speedometer cable lubricator

[Dave L.]

has anyone ever used one of those screw on lubricators available in the various corvette catalogs.i was wondering if there are any pros or cons.it looks simple enough.can i use my standard grease that i use in my gun for chassis lubrication?my cables a little jumpy and i would like the easy fix i guess.

 

[Bob Chadwick]

I had to replace my transducer recently and was asked if I had used one of these tools. I was told that doing this packs the transducer as well, or puts extra stress on it in some fashion, and can cause it to lock breaking the lower cable and the cable gear in the tranny.

Bob

 

[Dave L.]

thanks bob-i am leaning towards replacing the whole cable.i have read on this site that its not a cakewalk

 

[Red73BB]

Tach cable

I saw one of those on the Mid-Amerca catalog I got yesterday, and I had the same question. I replace my tach cable last fall and it was a two person project. Behind the dash is trickey, it looks like I'm going to replace the speedo soon because it jumps at certain speeds. Good Luck
Gary

 

[Bob Chadwick]

I don't know what it takes. I had just about had my dash back together when this thing failed. I was so frustrated I just took it to a shop and had them do it.

It looks difficult with the dash in place. While I could get to my speedo and the retaining clip, there was not enough room to pull the cable off the back off the unit.

Bob

 

[davidosus]

Speedo Cable Replacement

I recently replaced my Vette's speedo cable - I have a 1977. Things more or less should be the same between our two models... perhaps my experience will help you.

I removed the entire driver's side dash - for the first time and with no references to guide me. What a headache - my girlfriend nearly disowned me for all the time I spent on this project - it took at least ten hours. Why so long? Again, I had no clue what I was doing and I relied instead on one of my strengths - being able to reverse engineer things back into place.

First, the steering column needed to be lowered - two sets of double bolts, one by the fire wall, the other further up the column. Even then it lowered only an inch. The driver's side dash was in too tight - to make things easier I removed the passenger side dash and unbolted the center dash piece; the latter I moved to the right a few inches.

Then the headlight vacuum hoses and the main electrical harness needed to be disconnected - there was barely enough room to squeeze my hand inside that narrow space. The speedo cable itself is held on by a clip - that alone took a half hour to disconnect. In the end, by easing the dash pad out, despite all my effort, four of twelve dash light wires snapped.

I figured out where the speedo cable entered the interior of the car from the engine compartment but had no clue how to pull it out - a rubber seal surrounded the cable by the firewall. Did I have to pull the rubber seal out? There was no way to get a firm grip on it. Taking a blind leap of faith I simply pulled on the cable and out it popped. I then traced the cable to the transmission (with the Vette jacked up) and the old cable simply screwed off.

Putting the new cable in I discovered was relatively easy. It screwed onto the transmission and was pushed through the rubber seal.

Then came the long and hard part. Those broken dash light wires needed to be resoldered. Figuring where they came from wasn't as difficult as I expected but still a nightmare because of the tiny working area. Slowly but surely everything was carefully put pack into place - it took more than three tries because things (wires, vacuum hoses, wiring harness) had to be in certain spots to fit and ground connections kept disconnecting. I had a tough time lining up air ducts, too.

After all this work I looked back at what could have been done differently. I discovered that the dash pad didn't have to come off at all. I only needed to remove a small panel under the driver's side dash to allow me to reach the clip holding onto the cable. I then could've pulled the cable out from the engine compartment - and pushed the new one through again. Reaching under the dash I could've caught the new cable and clipped it onto the speedo.

A lesson learned the hard way - don’t do what I did. I hope your Vette is similar to mine and that your dash doesn’t have to be removed.

 

[Dave L.]

davidosus, thanks so much for your first hand expirence.your story sounds like something i 'd get myself involved in,(10 hours-girlfriend screaming).i'll follow your: latter advice when i yank that thing out.:bash

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Boy that swounds all too familiar.

I got mine back from the shop today where I had the transducer and lower cable replaced. Fortunately when the transducer froze it only broke the lower cable.

Now for the hard part. Putting the dash back in. Hopefully it will only take one try. Last time the vacuum gave me problems.

Bob