Speedo problem

[bock207]

I tried searching for anyone else having the same problem as me, but can't seem to find anything. When I'm going between about 10-35mph the speedo needle bounces up and down about 10 mph at a time. I'm wondering how hard this would be to fix, because if its going to be very hard i can just live with the bouncing needle and my friends ridiculing my car, but if its a simple fix I want to get it done asap. Oh, by the way its an 86 lx sedan, manual.

[FyreDaug]

First thing to do would be to take the speedo cable out of the transmission (foamy/rubbery cover and a clip) pull it out and examine the end, if its not broken off or anything, what I would do is pull the cable ALL THE WAY OUT from its jacket so you are left with just the wire. Wipe it down with an oily cloth, then spray some wd40 or something all over it and reinstall. May take a couple tries to get it in the transmission properly (rotate it) but it sounds like its sticking

[FyreDaug]

Well I dont know if thats going to work or not now, because mine is doing the same thing. First it had a horrible clicking sound (like it did when it broke) So I had to replace the speedometer and speedo cable. I lubed up the cable real good (twice infact) and its still doing it. Mine seems to do it all the time regardless of speed, but I havent gone above 70kmh (still doing it). The only time it seems to NOT do it, is during certain acceleration speed, then when I shift it starts again.

Does yours stop at all? I wonder if this is a problem with the cable... Have you tampered with your guage cluster at all? I was putting overlays on mine and stuff, but its still doing the same thing.

Funny thing is though when I got this speedo that im using right now from the wrecker, I put it in on my way home, everything seemed to work fine (didnt have a needle) but it wasnt clicking and odometer worked fine.

[POS carb]

change the speedo cable!

grab a pair at the junkyard, they're cheap

usually the cable parts get melted from overheating/wear and the cable wobbles inside

[bucket_man]

does the speedo cable ever make a wierd kind of whirring noise? because mine makes that sort of noise just to the right (im a right hand drive) of the gauge area and it gets quicker when i go faster (not related to RPM). The noise isnt constant and i haven't yet found a pattern for when it makes it or not.

[FyreDaug]

Is it a clicking sound? Because thats what my damn thing is doing, I got the jumpy to stop (except below 20kmh) but it clicks like a mofo all the time and its driving me crazy. If I touch the jacket and put preassure on it (with the dash apart and the speedo cable accessable if I reach my hand to the back) it stops, same if I tilt the cluster forwards.

Like I said, my cable was broken and I replaced it with the one from my parts car, lubed it up with some wheel bearing grease (which seemed to stop some of the jumping) and no avail

[bock207]

No, it doesnt make any noise or anything, it just bounces when I'm goin between about 10-35. I'm going to try and replace my engine mounts, so I guess I'll go ahead and pull the cable and see if i can get it fixed while I'm at it.

[POS carb]

why are you going to buy $200 of engine mounts when you can fix it with a $20 cable?

[bock207]

Opps, that was kind of confusing the way I said that. I'm going to be replacing my motor mounts, so I figure as long as I'm working on the car I'll go ahead and try to fix the speedo cable too

[russiankid]

mine bounces from around 5-20mph, but then it stops, it doesnt harm anything if you dont replace it, but it eventually from driving that way it wont show the accurate speed, so if you got the time replace it