cable end that came out of the speedo. You can see that it's swaged onto the cable and that the end was square before it twisted...

http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/Dusty411/media/Cable1_edited-1_zps2f3be38e.jpg.html?sort=6&o=0