Speedo Gear Rebuild? or Parts?

[huminajumina]

So about 2 years ago i rebuilt my Odometer and then replaced my Speedometer cable, everything was going great and then one day I heard a loud whining/grinding sound from behind the cluster, and the speedo was bouncing like crazy then it went dead, since then I had the speedo cable tied in an overhand knot around the frame...

Today I took apart my $75 parts cluster as practice... besides the Odometer parts I had previously robbed, this is what I found...

so this was before...


so I knew the spring was all jacked up. but i had questions about some of this stuff, condition wise...

this is a few steps before


here is the needle and its other parts...




my main questions with this are:
if I dig into my good cluster that is in my FJ40 and see anything like this where can I get parts? and does anybody know if that is fixable...?? some of the nylon worm gears in here for the odometer are warn, if my good ones are warn out too can I get parts?? The actual speedo looks pretty simple and other than that one bell ( or whatever you call it) that may be broken, the only issue I see is the spring being all bent up..... Any expert advice here would be apreciated, do I just need to look for another parts speedo or cluster? ?

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Forget finding new OEM parts. All that used to be available, at least in the last few years it was available, was the speedometer gauge as a complete unit. I haven't ever seen the more minor parts listed with separate part numbers, so i presume they weren't available anyway.

I'd suggest looking for a replacement cluster of the same vintage, which you could either swap in wholesale or cannibalize for parts.

Have you checked your speedo cable to see if it broke as well?

 

[huminajumina]

Hey I pulled my speedo cable core out today and it looks good so that probably means it is an internal speedo issue... the speedo cable shield had a few cuts in the plastic making it not waterproof, but there was still plenty of lube on my cable.... i guess I will still have to pull the "Good" cluster out of my cruier and take it apart to see what the grinding noise was....Grrrr

Forget finding new OEM parts. All that used to be available, at least in the last few years it was available, was the speedometer gauge as a complete unit. I haven't ever seen the more minor parts listed with separate part numbers, so i presume they weren't available anyway.

I'd suggest looking for a replacement cluster of the same vintage, which you could either swap in wholesale or cannibalize for parts.

Have you checked your speedo cable to see if it broke as well?

 

[huminajumina]

So I had the speedo running fine for about a month, I had replaced the cable and WD-40'd the Cup/Magnet area on the speedo itself and all was fine......

My Odometer hasn't worked since the initial break though, so tonight I tried to repair it. I had to use the frame/input gear from my spare speedo, and the gears/driveshafts from my original odometer due to wear...

After the test drive the Speedo was bouncy but the odometer was turning, I only drove about 10 miles then the cable snapped and everything stopped as I pulled into the driveway...... I used Dielectric grease on the gears, I am assuming this was too thick and put too much strain on the cable, any thoughts?? My only other thought is that the Magnet is dragging on the Cup/ speedo shaft...but I doubt it.....

Attached are pix of the driveshafts from the donor (nylon) and my cluster (metal) I ended up using mine with the less warn input gear of the Donor (2nd pic)

 

[Biscuit]

I used Dielectric grease on the gears, I am assuming this was too thick and put too much strain on the cable, any thoughts??

When I relubed by odometer and speedometer I used some Break-Free as lubricant. It's thin enough, but can handle a lot of wear (it's a firearm cleaner/lubricant).


As for your speedometer needle, that can be fixed. The whole thing needs to be reassembled, you may need some sort of glue or epoxy to hold the brass sleeve that presses on the speedometer shaft to the back of the needle. There is also aftermarket fluorescent orange needle paint that can be used to repaint it.

 

[huminajumina]

Thanks man, yea everything went back together fine, I think I will try to use some rem-oil and try to wash out the grease I have in there, I think it is just too thick and snapped that cable. As for the paint I thought I had some at the house, but I was out, I did use a Reflctive Clear Coat on the needle and it looks much brighter.

 

[red65FJ40]

My speedo drive shaft has this exact problem, same symptoms with the final loud grinding noise. I pulled the shaft from the back of the speedo immediately to end the racket and later inspected the internals, found the worn input gear just as you've pictured here.

This was 4 years ago, been driving off the tach ever since... Would love to be able to get a new gear rather than spend coin on an unknown used speedo which may be well on it's way to the same issue, or others.

 

[huminajumina]

Yea that's exactly what I did wrong, I think I bought this "parts" one for like $75-100 thinking it had a good speedo/odometer but as the pictures show it was just as bad as mine! So now I don't wanna buy another

 

[DSRTRDR]

lubing the speedo cable might also help

 

[huminajumina]

Thanks for all the help, a quick update. The odometer gears seized up and snapped my speedo cable because I used to thick of grease, so after I took it all apart cleaned it again, and now I re lubed it with something thin and checked it out everything is fine. I put it all back together and everyting works fine except now the Speedometer needle is 15mph fast. The Odometer is Exact, I have confirmed this several times. I am assuming because I mixed and matched parts of 2 clusters, somehow one had a more powerful magnet or different clearance.....

Does anyone have any speedo parts maybe just a speedo for cheap, I am getting tired of taking it apart all the time and I am still bitter that I paid so much for the parts cluster in the firest place.

I have put several miles on the odometer and other than the fact that the speedo is 15mph off and the needle bounces a little under 30mph everything is fine.... UGH, when will it be Fixed Fixed!!!!