Speedo wobble

[Gerald J.]

The speedo needle wobbles quite a bit at low speed in my '63. Bad cable or bad gear in the trans?

Regards,
Jerry

[Harry S.]

Re: Speedo wobble

Jerry, yes, that could be the problem. I would suspect that the lubricant inside the cable has dried and hardened. The inner cable is not turning smoothly in the outer cable. You can remove the entire cable from the car, remove the inner cable, clean it and the inside of the outer cable, then reinstall. Not too much new lubricant near the speedometer end as you don't want it getting into the speedometer. Kable-Ease is a good lubricant. You should be able to remove the cable from the speedometer with your fingers, unless Bubba really torqued it down. If that is a problem you may need to pull the cluster out a bit to get at the cable end.

[Gerald J.]

Re: Speedo wobble

Harry,
The cable was replaced in 2015, so it may not be the culprit. Don't know if the gage was restored/repaired.

Regards,
Jerry

[Bob R.]

[Gary J.]

Re: Speedo wobble

John Rullo
Deluxe Speedometer Service
2330 S. Kalamath St. Unit A
Denver, CO 80223
303-629-6958 or 888-907-6505
www.deluxespeedometer.com

This the guy you want to use for new cables. I bought two new cables from him and it cleared up the issues.

[Bill B.]

Re: Speedo wobble

I had similar low speed wobble issues on my new speedometer replacement cable assembly that I purchased from a well known Corvette supplier. To remedy the issue, I removed the inner core and replaced it with a NOS AC Delco 615LH cable kit (eBay) and lubed it with Motorcraft PTFE Lubricant (don't shoot the messenger - I wanted the best lube and many on this forum chimed in that this was the best).

I also noticed that the replacement cable assy's core was only 0.117" in dia whereas the AC Delco NOS was 0.126". It also appeared that the NOS cable was spiral wound in the opposite direction of the replacement cable.

In any event, the NOS core with the PTFE lube worked. Super smooth. I did not have to replace the outer jacket.

[Gary B.]

Re: Speedo wobble

William,

Is this the PTFE lubricant you used? Can you describe the consistency of it?

Gary

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[Bill B.]

Re: Speedo wobble

Yes, that is it. Light blue in color and sorts looks like tooth paste. I smeared it on the inner cable then used my fingers to scrape it off, so that the lube was visually contained in-between the core cable strands.

[Gary B.]

Re: Speedo wobble

William,

Thanks for the description.

Gary

[George J.]

Re: Speedo wobble

Any resolution to the problem?

[Gerald J.]

Re: Speedo wobble

No resolution yet. Waiting for the inner.

Regards,
Jerry

[Bill B.]

Re: Speedo wobble

Jerry,

I forgot to mention in my previous response that with the replacement speedo cable assy I purchased about a year ago from one of the popular Corvette parts suppliers, I found the inner core they used was too short, and barely making contact with the transmission gear (ditto with the tach cable assy as well). I needed to cut the NOS AC Delco cable such that when the transmission end of the inner core was flush with the outer metal housing , there was approx. 1" of the plastic tip sticking out beyond the speedo end of the metal housing.

Also, I didn't use the AC Delco described method of heating the end of the cable and applying the black plastic tip to the heated end. Instead, I removed that white plastic looking glue from the black plastic tip cavity and after roughing up the inside of the cup of that tip, I used two-part JB Weld to secure the tip to the core cable. If I really wanted to insure the cable would never slip inside the tip cup cavity, I could have drilled a tiny hole thru the tip cup and cable then press a tiny metal dowl thru, but that may have been way overkill, as the forces to turn the instruments (speedo/tach) at the instruments should be very light. This is why the plastic tip (or the later metal tip that is swaged on the cable) is performed on the instrument side, never on the driven source side, as rotational friction forces on the inner core throughout the length of the outer cable core will be much more significant.