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  • March 29, 2024, 03:19:28 AM

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Author Topic: Speedometer wobble  (Read 19 times)

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Offline MIPS

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Speedometer wobble
« on: Yesterday at 01:59:32 PM »
I touched and it broke it.....kinda. x_X

When I was in the dash last fall to repair the headlight switch I also went into the cluster since it was out and lubricated the odometer gear because it had a really annoying squeak. Ever since then there's been two problems:

-At low speeds the needle wobbles between 0 and 20 and will bounce against the pin that keeps the needle from dropping below 0. Above it's pretty good but you still occasionally catch it wobbling a little
-When it's cold out I've caught it a few times where the odometer is rolling but the speedometer is stuck at zero. Once it frees up it might slingshot around to 160 and then start working but it acts like it's stuck. Presumably the 3 in 1 thickens up a lot in -25.

My guess is when I put 3 in 1 oil on the speedometer/odometer assembly it's washed out/diluted a thicker lubricant that helped even out the natural wobbling a magnetically coupled speedometer will make. I have no idea what to do about this.
I asked over on the AMC forum and their suggestion was that me oiling the speedometer was not the issue but the entire speedometer cable was binding at slow speeds and to pull, clean and lube it. Easy 30 minute job*. Thing is everyone stopped offering advice as soon as I asked how you are supposed to pull the cable out of the sleeve.

I have the one-piece non-cruise cable. Do I just pull the dash and cluster and then pull the entire speedometer cable out without issues re-indexing the gear when I put it back in or do I also need to separate the sleeve at the transfer case (draining the transfer case in the process?), separate the gear and then pull it out from the dash? If I have to pull the cable out of the transfer case are there any seals I need to be ready to replace?


*clearly they have not pulled the cluster out of an Eagle.

Offline 89 MJ

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Re: Speedometer wobble
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 03:17:00 PM »
My speedometer bounce was because the cable was being slightly pinched by the transfer case skid plate. I'd recommend verifying that first. I'm not sure about removing the cable from the sleeve, but I do know that you should be able to remove the cable with the sleeve from the car without having to pull the dash.
1986 Eagle: 258, Auto, Chrysler 8.25 rear, 3.54 gears
1989 Jeep Comanche: 4.0, AX-15, 8.8 rear, 4.10 gears
1940 Chevy PU: 350, 700R4

Offline vangremlin

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Re: Speedometer wobble
« Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 04:50:30 PM »
I was having bouncing issues with my speedometer and it ended up I just needed to tighten up the cable on the back of the speedometer.  I could reach up from down below and was able to get that done.

If you do need to lubricate the cable, it was my understanding that you should use graphite for that.  Start at the top and see if that does the trick before removing the bottom end.

Good luck!
1981 Kammback 258 - "Pepe"
1980 Coupe 258 - "Ginger
1972 Gremlin X 304
1978 Gremlin 4 cyl 121 - sold
1964 TBird 390 - sold

 

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