Lower speedo cable too long?

[Jonathan]

Once again I have dove into trying to figure out how to make my speedometer work. After the latest effort, on my test drive yesterday it lasted for 0.7 miles. Fantastic. Did I mention I'm getting really good at knowing how fast I am going based on the tachometer?

On this latest attempt, I once again paid special attention to the alignment of the connections so that nothing was cock-eyed. The connections were in the finger tight territory, and I had put a couple zip ties to the brake line to keep the lower cable from flopping around.

Here's the thing, when nothing is connected, all of the individual components seem to spin pretty well and freely. If I have the dust cap off, I can spin the tip of the angle drive on the front side of the wheel and peer in behind to see the right angle hole turning. And not much resistance when doing so. Same goes for if I spin the wheel end of the lower cable and am peering around into the footwell to see the other free end spinning as well.

The problem seems to be when I get it connected. It never wants to spin as freely when it is put together. I don't feel it is the dust cap as that appears to go on pretty well and if I spin the hub with the dust cap on, it turns the back side of the angle drive ok.

What I am thinking is that somehow when I slide the lower speedo cable on and tighten down the connections, the metal cable inside the sheath of the lower cable is moving up and back. And what I think is happening is that if you insert too much metal cable end into the back side of the angle drive, it jams it. I just can't seem to control where inside the sheath that the metal cable itself is.

I was speculating that it might be too long or something. The inside part that is, not the whole cable overall. I thought one day on the forum here someone wrote about cables being too long but I could be wrong.

I can get it inserted into the angle drive and carefully tighten the connection. Then ever so gingerly move to the footwell and insert it into the bottom side of the service counter. This is where I think you can't stop yourself by possibly poking the inner metal cable down towards the angle drive and in effect pushing it in too far. My service counter guts have been removed, so that's another goofy component. And I have never fooled around at all with the upper cable as it plugs into the back of the instrument cluster.

What is going to solve this? Buying a different/better lower speedo cable? Buying the one piece long one that eliminates the service counter? Stopping every 0.7 miles to do an adjustment?

[stevedmc]

Bill Robertson made his own single piece speedometer cable using a $7 speedo cable from Autozone:

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/419915_351562221555701_595865964_n.jpg

It took him a good 30 minutes to make it, but if you can spare a half hour fabrication time (and can afford the $7 investment) that might be a solution worth considering.

[mluder]

More than likely one of two things is going on...

1. The inner cable (which is square in profile) is spinning inside the dust cover. Take a look at your dust cover - if the center hole is rounded at all the cable will have nothing to turn it. You'll need to replace the dust cap.

2. The dust cap is spinning inside the hub. If the fit is not snug enough, the dust cap will not turn with the wheel. I'm not sure what Bill Robertson would do with this, but Steven Maguire would take the dust cap and run a layer of electrical tape around the edge that mates with the hub. Start with one wrap and reinstall it. Test the speedo. If it still isn't working, add annother wrap of tape and try again.

Cheers.
Steven

[Jonathan]

Thanks Steve(s). I may look into the $7 option, but really it has less to do about how much the solution might cost (i.e. buying a full price vendor one piece cable) and actually just finding the right solution. It is a huge pet peeve of mine not having the speedo/odo working. It's not as much that I can't figure out how fast I am driving, but I like to try and keep a gas mileage log and it is near impossible to do that when you are taking guesses as to how far you drove on a given day.

I would love it if the problem was the dust cap. My gut feel is that it is not though. It is not looking rounded and still holds it's square shape. In fact I think I have a spare or two in a box and they look the same and behave the same. What gets me is that when the cables are not connected, it spins freely in your finger tips. But if the cables are connected, and perhaps poked in there too deep like I am hypothesizing, it becomes terribly hard to turn. Like hard to turn with a pair of pliers much less your fingers. So when it comes time to put the dust cap on and give 'er a shot, there is just way too much resistance to keep it going.

The dust cap might back out a bit perhaps in an effort to fight the resistance, but it is very snug when initially put together. I don't think it needs the electrical tape wrap, but I have tried this in the past and it yielded the same results. In fact, my dust cap needs quite a push to get it to cozy in there all the way, so I am thinking it is already pretty secure, but I could be wrong.

Is there something I could be doing to limit how much the inner cable can slide forward and back inside the sheath? I am debating loping off a quarter inch on one end, but not sure if I can do it and still keep the same square profile with the new end.

[Doogie]

Looks like you've pretty well gone through the setup from the wheel side, and everything is loosey-goosey, but when youput it all back together is tightens up. Speedomoter part of the problem?

[Jonathan]

Looks like you've pretty well gone through the setup from the wheel side, and everything is loosey-goosey, but when youput it all back together is tightens up. Speedomoter part of the problem?

It definitely could be adding to the problem, however, with the footwell side of the lower speedo cable disconnected at the service counter, it still gets much harder to turn with only the wheel end of the lower speedo cable connected to the back of the angle drive. This was part of why my theory was related to the lower speedo cable getting inserted too far into the angle drive or something, cause that's immediately when I see it get tougher to turn. The speedometer side components might not be making it any easier to rotate, but the big difference is noticed immediately when the lower speedo cable gets connected to the angle drive.

[mluder]

Yeah... I don't know about how much travel within the sheath there is on the cables. Other than a potentially defective cable I have not heard of such a thing. Of course that doesn't mean that's not the problem.

Annother potential - that would be eliminated by the single long cable is the lambda counter. They are typically packed with grease as a lubrcant for their internals. It's possible your's is clean and running dry with would cause binding when everything is conected.

There also might be binding in the right angle drive?

Have you tried attaching an electric drill to drive the cable? You can attach it to the right angle drive at the hub - run the drill slowly and in reverse. The danger is if it's truly bound you rist ruining the cables or angle drive.

Good luck

Steve

[Conundrum]

What is involved in "fabricating" the $7 AutoZone cable?