saf@bonnie.UUCP (Steve Falco) (10/22/85)
> My 1979 Chevrolet Caprice has a high pitched squeak that seems to come > from the speedometer. The speedometer cable has already been replaced > to no avail. The speedometer needle moves in synchrony with the squeaking. > I suppose the speedometer itself must be replaced. Don't be too sure. I have the same thing in my '79 Malibu. The first thing done was to remove a clip that holds the cable to the frame. This was done by the factory and allows the cable to flop to a "happy" position. Apparently the clip caused it to take too tight a bend. But that didn't eliminate the problem although it made it better. I pulled the dash apart and yanked the speedo. Looks like the cable housing has a steel cup at the speedo end, and the cable itself has a piece of nylon moulded on to keep it from going in too far (so you can't replace the cable from the tranny end). Anyway - after lubing the whole cable several times to no avail (couldn't see any shiny spots on the cable either), I finally took to lubing the nylon and steel cup. That usually stops the squeek for a year or more. Next time, I am going to try lubriplate in the cup, it should last better than speedo lube. NOTE, don't put it on the whole cable - it's too thick in the winter. If you want to lube the cable too, while you have it apart, get a proper speedo cable lube. Hope this helps... Steve Falco (I hate GM but my employer may not...)
hammer@gt-cmmsr.UUCP (John Hammer) (10/31/85)
Thanks to saf@bonnie.UUCP (Steve Falco). His advice on lubing the
point of connection between the speedometer and the cable was exactly
right (though I did not believe it at first). One trick I used to
diagnose this was to disconnect the cable at the transmission and
chuck the end in a 3/8" drill. With the drill on spinning in reverse,
it was relatively easy to try different ideas on what caused the noise.
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John M. Hammer
Center for Man-Machine Systems Research, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
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