Speedometer wobble

[MIPS]

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.

[89 MJ]

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.

[vangremlin]

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!

[MIPS]

I've been weirdly too busy to get under the car and check on this but I did find that at some point I reinstalled the rock guard for the transfer case and the speedometer got misrouted, so it has a sharp turn it has to make. I'll try correcting that and see if anything changes. Same with checking if I screwed the cable all the way into the back of the speedometer housing.

[MIPS]

Nah, it's been several days since I reseated the speedometer cable in the back of the speedometer and removed the skid plate to see if I could straighten out the speedometer cable leaving the transfer case and it's still wobbling the needle for speeds under 20mph. Are we absolutely positive I have not unintentionally washed out a thick grease in the speedometer that was used to prevent the wobble at low speeds? I'm still looking at the scope to pull the speedometer cable and it's absolutely not a 15 minute job. The transfer case has to be drained and the gear pulled to release the cable retainer and on the other side either you gotta pull the cluster to reach the cable or disconnect it in-place and fight with the grommet in the firewall which is immediately behind the brake booster.

[rmick]

Something like this might be an option grease fitting tool for speedometer cable or some nylon tubing that fits over grease gun firing and speedometer cable. https://www.ebay.com/itm/113495529969

[amcfool1]

hi, the transfer case does not have to be drained to pull the cable. On a level surface, pulling the cable out, it will leak about a cup or less of fluid. good luck,  gz

[MIPS]

Okay, well the other million dollar question is: When pulling the speedometer cable out of the transfer case, are there any O-rings or seals to be replaced that will not like being unseated?

[89 MJ]

I’ve pulled my Speedo cable a couple of times and never had to replace the o rings.

[amcfool1]

hi, there is an O-ring, its a very thin one, not a run of the mill hardware store item. if you are careful, its reusable.  gz

[MIPS]

Update time since I finally got a chance to pull the cluster....again.....

Removed the speedometer, cleaned out the additional oil and then worked 30CC's of ATF down the cable. It's good now.

[vangremlin]

Good to hear!  Much more enjoyable driving without the speedometer bouncing all over.  Happy Eagling.