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angelfj1
Yoda
Offline
A few weeks ago on the way to "The Rocks, MD" my speedo stopped abruptly only a few miles from home. About 40 miles later it suddenly came back to life briefly but died again and stayed dead. At this point the cable had approx. 800 miles in service.
This past weekend was the first time I had a chance to investigate.
First, I unscrewed the grey speedo cable from the back of the gauge. In my 3A this is facilitated by loosening the two brass cable clamps located in front of the battery and the passenger side inner wing. This procedure will give you more slack cable to work with since the under fascia area is very crowded. Hint: when working on the speedo it is much easier to first remove the tach. This provides access to the speedo from the left.
Once off its easy to see the inner driven cable and outer sheath. There is also a white plastic spacer which is intended to maintain the distance that the inner cable protrudes into the speedo. This is critical and too far could damage the mechanism and not far enough could prevent the cable from positive engagement with the speedo.
We also removed the other (driven) end of the cable from the output pinion on the O/D. We did this to determine if the cable had broken. Carefully turning the cable at the speedo end caused the cable to turn. We reversed the procedure turning the cable at the pinion end and watched the cable turn at the speedo end. We could also pull the cable from the speedo end and partially withdrew the cable and were able to push it back.
We reattached the cable at the OD. Then we drove a short distance forward and reverse and were able to verify that the cable was securely in place in the pinion drive. The cable turned smoothly in both directions.
We reattached the cable at the speedo and continued our drive. The speedo did not operate.
We carefully connected a short length of an old cable to the speedo and the other end to a cordless drill and turned the cable CCW. The speedo worked smoothly.
Upon closer inspection of the white plastic spacer it appeared to have moved. Actually we verified this and under a magnifying glass we could see small cracks in the white plastic radiating from each corner of the square cable end.
At this point we were confident that although the cable had not actually failed, the white plastic keeper had moved just enough that the cable end had disengaged from the speedo.
Fortunately, we had another (black sheath) speedo cable from another supplier. This one has a metal keeper which is swedged onto the cable. It appears to be a more secure design and it would take considerable force for it to slip. We lubricated and replaced the inner cable and reattached the speedo end.
Next: A Test drive. Bob's your uncle!!!
This past weekend was the first time I had a chance to investigate.
First, I unscrewed the grey speedo cable from the back of the gauge. In my 3A this is facilitated by loosening the two brass cable clamps located in front of the battery and the passenger side inner wing. This procedure will give you more slack cable to work with since the under fascia area is very crowded. Hint: when working on the speedo it is much easier to first remove the tach. This provides access to the speedo from the left.
Once off its easy to see the inner driven cable and outer sheath. There is also a white plastic spacer which is intended to maintain the distance that the inner cable protrudes into the speedo. This is critical and too far could damage the mechanism and not far enough could prevent the cable from positive engagement with the speedo.
We also removed the other (driven) end of the cable from the output pinion on the O/D. We did this to determine if the cable had broken. Carefully turning the cable at the speedo end caused the cable to turn. We reversed the procedure turning the cable at the pinion end and watched the cable turn at the speedo end. We could also pull the cable from the speedo end and partially withdrew the cable and were able to push it back.
We reattached the cable at the OD. Then we drove a short distance forward and reverse and were able to verify that the cable was securely in place in the pinion drive. The cable turned smoothly in both directions.
We reattached the cable at the speedo and continued our drive. The speedo did not operate.
We carefully connected a short length of an old cable to the speedo and the other end to a cordless drill and turned the cable CCW. The speedo worked smoothly.
Upon closer inspection of the white plastic spacer it appeared to have moved. Actually we verified this and under a magnifying glass we could see small cracks in the white plastic radiating from each corner of the square cable end.
At this point we were confident that although the cable had not actually failed, the white plastic keeper had moved just enough that the cable end had disengaged from the speedo.
Fortunately, we had another (black sheath) speedo cable from another supplier. This one has a metal keeper which is swedged onto the cable. It appears to be a more secure design and it would take considerable force for it to slip. We lubricated and replaced the inner cable and reattached the speedo end.
Next: A Test drive. Bob's your uncle!!!
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