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Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
Anybody familiar with this? My '87 has been bouncing for years and I never did anything about it. Now i hear it whining while driving so I decided to finally take the cable apart and lubricate it. I have read here that most people say to disconnect the cable behind the speedo and also at the tranny and pull the cable through the sheeth. My car has a connection under the brake booster before running down to the tranny. Can I just disconnect it there and perform the lube? Do I need to also disconnect the cable at the transmission and lube the lower half of the cable? Anybody familiar with this setup, let me know. Thanks.
Before I owned my present 89 Firebird I had an 87 T/A . The speedo began bouncing as yours did , and it turned out to be the connector in the two piece cable had gotten it's internal mech. sticky from lack of lube . This was told to me to be the cruise control speed sensor and if I didn't care about the cruise it could be circumvented by a longer cable to reach from trans to speedo head without the break in the middle for the sensor to connect to . The cruise didn't work anyway so I got the non cruise control setup's longer cable and had no more bouncing speedo .
It would appear that either of your two cables or the sensor in between that could be sticking and causing your bouncing . You'll have to take into it to see which of the three has gotten sticky from dried out lube . (the last , scary possibility is the speedo head itself binding , but that's far less likely than the cables being dry) .
Ok. I tried getting this cable apart and it won't budge. I sprayed WD40 on the connection hoping that it would loosen the seal, but that was a no-go. There isn't much room to play in here as I can only get the wrench in one way and a small pair of vice grips locked on. I then only have about 1/2" of movement if I'm lucky. Even with the vice grips locked on, they want to slip. I thought about just providing enough slack to disconnect it from the speedo, but that isn't working well either. There is a bracket that holds the cable to the "frame", but one of the brake lines covers the bolt and it isn't accessible from underneath!! GM didn't make this easy for me!!!!!
I attached a photo of the bolt that I can't get at and also of the instrument cluster pulled out as far as it will come.
I can get one fingers distance between the white plastic and the mount at the spot just above the turn signal bulb socket. Definitely not enough room to reach in there and disconnect the cable. I read elsewhere that the cable is not accessible from the top if the dash pad is removed. This is not working out very well.
I have the same two-piece cable setup and have never been able to get much information on it myself. I also haven't had much luck getting the middle connection open. Looking forward to what this thread digs up!
Well, I finally got the instrument cluster out. The spring clip that holds the cluster to the cable is not what I thought. I figured that if I was able to release the connection with a long screwdriver, I wouldn't be able to get it back together. After I put a screwdriver on the clip and pushed, i saw that it opened up the grip on the cable and allowed me to pull the cluster out. I pulled out the inner cable and found that the old grease was thick and gummy. I cleaned it up as best I could and relubed the entire cable before putting it back in the sheeth. Hopefully I put enough grease on it! Connecting the cable to the cluster was as easy as aligning the two and pushing them together.
I did notice with a test drive that the bouncing was 95% gone. Maybe I need to take the bottom half apart at the tranny and do the same thing.
I've had that out too many times to count. Replacing the printed circuit, replacing the dashboard shell, etc... This is the same way I lubricated the top half. I'm still curious about that middle connector neither of us can seem to open up.
Yes. I was able to get it working by removing the top portion of the cable only. After removing the instrument cluster, I was able to pull out the inner cable and relubricate the top half only. It appears to have done the trick.
Yes. I was able to get it working by removing the top portion of the cable only. After removing the instrument cluster, I was able to pull out the inner cable and relubricate the top half only. It appears to have done the trick.
I know this is a really old thread but does anyone know where I can find a replacement "lower cable" of the 2 piece for my '89 Iroc? Female at the 700r4 and male at whats being called the cruise control sensor. NOT a cruise sensor on my car though. It is a speedo adapter. Any help greatly appreciated.
Under the brake booster
03-20-2013, 07:19 PM
