Nick,
Thirty years ago, when the speedometer needle in my 56 Dodge suddenly
started to jump all over the scale and make loud screeching noises, I
decided I had nothing to loose if I took it apart and tried to fix it. After
a fun time hanging upside down under the dash to remove the unit, I got it
out and started to take it apart. When it was half disassembled, I removed a
small cylinder near the back of the head where the cable screws in. It was
1/4 inch in diameter, about 1 inch long, with a screwdriver slot at the end.
It was hollow and contained a dry felt wick. This provides lubrication to
the speedo bushing. After applying about 10 drops of light oil to the wick,
the whole thing was reassembled and reinstalled in the car. Worked perfect.
I could have saved several hours had I only known about this felt wick. It
only takes 2 minutes to do. When my current 56 Dodge started to make little
mouse noises in the speedo, this fixed it.
Now to your problem: yes, it is most likely frozen. It may have been run dry
until it seized. Or it may be just stuck from sitting. This may be why your
cable broke. I would think that the guts in a 56 Plymouth speedo are similar
to my 56 Dodge. Try a couple of drops of light oil or penetrating oil into
the oil wick hole, let it soak for a while, then try a little force to
unstick it. Good luck!
For all you other Forwardlookers, your speedos may also have the same
lubrication fitting. A few drops of oil every few years may prevent speedo
failure.
Dave Homstad
56 Dodge D500
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 10:20 AM 9/29/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello list, I have a couple of questions.
>2) Speedometer is broken and I was replacing the cable with a new one.
> I've been having problems. If I insert the cable into the back of the
>speedometer, should I be able to spin the cable by hand and see the
>speedo move. I can't turn it by hand at all, would that mean the speedo
>is frozen ?. Makes for interesting driving with no gas guage and no
>speedo. Gotta keep a guestimate of how far I've driven in my head so I
>don't run out of gas.
>
>
>Thanks,
>Nick
>
>
Dave
|
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network