speedometer troubles and Hervey's single cable setup

[John U]

I have been struggling with my speedo since I got my car three years ago. It bounces at speeds below 20mph or so.
I routinely lube the angle drive.
The dust cap is new.
I cleaned and lubed the lower cable.
The lower cable is not kinked or damaged.
I removed the gunk and unecessary gears from the Lambda counter.

My next step would be to buy Hervey's one piece cable and install it. Any words of advice on this, and how tough is it to get the upper cable removed and replaced by the one piece setup?

thanks
John

[kajcienski]

I have been struggling with my speedo since I got my car three years ago. It bounces at speeds below 20mph or so.
I routinely lube the angle drive.
The dust cap is new.
I cleaned and lubed the lower cable.
The lower cable is not kinked or damaged.
I removed the gunk and unecessary gears from the Lambda counter.

My next step would be to buy Hervey's one piece cable and install it. Any words of advice on this, and how tough is it to get the upper cable removed and replaced by the one piece setup?

thanks
John

I have the same issue to some extent but am told by Grady that it is super common. Unless it is making noise or really bothers you, I am not sure it is worth the trouble. Maybe someone can chime in with their thoughts?

[John U]

It's not making any noise, just annoying me. I have spent three years trying to get the car as close to perfection as I can and it's one of the things still on my list of things I'm not happy with.

[tyb323]

I just ordered one of these from John the other day and promptly recieved an email back that he is currently out of them and it will take a few months to get new ones. Give him a ring and he may be able to give you a more accurate timetable one it

[dmc6960]

I ordered one from PJ Grady a year ot two ago. I also had a wait for one to be made. He doesn't stock them. If I recall it was about 3 weeks for mine. 3 weeks is shorter than a few months. FYI, the cable I got from Rob had too much grease in it and was too hard to turn. I had to remove much of it to get it working properly. Never told him this, though I should have. Then later on something else broke in the speedo drive. The speedometer is much of my motivation for the new electronic cluster I'm designing.

[DeLorean03]

Getting the upper cable removed is all about getting the binnacle loose (pretty much, removing the binnacle). Not a very hard job at all as there have been threads lately detailing how to do it. Basically, four 7mm nuts to get off, and take both kneepads off on the driver's side. MUCH EASIER to do with the driver's seat out of the car. Once done, remove upper cable, hook 1-piece cable to back of speedometer, completely ignoring the lambda counter, remove lower cable, and install other end of 1-piece cable to angle drive.

WELL worth it. Haven't had one problem since I converted to the 1-piece unit.

[TTait]

Rob often has them in stock, and when he doesn't the wait is usually a couple weeks, not months. Give him a call - quality and customer service are always good there, and prices are fair.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I've installed John's one piece cable without removing the binnacle. You just need to lay on the seat, feet over the back and have a good flashlight and a long screwdriver to press the release.

[kajcienski]

I've installed John's one piece cable without removing the binnacle. You just need to lay on the seat, feet over the back and have a good flashlight and a long screwdriver to press the release.

This just convinced me to switch to the single cable! I had never heard of doing this with the binnacle still in place. Thanks!

[DeLorean03]

I've installed John's one piece cable without removing the binnacle. You just need to lay on the seat, feet over the back and have a good flashlight and a long screwdriver to press the release.

-_O ... Always gotta have some Spiderman/contortionist answer don;t you ;)?

[orbitron3000]

Getting the upper cable removed is all about getting the binnacle loose (pretty much, removing the binnacle). Not a very hard job at all as there have been threads lately detailing how to do it. Basically, four 7mm nuts to get off, and take both kneepads off on the driver's side. MUCH EASIER to do with the driver's seat out of the car. Once done, remove upper cable, hook 1-piece cable to back of speedometer, completely ignoring the lambda counter, remove lower cable, and install other end of 1-piece cable to angle drive.

WELL worth it. Haven't had one problem since I converted to the 1-piece unit.

+1

Since I bought my car about a year ago, I had the same "bouncing" problem below around 30 mph. I dealt with it until the speedometer finally stopped working. I replaced the entire system (angle drive, dust cap, cables) with Hervey's long cable option, and have had absolutely no trouble since then. Hardest part was replacing the angle drive. I agree with DeLorean03. WELL worth it. I have simply removed the lambda counter.

[Bitsyncmaster]

-_O ... Always gotta have some Spiderman/contortionist answer don;t you ;)?

I guess if your a heavy beer drinker...:smile:...pull out the seat to do it. It's less work then pulling out the binnacle.

[ccurzio]

Related to this, can anyone give me some clear and concise steps on how to remove the angle drive? I attempted this task this morning and, like so many things in my life, was met with failure. Here's as far as I got:

1. Remove front driver-side wheel.
2. Remove dust cap.
3. Loosen center 32mm hub nut.
4. Remove lower speedometer cable from the angle drive.
5...?

I was following along with the instructions provided by DMCH with their angle drive speedometer maintenance/replacement kit, but it isn't terribly clear on how to actually remove the large nut to which the angle drive is mounted. (It says something about using long flathead screwdrivers to compress some kind of ring pin but I see nothing like that on the actual wheel assembly.) Incidentally, I also looked it up online to see what I could find and this is what I found:

"Remove the large nut on the rear of the hub with a wrench [need*more*detail]."

Yeah. I agree.

[jawn101]

I guess if your a heavy beer drinker...:smile:...pull out the seat to do it. It's less work then pulling out the binnacle.

+1 on this, take that driver's seat out, lay on your back with your feet on the parcel shelf. You can not only reach the upper speedo cable, you can see it too. All without the binnacle coming off. Not that removing the binnacle would be hard from this position either, you have easy access to all the nuts holding it down.

[DeLorean03]

Related to this, can anyone give me some clear and concise steps on how to remove the angle drive? I attempted this task this morning and, like so many things in my life, was met with failure....

"Remove the large nut on the rear of the hub with a wrench [need*more*detail]."

Yeah. I agree.

Honestly, I was replacing my angle drive, and I think I got to the exact same identical part and stalled. Can you actually take the angle drive assembly off the rest of the car...? If so, here's my answer to your question:

After trying to disassemble it without going caveman on it for like an hour, I locked that old broken angle drive in a 5" vice and hammered that sucker in half. Reassembly was simple with new angle drive :). Getting that compressed ring out = good luck with hand tools. Either that or I simply didn't have the patience....

Something tells me when Dave or anyone else reads what I typed above, they wouldn't offer me a job at DMC-X (X = region of choice) ;).

[DeLorean03]

+1

Since I bought my car about a year ago, I had the same "bouncing" problem below around 30 mph. I dealt with it until the speedometer finally stopped working. I replaced the entire system (angle drive, dust cap, cables) with Hervey's long cable option, and have had absolutely no trouble since then. Hardest part was replacing the angle drive. I agree with DeLorean03. WELL worth it. I have simply removed the lambda counter.

It is truly frightening how identical that story was for me too. The symptoms, the tolerance of dealing with it, when it broke, and everything replaced. Man, your path and mine were pretty much completely identical.

And yes, WELL worth the 1-cable setup - I'll never go back to the lambda counter again.

[David T]

If you have a bouncing needle (especially at low speeds) pull the inner cables and lay them on the floor on some clean newspaper. They should lay in a nice, large circle with no bends or kinks. If they are OK lube them up with speedometer cable lubricant (if you can find it). Don't use grease or oil. Make sure the outer cable sheaths are not bent anywhere in too tight a radius. Make sure you have the bracket on the brake caliper to hold the cable on the left, front wheel to take the weight off the angle drive.
David Teitelbaum





It is truly frightening how identical that story was for me too. The symptoms, the tolerance of dealing with it, when it broke, and everything replaced. Man, your path and mine were pretty much completely identical.

And yes, WELL worth the 1-cable setup - I'll never go back to the lambda counter again.

[John U]

If you have a bouncing needle (especially at low speeds) pull the inner cables and lay them on the floor on some clean newspaper. They should lay in a nice, large circle with no bends or kinks. If they are OK lube them up with speedometer cable lubricant (if you can find it). Don't use grease or oil. Make sure the outer cable sheaths are not bent anywhere in too tight a radius. Make sure you have the bracket on the brake caliper to hold the cable on the left, front wheel to take the weight off the angle drive.
David Teitelbaum

HI David,
I remember you giving this advice in another thread....I followed it and still have the problem...that's why I was hoping a single cable might do the trick.

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

John

[David T]

Bends and kinks can be subtle. Use your fingers and feel all along the cables. Flex them too. You will find a "funny" spot where the cable seems to flex too much or not enough. It acts like a spring as it turns and speeds up and slows down. Of course replacing the cable with either 2 new ones or 1 long single will fix the problem if one of the cables is bad. Lubrication is also important. Not enough, too much, or the wrong stuff will cause the cable to bind. You want to find a small plastic bottle of "Speedometer Lubricant". It is VERY messy stuff. Use gloves and plenty of paper towels and don't get it on the carpet! It is basically powdered graphite in Kerosene. Stuff like this is getting very hard to find, modern cars don't have speedometer cables anymore, and haven't for a long time.
David Teitelbaum


QUOTE=John U;60055]HI David,
I remember you giving this advice in another thread....I followed it and still have the problem...that's why I was hoping a single cable might do the trick.

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

John[/QUOTE]

[DMCMW Dave]

...n hour, I locked that old broken angle drive in a 5" vice and hammered that sucker in half. Reassembly was simple with new angle drive :). Something tells me when Dave or anyone else reads what I typed above, they wouldn't offer me a job at DMC-X (X = region of choice) ;).

If you read the instruction sheet that (should) comes with the drive, it tells you to put the nut in a vice an hit the drive iwth a hammer. And it is what we do. Time is money.

[dmc6960]

-_O ... Always gotta have some Spiderman/contortionist answer don;t you ;)?


If you read the instruction sheet that (should) comes with the drive, it tells you to put the nut in a vice an hit the drive iwth a hammer. And it is what we do. Time is money.

What about warranty returns? Money is also a motivator not to screw it up!
On the bench, it took me about 10 minutes to separate, but was only after I already knew what to do.

[jawn101]

I read all the horror stories about how tough it was to separate the drive from the nut and decided to bite the bullet and just buy my new one with a new nut already attached. Swapping the drive was a 2 minute affair like this with next to no swearing involved :)

[DMC5180]

What about warranty returns? Money is also a motivator not to screw it up!
On the bench, it took me about 10 minutes to separate, but was only after I already knew what to do.

What took you so long? It took me 10 seconds the last time I had to do it. :biggrin: Someday I'll post a short video demonstration. BTW: I discovered the key to this by accident. It also helps to have an appropriate pick tool.

Dave's Hammer method is valid too. These units are not rebuilt anymore. They don't need rebuildable cores.