thezman007

Hey guys,

I just bought my first 4runner and am already in love. She's a 91 with the 3.slow, auto tranny. Test drove it and it ran great. PO told me he fixed it up for his brother who decided to buy something else . Ran great, almost nothing wrong with it, so I bought it. 225k on it. Motor supposedly has 150k, with a new head gasket, water pump, timing belt, etc. My problem is that I was taking my daughter to school this morning and I heard a weird noise. It's speed related, not RPM related and stops when I do. It sounds like it's coming from the dash. Was gonna pull the cable from the tranny and live w/o a speedo til the weekend to fix it. I loosened/removed what was the cable holdy thing (pretty sure anyway I didn't have a Haynes or Chilton at the time), but the cable did not want to come out even with some moderate tugging. I didn't want to pull too hard and break something anyways. I am hoping to get that out and spray a crap ton of Tri-Flow in it, then raise the cable so it goes down into the cable sheath. My questions are thus:

A. Did I pull the right cable? (Drivers side, came down from top, bolt held it down off to one side)

2. Is that a good way to lube the speedo cable?

D. If I have to pull the dash (ugh) what should I do while in there, aside from change/upgrade all the bulbs?

Thanks guys these forums are awesome and I look forward to hopefully adding my own write ups as they come along (install keyless entry/alarm, put the running boards back on, etc.)

Gamefreakgc

Good thing you didn't pull harder. You would have broken your speedometer!

It's hooked up at the transfer case, if I recall correctly, and the other end snaps into the back of your dash.

A. Dunno which one you mean, there's several cables for an auto.

2. Not really, the cable is too long.

D. Yes, you have to pull the dash since it's connected to the back of the speedometer. It's not as bad as you would think.

You will need to remove the entire cable and look for fraying, that's the most common cause for noise or a "bouncing" speedometer. You can try and trim it up smooth and lube real good but the problem will come back, just a matter of a few years or 10 years, or who knows when. A new cable is a sure fire fix. You'll also want to clean out the cable housing if possible or at the very least, lubing up the cable real good with lithium lube or chain lube.

You might find this link enlightening: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...-noise-143622/.

Lastly, why A, 2, D? Why not A, B, C or 1, 2, 3?

thezman007

Just for fun and to see who's paying attention I suppose Thanks for the help. You are correct it comes from the T-case, after I got home I traced what I thought was the speedo cable this morning went to the throttle. Some sort of kickdown thing or something like that I guess. It has since stopped, but I'm sure it will come back. I did notice where the cable housing screws back on to the transfer case is a bit loose, I dunno if that's the problem or not. Put it on the list I suppose I'm actually happy that it happened because I noticed my CV boot is ripped on the driver's side because of it. Better early than late on that one...might even be able to save it (fingers crossed) we'll see this weekend.

Thanks again