speedometer on my 89 mustang died

[Red89]

I'm guessing since my 89 ranger has a mechanical speedo the 89 mustang does too. The speedo started bouncing up and down about 5 - 10 mph from the actual speed and then after a couple days it just stopped working. So now my odometer and trip don't spin either.

Is the first thing to do pulling the cluster and oiling the speedometer cable? Or does it sound like a sensor? Thanks for any input.

Mark

 

[blue83ranger]

my guess would be the cable broke. It probably needed to be oiled, so it would be spining then would almost stop (started to seize up) then got loose again causing the bounce, then it finally broke. But there's only one way to find out for sure. I would unhook the cable from the speedometer and move the car some and see if the end of the cable still moves.

 

[Red89]

well i pulled the speedo gear from the tranny and the middle section is all worn down. Its not jagged but smooth but i'm guessing the gear in the tranny wore it down smooth. anyway, when i spun the speed cable with my fingers it went up to 20 mph. So sounds to me like the gear just wore down. Is that relatively normal? or was it mis aligned somehow?

 

[Blacksheep]

yea, thats normal, buy a new gear, there like 5 bucks if that, and replace it.... no biggie

 

[blue83ranger]

my dads '89 f250 did that too. Only somehow it stripped both gears and he had to take the transfer case apart to change the other one.