Speedometer **** or Grease ?

[JohnW63]

This is a secondary thread to me Speed-O removal question. Interest seems to have died on that thread, so, here is a new one !

I have read lots of threads about WHAT to use to **** my speed-o cable. I went to Napa, and and all they had with graphite was a small tube of powder. I asked about a liquid graphite based **** and got nowhere. I found some threads that said Ford used to have a special ****, but that it is long gone. I found other threads that discuss a blue Teflon based grease. When I try a Google search on that, I get a Dupont spray or a bicycle Teflon grease by Finish Line. It looks like the end that attaches to the gauges had a grease like product in there. I have read simple Lithium grease may dry and harden, and not to use that.

What can I still get that will work ?!

 

[shospeed]

I used bicycle **** on mine it works just fine.

How did you manage to get that pin off?

 

[hawkeye18]

I wouldn't recommend graphite **** for the speedo cable. Graphite is sharp, at a molecular level, and will eventually damage the cable. I'd recommend lithim grease. It works well.

 

[JohnW63]

I managed to pry the pin out with a pair of needle nosed Vise Grips and putting some machine oil in the area, and using my other fist as a brace point or fulcrum.

I found not all Napa stores carry the same stuff. At a larger store, I found something they now call " Cable **** " which may be what others found. It's in a tube and does look like black stuff in an oil. I couldn't find anything on the package that told what was in it. It was pretty thin. I also picked up a larger tube of synthetic grease that had Teflon and other stuff in it. I think it's for brake calipers.

I grabbed my dad, who has been doing Mustang restorations of late and asked him how and wear to ****. He told me to just pull the cable out of the sleeve and **** the whole thing. I hadn't realized that the cable would come out, until then. You just pull it out from the dash side. So, we coated it with a lite amount of the synthetic grease and slid it back in. I put a drop or two of the oil on the rotating part of the Speedo its self too.

To get the pin back in, I straightened the last bends at the tips of the legs on the pin, put some more cable oil in the end of the cable where the spin would need to slide and used the vise grips to push it in. Then I squeezed the section near the round part to get the pin to hold the upper cable better. Pulling it out sort of straightened it and it looked like you could pull the cable passed it, if you tried. I then bent the tips of the legs of the pin out again.

I got the car passed 80mph without any jumping, so maybe I actually fixed something on the Taurus, for once.

The funny thing was, my dad says the way the speedo attaches to the gauges and how the wires plug into the back of the cluster hasn't changed since the 1969 Mustang he was working on.

 

[shospeed]

Nice
Glad to hear that you fixed the problem !

 

[JohnW63]

Not so fast ..... Today I got some jumpy SpeedO again. Sort of lower than before. Like a range, not from one point and faster. 40mph to 50mph perhaps. <sigh>

It's noisy at the Speed-O when this happens. Does that mean I need more **** on the rotating part of the speed-o and not on the upper cable, or do I need to just goop up the cable some more ? I have done nothing on the lower cable section.

 

[JRA2000TL]

Don't use white lithium grease. I used it and it quieted the speedo down just a little but it's still boucy.

I didn't remove that lower clip. It was a PITA. I did, however, yank the whole assempbly out of the tranny and sprayed the end of the cable. I just stuck it back in and everything works fine (speedo is just a little bouncy).