Location: NC
Posts: 11
My VIN: 01800
I finally had time to look at this problem on my car. I took the wheel off and checked the dust cap. It seems to be nice and tight. I couldn't see anything obviously wrong from spinning the wheel by hand although it did not spin as freely as I expected it to. I'm just going to take it back to the shop and have them take a look at it.
Posts: 4,784
My VIN: Banged your VIN'S mom
You should have pulled the cap.and checked the inside. They strip there too.Originally Posted by NightRider
Posts: 4,808
My VIN: 3937
If you can look again with the dust cap removed, you can also spin the tip of the cable that's sticking out with your finger and learn a few things. You won't be able to spin it fast enough to get up to 50 mph, but you should at least see the needle move up to 10 mph or so. You can get a helper to watch for you, or do the spinning for you, or get creative with a mirror or camera and do it yourself.
The wheel being harder to spin than you thought could just be a relative thing, and nothing's wrong, or it could be telling you the brakes are sticking. That assembly is a long way from some frictionless perpetual motion device, but it still shouldn't take a ton of effort to spin it with your hands.
Sept. 81, auto, black interior
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,582
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
For comparison you can also spin the right front tire to see how easy it or hard it is. Get a helper and try a cordless drill and see if you can get any readings bu spinning the cable. You can also try disconnecting the cable going into the angle drive and spin the inner cable there. Make sure you spin it the right direction!
David Teitelbaum
Location: NC
Posts: 11
My VIN: 01800
Yea, I knew that I should have checked the inside of the cap, but I was by myself and was rushed a bit. I'll check it again tomorrow with a helper. Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions!
Location: NC
Posts: 11
My VIN: 01800
Update: I had time to work on this today. I took the dust cover off, and it looked stripped on the inside. I used a cordless drill to turn the system and was able to get the speedometer to register just fine even up to high speeds. Anyway, I ordered a new dust cover so hopefully I'll be back in business once that arrives. I'm wanting to sell the car and felt like I really needed the speedometer and odometer to work before showing it to any buyers. Thank you for the help!
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