The speedometer squeaks a bit and the needle wavers a bit at low speed on my '78 Toro. I figure, after 40 years, the cable could be expected to squeak a bit, but I want to fix it. This car has two speedo cables, one that runs from the transmission to the cruise control regulator, called the "lower" cable, and one that runs from the regulator to the speedo head, called, not surprisingly, the "upper" cable. Both cables are available new (which surprised me a bit), and I bought both for about $6 each from rockauto.

The lower cable is easy to change as both ends are readily accessible, and I've done that. The old cable actually had a bad kink in it, and I'm surprised the speedometer worked at all. I hoped that this might cure the squeak problem. It's better but still there. The upper cable is more of a pain to replace because it has to be fed through the firewall, and I have to get at the back of the speedo head. I was thinking of just lubricating the old cable as it looks ok otherwise.

My question is this: can I just disconnect the cable at the regulator end under the hood, pull out the square cross-section cable, lube it, and push it back in? Is there any possibility of my not being able to fully reinsert it?

The service manual isn't all that helpful here. It just says "lubricate cable." At one point, to check on whether or not a kink is the problem, it says to disconnect the cable at the speedo head end, pull out the cable, and then reinsert it, checking to see if it binds when this is done. So apparently one can pull out the cable from that end. Any problem with doing so from the other end?

Thank you.

 

Not sure about the proper remove, install procedure but I have heard to use powdered graphite to lube the speedo cables. It doesn't dry up or attract dirt like a liquid lube. I have a large bottle of this I acquired somewhere along the way but not sure where to get more, maybe a tractor supply store or home repair store?

 

Here's some pictures from my parts car. It looks like you'll have to pull it out the speedometer head end. Bummer!

 

We have some graphite looking liquidish cable lube at work, I just did a quick search and found dorman sells a graphite oil for cable lube


For some reason Amazon links come up w just the Amazon symbol but that's a link to the dorman cable lube

 

You should be able to get it at your local auto parts store.

 

Thanks for that! I think I'll let sleeping dogs lie for now.

What about putting some kind of liquid lube in at the other end and letting it wick it's way up the cable?


Thanks, all, for the tip on the dorman graphite lube. I've seen that at several sites.

 

"What about putting some kind of liquid lube in at the other end and letting it wick it's way up the cable?"

That would be worth a try. Even if only half the cable got the lubricant that might be enough to make it quite down.

 

My .02 cents, replace it.

 

You got it!

As Chief O'Hara would have said, "Saints preserve us!"

I decided to crawl down under the dash, contorting my back into positions it was never meant to attain, and feel around to see if I could get the speedo cable off the speedo head. It was easy enough to follow the cable to the head, but I had to pull off the cable totally by feel. Fortunately, it was not that difficult. There is a little tab that you push aside and then just pull off the cable. It was a simple matter to pull the cable out through the firewall, so getting the old cable out was done.

Then I fed the speedo head end of the new cable through the firewall, routed it up to the head, and then just by feel, inserted the new cable onto the head. Then I connected the other end and took the car for a test drive. Now I have the smoothest, quietest speedometer this side of the Andromeda Galaxy. After driving this car for the last 8 months with a squeaky speedometer, the silence truly was golden. These two speedo cables are the best $12 I've spent on anything in a long time.





There's actually a little clip that goes over those connectors. Not exactly sure what it protects against, but GM thought it necessary, so I put it back.







Now, in the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished or every-silver-lining-has-a-cloud department, I managed to break something while fixing this.

I was reaching up to grab onto something to pull myself out from under the dash, and I bumped against the trim piece on the lower left side and broke it! It is definitely brittle after 40 years. It broke cleanly into three pieces, and I think I can successfully glue it back together, but I'm wondering if John still has this piece from the Toro he's parting out.

 

I think this is it. But check to see if it goes over the steering column and continues on the other side. John

 

That is it! It is actually a single piece that goes all the way across the driver's side of the car to both sides of the steering column.

Let me know what you want for it plus shipping, and I'll paypal it to you immediately! Thanks!

 

I'll get it packaged up tomorrow. If you'd send me your shipping address again either PM or email I'll get a total cost for you. John

 

I just sent my address to your email. Thanks again.

 

If you can find some Lubriplate, that is what I always used. Be sure to not put lots of it or graphite in the last 9 inches of the cable as you reinsert it, and twist it as you go. My feebleness makes me forget which direction, but you want the twist of the cable to take the lube AWAY from the head.

 

Thank you, but since I put new cables in after all, I didn't bother to lubricate them, figuring brand new ones didn't need it.

 

I figured you didn't lube them. I was just sharing my experience as an old fart. BTW, in the day, some new cables (aftermarket) came dry as a popcorn fart. I would hope that sharing is the basic idea of these threads. :-)

 

Jaunty,
Thanks for letting me know that the upper cable can be replaced without pulling the cluster.

Mine raised all kind of sand when I first bought it. I used a dry type of liquid wrench I picked up on the trip to quiet it down. It still chirps a little bit, but not the nerve rattling screech that it was.

 

How did you apply this? Before I went ahead and replaced the upper cable, I thought of putting some in at the cruise control regulator end and holding the cable upright to let it run down the cable. The cable does run downhill until it goes through the firewall, where it then turns back up to the speedometer. So I would think you could at least get some down as far as the firewall just by gravity.

Did you replace the other cable? That one is easy, although when I pulled it out of the transmission, the entire thing came out, including the plastic drive gear and the fitting its shaft passes through. But it was a simple matter to separate the cable from the fitting, reinsert the drive gear and fitting that holds it, and then attach the cable. There is an O-ring on the fitting, and that looked OK, so I just reused it. It's the O-ring that makes that fitting a press-fit.

The hardest part of replacing the upper cable is contorting yourself to fit under the dash and get your hand and arm up under there. Sometimes I think humans would have been a little more useful down through the ages if we had a few extra elbows on each arm!

 

I think that clip you put on over the speedo ferrules is to keep people from easily disconnecting the speedo, unless they know about the clip.

 

Think about this for half a second. If the idea is that the clip is a deterrent to odometer tampering, it's not a very good one.

You don't need to disconnect the cable at the speedometer head to disable the odometer. There are three other connections, all under the hood and much easier to get at, that could be disconnected. Any of the other end of the upper cable, where it attaches to the cruise control regulator, or either end of the lower cable, which goes from the regulator to the transmission, would work. Disconnect just one of those, each of which takes about five seconds to do, and the odometer is dead.

I think the purpose of the clip is simply to securely hold the cable in place on the head. It's the only connection that does not have a threaded cap to hold it on.

 

Here's what I used.

It was the best I could spot on the shelf of Advance Auto Parts on a Sunday morning. It didn't completely silence the cable, but it quieted it down enough to be very tolerable.

I unscrewed the cable at the cruise control head under the hood, held the cable up as high as I could, then pretty much drowned the thing with the spray.

Replacing both cables is on my to-do list. I've been putting it off until I crack open the dash to install my new options that my car didn't have.

 

Figured as much.

But you can replace the lower cable right now. It takes only about 10 minutes, and it doesn't require getting under the dash. For all you know, that might be enough to quiet the speedometer. I hoped it would be in my case. It wasn't (although it helped). But, like the Frank Sinatra song goes, I had high hopes!


I took a photo of the damage on the lower cable before I threw it away. This is the end that connects to the transmission. Like I said earlier, with the way this cable looks, I was surprised the speedometer worked at all. I also thought this could easily be the source of the squeaks. Replacing it helped, but I had to replace both to get the squeak to disappear completely.

 

Just to finish the story, I received the replacement trim piece from John yesterday, and I put it in today. Looks great. I'm forever grateful that his parts car and my car have the same color interior.


Comparison between the whole piece that John sent and my piece, which was in multiple pieces.





Here's the replacement piece installed. Looks great.










I've now owned this car for just over a year. It officially arrived in my garage on February 24, 2017.

When I got the car, it was, I think it's safe to say, about 99% 1978 Toronado. After everything that I've done to it and replaced on it, I would say that, as of now, it is 50% 1978 Toronado, 25% parts made in 2017 that are bent into the shape of parts that fit onto a 1978 Toronado, and 25% parts from John's parts car.

OK, maybe it's more like 85/10/5. It just seems like I've replaced lots of things on it. But all for the good!

 

Has anybody here been able to find a source for the wood grain sheets that match really close to original? I have found some light and some darker. Help me, I'm falling!