I've beein steady working on my 63 and have just about got it road ready. I was just curious if anyone had any information on how the speedo cable connects at the front hub. The cable is there, and the speedo works (tested with a drill), and on the inside of one of my dust covers is a weird brass looking thingamabob that looks like the speedo cable fits through.

Just curious what i might be missing

thanks!
-geoff

 

You've figured it out. The square end of the cable indexes into the gizmus in the grease cap. Wheel rotation drives the cable and in turn the speedometer. If you don't get it back together just right speedometer will work poorly if at all.

You should also see a spiral shaped thing in the cap. That's for radio static suppression.

 

Your LH dust cap should look like this. Frequently the plastic tube that fits over the speedo cable is broken. Be sure the cable fits into this drive feature and that the square recess is not damaged.

 

I have brass spiral thing, but the tube is missing.

 

Check the dust cap on the other side. They may have gotten switched at some point.

 

Quick ID is look for two small rivets on outside of the grease cap. They hold the speedometer cable fitting to the cap.

Should the cap be missing it can come from any 63-66 full-size Olds without cruise control. The cruise cars may still have it even though the cruise control is driven from the transmission instead of front wheel.

 

Something like this.

 

I don't have the other dust cap. I'll have to try and scrounge one up somewhere. I can use the speedo app on my phone to keep me from speeding, but I'd like to have the original hooked back up.

Thanks for all the input!

 

I can't speak for other years. But my 66 Starfire with factory cruise control has the same cap and is driven from the drivers side front wheel.

 

All the 65-70 full size cars use the wheel-driven speedo with either cruise or not. In the case of cars with cruise, the cable runs from the spindle to the cruise transducer. A separate cable runs from there to the speedo. I can't speak to the 63-64 cars.