speedometer froze up

Has anyone else had the speedo head freeze up in the drive portion? Or better yet has anyone had this happen and fixed it themselves? My speedo worked when i got the jeep and stopped soon after. I finally got around to looking into it and found a very chewed up and wound cable, not just broken. The wound up cable made me wonder about the speedo so i pulled it to test and sure enough, there's no turning where the cable drives it. Needle is free so there must be a bushing or something in there that froze up?

 

Yes its a little bronze piece in the back that the cable slides in.

Mine froze up, I tried taking it apart and then used all sorts of things on mine, even vice grips. Never did get it undone. Then again I don't know how many years it was frozen up. Explained why I snapped the cable. You might have better luck as it sounds more recent

Take it apart and or see abut adding some oil to lube it up. I would get a new cable too. It doesn't take much to spin them either.

 

IIRC there is a small oiling hole above the rear bushing, on the back of the speedo.

 

Good to know... Thanks guys.... Maybe I'll keep trying to free it up myself. I don't want to break anything getting it freed up that isn't repairable.... i'll see what I can do before I drop it off at a speedo repair place...

And Howard.... I chose to use the full name of Speedometer in the thread title just for that reason... lol. And on another side note.... A friend of mine picked up a 55 CJ-5 over the weekend.... #533. I kept wondering all weekend what your serial number was.. Now I know #378.

 

Maybe immerse the hub in rubbing alcohol or xylene? Or put some in a spray bottle, spritz and gently try to free it? A gentle test turn, and some more spray or dunking.

 

Back in High School, I helped a friend work on his GFs Opal. the clock didn't work, he just pitched it the solvant tank. after a couple hours, the clock worked again. I don't know how long it worked and I wouldn't recomend it but using PB Blaster or something like that for a few days should work.

 

Well... I cleaned out the oiling hole that I'm not so sure is an oiling hole and then stuck just the tip in the solvent tank. I'll try to work it back and forth a bit and see what happens.

 

Yes, I would not dunk the whole head - the odometer numerals. etc, could be damaged.

 

Where's my "EASY" button? Dunk of the drive in the tank, a little solvent in the hole and a quick back and forth with pliers and she's loose again. Will put some oil in the hole and let it soak a bit just to make sure, but just waiting on Walcks now I think.

 

Yep, that speedo cable doesn't look too good.

 

That's good news. If you are thinking of buying a new speedometer cable, you can repair the one you have with a kit.

http://www.amazon.com/Dorman-03368-...sim_263_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SB1KV3M8KVD924N47YQ

Reuse the sheath, cut the new core to length. I've used these on my cars. You can get Dorman stuff at any parts store.

 

Note that new speedometer cables come with very little cable lube. You will have to lube the inner core very well to make it last.

 

Also, when you cut the core to length, be very careful to get an accurate length, and leaving just a little free end-play. If it is too long it will bind and break. If too short it will slip.

 

I ordered a new cable assembly on sunday from Walcks. The old drive cable is so wound up in the housing that it won't easily come out of the sheath. It was cheap enough to just buy the whole darn thing. I'll lube it well before it goes in. Speedo is now well lubed and should last another 49 years I hope...

 

Got all my parts from Walcks that I ordered. Put another 27 miles on the speedometer this morning for the first time in quite awhile. Now reads 10,16X... Works great. Fuel and temp gauge are still kaput but that's another project.


Also installed the defroster duct. My PO installed Tachometer interfered with the bottom of the duct and the hose, so I had to heat and bend the new duct with my heat gun for clearance. While I had the tach out I figured maybe I could add a light to it so I could see it at night? Light install went well... Function of the tach afterwards?...not so much. Must have gotten some metal inside that got into the inner workings of the mechanical tach. Reads way high now. That bezel is gonna be a "son of a" to get off to clean things out... Two steps forward, one step back.

 

That's too bad about that mech tach. No instrument repair shops nearby?

 

We have a couple places. Tacoma Speedometer and Seattle Speedometer. I may see if they can repair it. Realistically, it probably just needs the magnet cleaned off but the bezel is crimped all the way around the gauge. It's not a factory gauge and judging by the really ugly hole in the firewall for the drive adapter to come thru, I doubt it was dealer installed either....but it is cool and I definitely miss having it. I was going to take my Speedometer to Tacoma but was able to free it up on my own afterall. Looking like the Tach may need to make a trip there.

 

I also have this as one of my projects I haven't started yet. I still do not understand fully how it all works. When I removed the cable from the speedometer I could spin the innards easily. Should that happen? Shouldn't it be locked into the transfer case so it would not spin unless that gear is broken or the cable is broken? I removed the transfer end of the cable and it appears the cable is not broken. Now what? Do I need to try to remove the little gear thingy on the transfer case to see about replacing that?

Thanks for the help.