speedo cable spins in driven gear

hey all
My speedo doesn't work, so I followed some of the suggested checks in a few threads. I pulled the cable off the driven gear and spin it by hand. It spins freely and registers on the speedo gauge. I pulled the driven gear and slid the cable in, but it is not a tight fit at all. It isn't even close so even though the gear is spinning, it isn't grabbing the inner cable and therefor doesn't move the speedo gauge. I looked through my FSM, but there is no adapter or anything. Am I missing something? I thought about pinching the driven gear, but it is just too big and I didn't want to damage it. This is for a d18 btw.

Any thoughts? thanks...jim

 

Take a close look at teh end of th cable. Is it still square? It's unlikely tha the gear would strip before the cable goes. There are many sources for a new cable if that's the culprit. PartsMike is one source.

 

yes, the end of the cable looks very similar to the other end (behind the gauge). Maybe I will flip it though an verify that.

Should both ends of the speedo cable be the same shape/size?

 

yes
squared off
not rounded

 

Is there a tight bend in the cable that might bind it up?

So you unhooked the trans case side and spun the cable with a drill and the speedo works?

And you unhooked the speedo end and the cable turns when you dirve the Jeep?

Other than binding, I got no suggestions on this.

 

aallison,
The first part is correct, I pulled the cable from the t-case and spun the inner cable by hand and the speedo gauge registered so I know it is not the cable binding and that the gauge works. Then I pulled the driven gear out of the tcase and slide it over the cable, essentially reproducing the proper connection at the t-case. As I spin the driven gear (in my hand) it does not register on the speedo. Therefor, there is a problem with the connection between the gear and cable. Both ends of the cable look the same to me, rectangular. I thought that I was potentially missing an adapter or something or that the cable is supposed to have different ends.

I am at a loss, but that is not uncommon when tinkering with this rig...

I could buy a new cable, but I don't want to just guess and buy parts...

 

You sure the cable is extending far enough into the gear to engage with the socket? The speedo cable core comes out of the sheath completely. You can take all the pieces apart (sheath, core, gear) and compare their lengths, and see how just the core fits into the gear. If the cable bottoms in the gear and still doesn't turn, and there isn't a broken-off piece of the cable in the gear, and the end of the cable isn't rounded off, you have to conclude that the gear is at fault. However, I suspect the cable core is too short or broken or something similar.

 

I agree with Tim - the most likely problem is that the shaft on the cable isn't going down in to the hole on the drive. Might have to turn or wiggle it to get it to engage.

The other two possibilities would be that the square shaft on the cable is rounded off or the square hole in the drive is rounded off.

That's all I can think of.