I have been having problems with my gauge cluster squeeking (sounds like birds are living back there). So I decided to try to remove and lube the insert that was suggested here… Other thread here…
You have to remove the intake tube to gain proper access to the speedo cable. After that follow the cable down to the tranny. There is a little boot that covers a clip that holds the cable in the power steering speed sensitive thingie. Pull the boot back it is a little hard to get around the clip so you have to work it. Here is the cable off after I have removed the insert.
Here is the clip(off the cable of course)…
After you get the clip off of there the cable will pull right out of the power steering thingie and it will look like this…
I had no problem pulling the insert out of the cable. I used a pair of pliers be carefull not to damage the end of the insert. Here it is outside of the cable.
I wiped it down real well and removed the 11 year old grease that was almost non exsistant. I just used some grease that I found at wal-mart. I dont know much about grease, so I took a guess at this one and it has worked well. Here is me showing the type of grease and what it looks like
I had my dash apart at the time so I removed the cluster and cleaned and lubed the back of the cluster also. I had some problems getting the insert to go all the way back into the cable, but the end of my cable near the cluster is trashed from me removing my cluster several times. I assume thats what was stopping it from going all the way back in. I was able to wiggle and work the end of the cable and get it to back in. It has been about a week since I have done this and the squeeking ahs completely gone away. It has actually been “cold” a couple days, thats when it made the most noise. I hope that this helps you mofos with the same problem…
Its not The Oz quality, but I try! Holla if you have any questions!
For the longest time my cruise control was acting funny. It would hardly ever stay at the set speed. Would accelerate hard by it self and “hunt” for the speed it wanted. BUT now it is all gravy! It stays where I set it and doesnt move around anymore. WERD!!!
Just a side comment, I’ve been struggling with a noisy speedo and irregular cruise control myself, and have tried this very tip 2 or 3 times and the noise always comes back.
The grease that was caked on the cable needed to come off, I tried soaking it in solvent, then let it sit in a solution of simple green for a while. Afterwords I used a wire brush ment for golf club faces and went to town on the cable. In the previous attempts, I just used normal automotive grease to lube the cable, but this time I rubbed the cable up and down with a handful of motor oil. :jerkoff:
So far it’s held up the longest using the simple green and motor oil, longer than the regular grease did. I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that this did the trick, I’m really not wanted to crack open my dash to install a new cable.
I removed the speedo cable at the transmission connection but had trouble pulling the insert out. Everything was still connected at the speedometer end. I didn’t pull too hard for fear of breaking the cable. Does the insert come out easily without disconnecting at the speedometer?
It should come out without too much trouble. And I don’t think it’s gonna break that easily, so give it a yank. It should come out easily.
What’s gonna happen is that the cable jacket is gonna stay on the speedometer, and the metal cable is gonna come out. When you lube it and put feed it back to the speedometer, make sure you push it in all the way, so that the cable end sits the was it used to, before you pulled it out.
Archon: You need to take the gauge cluster out to release the plastic part, that keeps the cable jacket in place. But if you just want to pull out the cable that’s inside, you don’t need to take out the gauge cluster at all.
I just replaced the cable. I didn’t wanna deal with it for another 10 years.
Took me 1.5 hours, most of which was spent guiding the new cable through the hole.
I just finished doing my quickfix on the speedo cable using the easy method (not taking out the cluster). It’s actually not hard, but what I learned is that it actually may take more than one session to make it work. I took the cable out, cleaned it with WD40, re-lubed it with Permatex white lithium grease, then reinstalled everything and the squeaky noise under the dash went away for about three days. So the following weekend I did the quickfix a second time, doing everything exactly as I did the previous time. Now the cable doesn’t squeak at all and it’s been about a month already. So I guess it’s really about flushing out the cable housing (not the cable itself but the line that houses the cable) of the older dried up grease, and if it doesn’t work the first time, keep trying again until the system is flushed clean.
Following the advice I gathered in this forum, I decided to try lubricating my speedometer cable to fix the needle vibrations and noises. I took out the instrument guage cluster even though I read that was unnecessary because I had a light bulb to change there too. That was a worthwhile exercise in the end for me also for fixing the speedometer cable.
Here is what my experience removing the instrument cluster and lubing the speedometer cable was like on a 1990 Acura Integra LS.
You cannot pull out the inner cable from inside the car. The end of the cable that goes into the transmission (tranny) has a special ending head/adapter on it to go into the transmission. You must pull it out from the transmission’s end, even if you took out the guage cluster (this is at least true for my car, 1990 Acura Integra). Unless you are going to change the cable, opening the guage cluster will be a waste of time unless you are going to scrape out some of the old caked grease from that end (which I forgot to do and may have to do soon).
You can and should disconnect the speedometer cable from the transmission to adjust the slack behind the guage cluster to get it out safely. You can push the cable into the firewall to increase the slack. You can also pull the instrument cluster out some while still attached to the speedometer to get the slack, but be careful because it is a plastic clip that holds the cable into the guage cluster and you don’t want to break that! Last, later when you want to put the guage cluster back in, you won’t be able to do so if you’ve added too much slack from taking it out, so you may need to pull the cable out from under the hood to reduce the slack.
The speedometer cable has a release tab to get it out of the guage cluster. You have to push down on the lever and pull the cable out at the same time. Pulling may be easier accomplished by pulling the guage cluster out towards you while the release tab is downward engaged. Make sure you get the cable away from the port on the cluster after you get it out, or it might accidental re-lock in while you are trying to disconnect the other wires (which have more slack) to get the cluster out of the dash. That, BTW, also is a possible technique to get it reconnected later. To re-install, the cable clip lever simply snaps back in.
Remove the some of the wiring dash mounts on the left bottom side of the guage cluster so you move it into a better angle to get your hands in behind it on the right to disconnect the speed cable. You might damage these wires accidentally otherwise.
When removing guage cluster, take off the speedometer cable first, then the other wiring. When reinstalling, connect the other wiring first, and re-connect the speedometer cable last.
Do not try to take out the fan control to get better access to behind the guage cluster to remove the speed cable. It can’t be done without a lot of other unnecessary work. Do not try to open the fan control switch to make it easier than documented to get the fan controls out, re-assemblying it was another extra job I shouldn’t have been doing.
On my car, most of the old grease built up and collected against the guage cluster. The rest of the cabling seemed to be dry. As it dries out, it must somehow migrate to that end (perhaps by design through grooving?). That’s why the quick & easy way documented here may not work and getting into the cabling from the cluster’s end may be necessary.
On my car (with an automatic transmission and cruise control), there were 4 electrical plugs (two green, two grey) going into the guage cluster. The speedometer cable is best reached using your right hand going into the right side. One of the electrical plugs is also best reached from the right side. The other three are best reached from the left side with the left hand.
I think that explains about everything tricky there is about it.
CP
Ok I have had my speedo cable off for quite some time (shhh!) due to my lazyness and the difficulty i had when trying to reinsert the damn cable into the back of the cluster. I have had it off before and know it like the back of my hand but for some reason (i have big hands) i could not get the cable in this time… by the time you are done and im sure some know this your hand is chewed up from the dash with scraps and scratches most of the time drawing blood. So from what i gather from the last post is to disconnect it at the transmission first then try and insert it… I find the ‘lube the end and push back the cluster hard’ trick to be a little stupid and it does not work i tried so many times to find driving around the block… oh look no speedo still. I am wondering if the end of my cable is a little wacked from me taking out the cluster so many times doing gauge faces.
undefined THANKS FOR THE INFO ON YOUR POST I WAS READY TO SELL I COULD NOT FIND THE SOURCE OF THE SOUND THAT WAS SLOWLY DRAINING THE LIFE FROM ME. YOUR SPEEDO FIX WAS MAGIC. IN ONLY ONE HOUR I WAS DRIVING NOISE FREE WITH A SPEEDO THAT DID NOT FLICKER AND A CRUISE CONTROL THAT DID NOT BREAK MY NECK. THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR POST THE PICKS WERE VERY!! HELPFUL!!
