New Angle drive- should turn by hand?

[Redsquall]

After two hours and several gallons of PB blaster – I was able to get the angle nut loose and install the new one. My car did not come with a dust cap So I plan on ordering one – but my my real question is: should I be able to rotate the rod that goes into the angle nut by hand once it is installed on the hub? I was able to rotate it fine before I installed it. I want to be sure it is OK before I put on a dust And go for a drive. Thank you

[Gregadeth]

Yes. The rod goes into the dust cap which attaches to the hub. As the hub/wheel turns with the dust cap, the cap rotates the rod accordingly.

[Redsquall]

OKso I should be able to pinch it with my fingers and just turn it with my fingers to make sure it is loose and moving before putting the dust On so I should be able to pinch it with my fingers and just turn it with my fingers to make sure it is loose and moving before putting the dust Cap on?

[Jonathan]

While you won't be able to gently spin it with the tip of your finger, you should be able to squeeze it between your fingers and get it to turn without feeling like it is hurting your finger tips.

I am by no means an expert on angle drives, but I've put enough rounds of replacement parts into my own car before it finally worked to offer some educated advice.

I assume if you were to disconnect the lower speedo cable from the back of the angle drive, you could get it to turn freely? Confirm this first.

If you can get it to turn freely without being connected to anything, and then it becomes hard to turn after you've hooked the lower speedo cable up to it, it is likely pointing to another portion of the system that needs replacement.

It is probably the lower cable, but it could be more than that, from the lambda/service counter box, or the upper speedo cable, or the speedo gauge itself. One thing I found with the lower cables was that the inner portion, the metal cable itself that is inside the sheath, can move forward and back and what this can do is get stuck too far into the angle drive and foul up the meshing of the gears.

I had some combination of the above, and after more than one angle drive, dust cap, and lower cable, what finally got mine to work was replacing the whole enchilada with the one piece cable (and a new angle drive at the same time). You might not need that, but replacing all of the possible problem parts AT THE SAME TIME seems important. One might have gotten damaged, and then you put in a new part for a different damaged part, and then the one left in the system that still wasn't good ends up damaging your good replacement. And then you keep ruining more and more parts all the while not getting the speedo needle to ever move.

[content22207_2]

You will notice the angle drive turns more easily in the reverse direction (clockwise) than in the forward direction (counter clockwise). This is one of angle drives' weaknesses -- primary direction of wheel rotation has a natural binding tendency.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[Redsquall]

Thanks guys. I will find out where the sticking point is then. Is there any downside to bypassing the lambda box?

[Morpheus]

Thanks guys. I will find out where the sticking point is then. Is there any downside to bypassing the lambda box?

The only downside is that you won't have a red "LAMBDA" dash light turn on when you hit 30k miles, if you can call that a downside.

[Gregadeth]

By bypassing the lambda counter, do you need to get the long 1-piece speedo cable or can you just remove the lambda and connect the upper and lower cables together? Which vendors sell the longer 1-piece cable?

[Jonathan]

By bypassing the lambda counter, do you need to get the long 1-piece speedo cable or can you just remove the lambda and connect the upper and lower cables together? Which vendors sell the longer 1-piece cable?

The stock lower and upper cables won't connect directly to each other with the way the connectors are as is. They need something in the middle, like the lambda counter, or some adapter. You can take the guts out of the service counter, and just leave the internal shaft that goes from the lower to upper connection. This should work, in theory I suppose, but did not with my car. Again, my own likely had a compromised portion somewhere other than the lower cable or service counter.

I bought my one piece cable on the UK DeLorean parts website.

Here: http://www.deloreanclub.uk/one-piece-speedo-cable.html

[RamblinDMC]

I hear a scrubbing noise coming from my front driver's side wheel. Could that be the cap slipping in the wheel? My speedometer needle moves up and down randomly.

[PJ Grady Inc.]

By bypassing the lambda counter, do you need to get the long 1-piece speedo cable or can you just remove the lambda and connect the upper and lower cables together? Which vendors sell the longer 1-piece cable?

You need to run a longer cable. We happen to have a high quality American made replacement. There is a cheaper offshore replacement that is well...cheaper and it shows it. You can't even remove the core to lubricate it. I'm not referring to the Eurotech one as I have not seen one in the flesh yet but our's has a thicker reinforced housing and heavy gauge core. We came out with this many years ago and a few others have copied it but the quality is not the same IMHO.
Rob

[content22207_2]

And there's the ever popular Make Your Own option: http://www.dmctoday.com/showthread.php?17-How-to-fix-speedometer-issues/page6

Bill Robertson
#5939

[davidc89]

And there's the ever popular Make Your Own option: http://www.dmctoday.com/showthread.php?17-How-to-fix-speedometer-issues/page6

Bill Robertson
#5939

FWIW as a none member of that forum, it won't let me open attachments.