Speedometer Cable aking Me Insane

[Scott Clarke]

Following my car's recent rebirth (6 years in the making), my old speedometer cable made quite a racket intermittently and at various speeds (WUPWUPWUPWUPWPUWUPWUPWUP). The most frequent occurrences were at 65 mph, with 32.5 a close second. I tried various routings, and secured the cable to other items in the tunnel by access through the shifter and shift coupler holes. These measures helped, but the noise persisted. I purchase a new cable, and went through the joyous process of replacing it this week and, you guessed it, I still have a noise. When I secured the new cable, I just attached it inside the tunnel with the two steel clips that also secure the fuel line. My thoughts were that the new cable would not be so sensitive to whatever forces are generating the cable's oscillation. Anyone have any experience with this? If I get back in there to secure the cable with zip ties will it help?
Thanks!
-Scott

[john walker's workshop]

doesn't sound like it's the cable eh? speedo heads can bind, angle drives can wear out. routing speedo cables is on my list of jobs i really don't like to do.

[ossiblue]

Scott,

I've never replaced a cable but mine does have the bouncing needle syndrome,--no noise except the bounce of the needle--so I have a question for you.

Are you saying that the noise is from the tunnel area and the entire cable (interanal spinning shaft and black outer covering as well) is flopping around and hitting against the sheet metal? If so, it sounds like it might still be a routing problem somewhere along the line. My understanding is the spinning interior shaft should not cause undue vibration of the casing unless there is a bind/kink somewhere. Again, I have no first hand experience so I'm really not able to help (sorry), just offering up a thought for clarification. Hopefully others who have had the flopping cable problem (if that's what it is) will respond soon.

[Scott Clarke]

L.J.-
It sure sounds like it is the cable/housing assembly flopping around. Routing is an issue, and the path is necessarily convoluted. Also, the new cable is quite a bit longer than the old, which does not help.

John-
Is there a way to check the speedo head and speedo drive? Can I remove them and feel for binding and check for play? I can imagine that binding or slop could excite the cable.

[Scott Clarke]

Well, I tried a different speedo drive to no avail. So, I disconnected the cable from the speedo and found that I still had the noise. I then disconnected the cable from the drive and STILL had the noise. Hm. Guess it isn't the speedo. What else is in the tunnel, I ask myself? How about the emergency brake cable? As I was driving the car, I pulled up on the handbrake two clicks and the noise disappeared. Back at the garage and underneath the car I noticed that the driver's side emergency cable housing could be moved around a lot. I noticed that the passenger's side cable was more secure. It was retained by a nylon clip attached to the trailing arm. Inspection of the driver's side revealed that the clip for this side was gone. The cable housing had ben resting on the outer CV boot flange. Mystery solved. In retrospect, perhaps there was an easier way to resolve all of this.

[ossiblue]

Scott,
Glad to hear you solved the mystery. More importantly, I appreciate you posting your solution--it helps the untold numbers that follow threads and may later suffer similar problems.
Congratulations and thanks.

[Tim K]

Oh man. I must have driven around the block for over an hour trying to figure out what that noise was. I was freaking out as it sounded like one of those expensive noises.

Glad you figured it out.

Tim K