Speedometer Cable making noise

The cable is not hard to replace but it is easy to lose the little clip at the wheel end.

I suggest lubricating it first. I think I have used a liquid with graphite in it before. Hopefully, others will join with suggestions about what to use.  You will need to unscrew the cable at the speedometer end and put a few drops in.

The cables come in different lengths. You could remove the old one and measure it before ordering. However, with the speedo on the left, I think any available length would work.

Thanks for the reply Michael. I googled speedo cable lube and got various graphite lubes, so it sounds like you got me on the right track. I'll pick some up and give it a go - hopefully it'll do the trick.

Thanks again for the reply - much appreciated!

   Bill

I had that issue on a 69 VW and on my old IM and what Michael said is right, graphite is king to stop the noise and get a non bouncy MPH reading.

maybe kinked, bent into a not so natural position

I had a break/small chunk missing in the vinyl coating on the cable, then started getting the "twitchy needle" syndrome. There was rust in there.

I just bought a new cable, and greased it up and replaced it. I used bicycle spray cable lube.

It's a pretty easy job to remove and replace. As Michael says above, keep track of the little clip on the end behind the driver side front wheel. If you are replacing, they run around $20-25 bucks. I got mine off of Amazon (free delivery makes a big difference in Hawaii). My speedo is on the right side so I had to buy a longer, bus cable - 2070mm.

Thanks for the replies fellas. We're getting ready to go out of town for a few days, so I just ordered some lube at Amazon - should be here by the time we're back. Hopefully it'll do the job - if not, I'm sure I'll have some more questions regarding replacement. I'll post how things go.

Bill

@slowshoes, do you still reside in Michigan? I seem to recall that you moved to Florida

@Michael McKelvey posted:

@slowshoes, do you still reside in Michigan? I seem to recall that you moved to Florida

We did move to Florida. We still kept our house in Michigan, which our youngest daughter is renting. This proved to be a good move, after the awful year she's had. I don't know where she would be able to afford rent, with the crazy increases in rent across the country.

I'm not trying to rub anything in for folks, but the past few days have been glorious Speedster driving weather here!

Bill

slowshoes:

Where are you in Florida?

Hi Bob,

We're in Cape Coral - we bought our house here in 2019.

Hello Slowshoes, sold my house in Cape Coral back in 2007. I was down there 3 weeks ago visiting my sister, my brother in law has a Cobra. Enjoy your car.

@MikelB posted:

Hello Slowshoes, sold my house in Cape Coral back in 2007. I was down there 3 weeks ago visiting my sister, my brother in law has a Cobra. Enjoy your car.

  Thanks Mike - after spending all of our lives in Michigan, we wanted to get to warm weather year round when we retired. We love the smooth roads down here - they really transform our drives in the Speedster, but we're still looking for a scenic drive with at least a couple twisties. Florida loves building dead straight roads!

Bill

Take the opportunity to replace it with a bus cable and move your speedo to the correct position.

I and others prefer to keep the speedo on the left to make it harder for passengers to see.

I don’t know how hard of a job it is to R&R the Speedo cable, but in my Spyder (and OG VWs IIRC) it’s a 2 minute job.
From there it’s easy as pie to pull the cable out, clean it off, blast some brake cleaner down the sheath, coat the cable with graphite lube and replace it.