Speed can't stabilize for smog test

[AntF]

Like the title says. If you have ANY information or that can help me out, I would be greatly appreciate it.

I took my recently bought SHO to get smogged here in CA, but they couldn't even run the test because they said that speed was not stabilizing. I assume they meant the speedometer, which is bouncing around very slightly. Not too much, but I guess it was enough to make the SHO unfit to test. I need to get this taken care of very soon, so if you have any information that can help, please do say so.

 

[projectSHO89]

You need to provide a lot more specific information. What you've posted doesn't make a bit of sense.

Steve

 

[St Louis SHO]

MTX? Probably needs the speedo cable, there is a TSB on these, my 95's jumps also.

James

 

[hawkeye18]

what he's saying is that he has a nervous speedo needle like so many of us do. Usually this is caused by a lack of lubrication on the speedo cable. Removing the speedo cable is a PITA, but you can seperate the two halves of it and attempt to spray some light lubricant, lithium or silicone based, in there. That should help in the short term but you're going to have to remove the cable and lubricate it properly if you want it to be permanently fixed. ...or at least as long as anything else on this car lasts.

See, what happens is that the inner core drags during a part of the revolution; the core is a big spring, so when the drag is over it springs back to catch up, drags, springs, drags... get the picture? It will only get worse until you fix it.

 

[AntF]

You need to provide a lot more specific information. What you've posted doesn't make a bit of sense.

Sorry, I'm not sure how put it any other way if it doesn't make any sense to you. I thought it was pretty straight-forward. The other two seem to have gotten the picture. My speedometer needle is, in a word, nervous, and is deviating about 1 - 2 MPH, and made the smog techs see it to be unfit for testing. That's all.

Yeah, it's an MTX. Is the TSB still in effect? I'd like to check that out if it's still going on.

hawkeye, can you link or give me a runthrough on how to get to the speedo cable and use the seperation trick? This sounds like the course of action to take; I only have a few days to get the car smogged, unfortunately.

 

[Sho Amo]

mine does this too i doubt ford will do anything about it now tho.