TheBigBlueBoat

Last weekend I sliced my hands to ribbons removing the speedometer to repair the needle. I found it wedged in the shift selector portion, so I glued it back to the hub, cleaned everything up, checked to see that it moved freely and zeroed it out. Everything went back together (painfully and time consuming) and I moved it back and forth in the driveway up to 10mph, no problem. I thought I was done and congratulated myself on a job well done.


I go to take it out for a longer drive and it all goes to ****. A couple blocks away the speedometer starts bouncing, followed by a grinding noise, then the needle spins. Now I know it boils down to one of three parts; the cluster itself, the cable, or the gear in the transmission. It sounds like the bouncing/spinning needle is usually indicative of the cable binding or flat out being toast as it binds up and unwinds. I'm hoping that is the case. I figure I can probably start out lubricating the lower half of the cable since the car has been sitting an indeterminate amount of time. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on lubing the cable for a Jetaway (ST-300) transmission?


Beyond that, any suggestions on next steps? I know I can pull the speedometer and drive it using a drill to simulate an input, but that's a process I'd like to avoid going through again as much as possible.


Also regarding the cable itself, if I need to order a new one, is there any difference between the TH-XXX cables and the ST-300 ones?

oddball

Unfortunately I don't know the speedo hookup on the Jetaway, so this is of limited use, BUT
ATP makes new speedo cables - housing and inner cable - and they're really cheap. I didn't have any concerns with the quality. I wouldn't hesitate to just throw on a new assembly. I spent years re-lubing the inner cable - use dry graphite (from the tube, not a spray can) from the home improvement stores - just to have it still flop around because the housing had deformed.

TheBigBlueBoat

Just out of curiosity how did you re-lube the cable? Did you remove the housing or just leave it in place and pull the cable from one end or the other? If it's easy enough I might give it a shot just to narrow down the issue and buy a little time.

TheBigBlueBoat

Just as a follow up-

I removed the cable and lubricated it. Easy as can be. The speedometer bounces below 40mph (along with a bit of a ticking noise), but it's relatively accurate and doesn't spin around, so it's an improvement.

Regarding cable routing, not 100% sure it's correct. The housing comes up through the column/firewall panel, just to the inboard side of the column, up next to the column support on the inboard side, and threaded onto the speedometer.

oddball

Routing sounds correct to me. Sorry, didn't see your earlier post. For the 70-72, it's easiest to disconnect the speedo cable at the speedo, pull the speedo out the front, pull the inner cable out of the housing, coat with graphite, shoot some graphite into the housing, and put it all back together.