erratic speedo?!

heroszeros

Active Member
Messages
67
Reaction score
4
Location
san diego,ca
I'm wondering if anyone has experienced something similar in their car before. Recently I noticed the speedo started bouncing erratically at low speeds just after a long drive. Since then I've disconnected it at the gauge and hooked it back up. Now the gauge is very erratic, bouncing at low speeds, then it changes reading suddenly. At low speeds it is sometimes going right to 50, 60 etc..
Has anyone experienced this? Is it a gauge rebuild?
 
I have that happen twice, once it was the speedometer and it happened at relatively low speeds (10-40 MPH). The second time it was above 80 MPH and I believe it was the cable, that one went away by itself.
It never happens with the tachometer probably because the input is electronic not mechanic I believe.
 
Common problem. There is a disk inside the speedo that is spun by the speedo cable.
DSC00347.JPG


The needle at the hub of the speedo gauge gets "excited" by magnetic eddy currents caused by the rotation of the spinning disk that deflect the needle. Slow rotation, little deflection, fast rotation big deflection. The needle hub of the speedo indicator seats in that tiny hole at the center. In order to work properly, the speedo needle hub sits centered, but not touching that hole, so don't bend it when seating the parts back together.

DSC00349.JPG


Most likely, the speedo cable has worked the hub for the disk out of the speedo slightly.
DSC00351_B.jpg


The quick repair may be to unscrew your speedo cable from the back of the speedo and push the hub back in. This may fix your problem. You can do this by simply pulling your speedo cable, without dismounting it. Just give the hub a push with the end of a screwdriver. If you're a contortionist, or a good hand with a phone camera, you can actually verify this problem in place:
IMG_3210_2.jpg


It may be that the disk has worked off of the hub by that amount, so opening the speedo to push the disk back onto the hub may be necessary.
The full fix is to remove your speedo and do the repair described in the great video made by FunkyLaneO on YouTube:
If you do pull your speedo, do yourself the favor to replace the odometer gear as he describes, with the part info available in my thread:
Speedometer_Gauges_Removal_Tom.pdf

Removing the speedo entails removing the multi-gauge cluster and possibly dismounting the tacho for easier access. Seems daunting, but once done, it's not so bad the second time, (like if you fixed the speedo, but didn't replace the odometer gear... ask me how I know o_O).
To remove the gauges, you must create room for them to exit by prying up the instrument binnacle. Pay close attention to Michael Thomson's excellent write-up for the screws to loosen to make this possible.
Good luck!
 

Attachments

Last edited:
Back
Top