DavidJBlythe
New member
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- Location
- Fort Meade, MD
I thought I'd share my experience in the event anyone else has this problem.
- I off-road my truck quite a bit and get it in some deep Florida mud holes -
Recently my speedometer would work for a few seconds then fall to zero. After a few days, it never came back to life. I disassembled the dash and removed the speedometer. I checked it manually by spinning the back of it and it functioned normally. Next, I drove the truck down the street while looking at the end of the speedometer cable: It wasn't moving.
I crawled under the truck and inspected where it joined the transfer case. I unscrewed the cable from the adapter and crawled back out to remove the cable from the housing via the cab: No damage or wear to the cable.
I lubed the cable and sent it back into the housing. I did another test drive but there was no change. I crawled back under the truck and worked the cable by hand, and it turned freely. At this point I figured the problem must be closer to the transfer case.
I removed the adapter from the transfer case and also pulled the yellow plastic gear that turns it. The yellow gear looked fine and the teeth did not appear to worn, nor did the square slot for the adapter.
Finally, I checked the adapter. First using the yellow gear, and later a pair of pliers I could not make it turn. This must be the problem....
It's held together by three rivets, which I ground off. It split very easily revealing three small components: Two long little geared shafts and one little shaft with two gears of different sizes on it. It was very nasty in there...
It turns out that the long gear that turns the speedometer cable had frozen in place and would not turn. I knocked it out and found rust and other things not conducive to movement in there. I cleaned the entire thing with brake cleaner, wire-wheeled everything, and put it back together packed with fresh grease. Now it turns like a champ!!
If I can, I'll take some pictures! Very fun little project...
- I off-road my truck quite a bit and get it in some deep Florida mud holes -
Recently my speedometer would work for a few seconds then fall to zero. After a few days, it never came back to life. I disassembled the dash and removed the speedometer. I checked it manually by spinning the back of it and it functioned normally. Next, I drove the truck down the street while looking at the end of the speedometer cable: It wasn't moving.
I crawled under the truck and inspected where it joined the transfer case. I unscrewed the cable from the adapter and crawled back out to remove the cable from the housing via the cab: No damage or wear to the cable.
I lubed the cable and sent it back into the housing. I did another test drive but there was no change. I crawled back under the truck and worked the cable by hand, and it turned freely. At this point I figured the problem must be closer to the transfer case.
I removed the adapter from the transfer case and also pulled the yellow plastic gear that turns it. The yellow gear looked fine and the teeth did not appear to worn, nor did the square slot for the adapter.
Finally, I checked the adapter. First using the yellow gear, and later a pair of pliers I could not make it turn. This must be the problem....
It's held together by three rivets, which I ground off. It split very easily revealing three small components: Two long little geared shafts and one little shaft with two gears of different sizes on it. It was very nasty in there...
It turns out that the long gear that turns the speedometer cable had frozen in place and would not turn. I knocked it out and found rust and other things not conducive to movement in there. I cleaned the entire thing with brake cleaner, wire-wheeled everything, and put it back together packed with fresh grease. Now it turns like a champ!!
If I can, I'll take some pictures! Very fun little project...
