Next step, lithium grease, in a spray can.

 

Alright, I finally found a solution to my noisy speedo cable that works! It sounded like leaves rusting in the heater ducts and annoyed me immensely. Its been 3 months, and I haven't heard a sound, even now that its getting cold. After months of messing around with graphite spray, I found it would only last about a month. I hate taking apart the dash, so I started spraying the lube down the tranny-end of the cable. Undo the cable from the T case and pull up through the engine bay to that is coming out the firewall. There are about 3 fold-over tabs to hold the cable to the body to undo. Then I sprayed lube down the tube, this was as effective for me as taking apart the dash and spraying. Using graphite as I said, kept the cable quite for about a month or maybe 800 km, so I started searching for a better lube.

THe answer is "chain lube" for motor cycle or bike chains. Its been three months and its eerily silent for far.

Here's a pic I found on the web of chain lube:

 

Yeah I've been gaining resale value in the DD for this exact reason.

I took it in to work and sprayed some oil down the tube for about 10 minutes, but haven't had the motivation to get the durn thing back in there. That was two weeks ago.

 

I like electronic speedo's.

 

When I first bought my truck and before I started doing my own work on it, the speedo cable screamed when it was really cold. I didn't realized what was making the sound, until I was driving on the highway one night and saw the speedo was pegged. The speedo needle then broke against the stop.

I got the cable replaced, but the next cold season the screaming/sounding like a Star Wars speeder bike sound came back. I'll try the chain lube idea. My bike is shaft drive, but I'm sure I can find someone with some chain lube so I can be cheap.

 

Thats odd that the speedo read faster than you actual speed. As I understand it, the cable spins the a little clutch plate, covered in a special grease, which turns a little spring loaded plate behind, and connected to the needle. The faster the cable spins, the more the needle turns clockwise due to the more friction pasted through the plate.

What I'm getting at is that if your needle broke, maybe the grease in between the plates ran out and there wasn't any slippage between the plates.

 

Well, that might explain why the problem wasn't really solved.

Anyone have nay idea what kind of special grease that is, or what is likely to be similar? I'll pick some up, and when it gets cold enough to happen (probably not until Jan) I'll see if I can defeat the issue with the grease treatment.

 

Perhaps you should just get a new cluster.

 

I'll soon have an SR5 cluster for sale..

 

I might just get one of those aftermarket digital speedos or make one. I've kinda been meaning to make a whole gauge set myself. I already have the VSS, TPS, and injector signals in a connector on the dash from another project...

 

Marlin sells an electronic replacement for our mechanical speedo cables.

Marlin Crawler VSS
We are now producing our very own Vechicle Speed Sensor (VSS). This 3-wire, 4-pluse magnetic pulse amplifier will convert ANY Toyota vehicle with a standard 22x1.50 mechanical speedometer drive to an electronic speedometer system. Features a standard Toyota VSS Plug for your convience. The Applications are unlimited, converting both 4WD and 2WD 22x1.50 mechanical speedometer setups to electronic 3-wire, 4-pulse speedometer setups. Now installing a Tacoma Engine into a Hilux or Land Cruiser is a snap! Works on both Gear and Chain Drive Transfercases!
For 1992-95 V6 Applications, when converting to a Gear Drive T/Case Setup, the only previous option was to use a 1992-95 Factory Toyota 4cyl 5-speed Gear Drive T/Case VSS, that sells for $210. The New Marlin Crawler VSS saves $150 on a 1992-95 V6 Transfercase Conversion.

To Install in a gear drive t/case:
---- Use a cable VSS from a 1979-92 gear drive t/case.
To Install in a chain drive t/case:
---- Use a cable VSS from a 1988-91 chain drive t/case.
MC-VSS, Electronic Vehicle Speed Sensor, $59

 

I've seen that VSS Marlin sells.

The funny thing is my 90 V6 extracab has a mechanical speedo and the VSS. I used the signal to generate speed, verified against a GPS. It worked great. Maybe it was easier to put it in every truck rather than only the trucks that had cruise control? I can't think of why it's there on my truck...

It'll make it easy to recalibrate my speed when I switch tire sizes, certainly I've seen electronic VSS multipliers for calibrating digital speedos for different tire sizes.

 

I will probibly end up doing the marlin VSS route. If my cable ever needs replacing, I will defantly order it..

 

So here is the final question:

HOW LONG DOES CHAIN LUBE APPEASE THE SQUEAL SOUND FOR? 3 MONTHS, A FULL YEAR, OR OVER A YEAR?

I am about to pull my cable out and lube it all the way through with chain lube. We'll see how long it will last!

 

5 year old thread bump FTW

 

mine appeased the squeal for a year, still bumpy though, then it broke.

 

I just wanna say Matt16 sweet rig i got an fj80 and i really want an older cruiser like yours and the diesel is awesome

 

I use soybean oil on these things. It dissolves the dried up factory grease and gets rid of the needle jump completely and it lasts a few years because it doesn't evaporate. I let about a tablespoon of it run through from the top while I work the cable back and forth. Industrial supply places sell it for about $10 in a spray can as food grade lubricant.

Works great on rusted bolts too, and smells like french fries cooking. lol

 

It's 2019, and mine is still going strong. I spent a good hour getting lube as far into the cable as possible and it worked!

 

I've been dealing with a slight speedometer needle bounce every winter for the past ten or so years. It always calms down with the warmer weather here in Phoenix. My 91 truck as a little over 526,000 miles on it. Last weekend I pulled apart the instrument cluster and cleaned and relubed all the gears but the gears only drive the odometer part of the cluster. The speedometer portion is actually magnetically coupled to the cable and doesn't actually touch the cable driven part of the mechanism. I didn't lube the cable at this time because I wanted to know which was the culprit, the cluster or the cable. I still have speedometer needle bounce but it isn't as bad. I think cleaning some of the old grease out of the cluster calmed it down, there were a few grease chunks that were rubbing on the magnetically coupled disk. Next week I'll tackle removing the cable and cleaning and lubing it.