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We drove our '55 Firedome from Louisville to Fort Wayne for the Convention, had a good time, won a trophy and returned home with no major issues save for a pair of leaky front shocks. I-65 and some of I-69 in Indiana are in horrible shape. We avoided much of both on the way home but too late for the front shocks.
Less than ten miles from home the speedometer needle started bouncing around erratically and a minute later it laid dead on zero. Like a broken clock, it shows the correct speed before I accelerate and when I've finished braking. Is this failure most likely cured with a new speedometer cable or is it something that will require the speedometer head and housing to be removed? I believe I have a NOS speedo cable in my parts stash.
Thanks for your guidance on this.
Mark
that happened to me, Mark. The bouncing around is due to the last few strands of the cable twisting before it breaks. Take the cable out( I removed both ends and pulled the whole housing because when I removed it at the speedo unit, I noticed it was hanging up when I spun that splined end in the speedo) so, alas, I had to remove the speedometer (ended up taking the dash panel loose to get at the unit easier) and cleaned the meter up, oiled it with mystery oil, chucked up the broken spline end in my drill and ran it fwd and back till it ran free. Big fix but it freed it up and worked slick. That's also why I sold the car..75 is too old to lay upside down under the dash with feet over the seat (I actually ended up taking the front seat out).
