Date:         Fri, 14 Nov 2003 01:52:13 -0800
Reply-To:     Ben <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Subject:      grinding spedometer on '86 westy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

a long time ago, after a visit to the mechanic's, my westy developed an
annoying grinding noise in the instrument panel.  after a bit of looking
around, i noticed that the  end of the spedo cable, the part that
actually latches to the spedo, had broken off the cable.  so i used a
fine duct tape/epoxy blend to re attach it and my problems went away for
the summer.  but just the other day, the grinding noise came back so bad
that i had to take apart my dash and disconnect the spedo while driving.
 today my new cable came, and i installed it thinking my problems would
be gone, but alas things are just as they were last week.  above about
10 m/h, a grinding noise that increases with road speed occurs.  it goes
away entirely if i apply downward pressure on the nipple on the back of
the spedometer which the cable clips to.

is this a bad spedo?  is there any way to fix it?  i noticed that the
grommet on my new cable was a bit large for the hole that the old cable
was in (the smallsh one just to the right of the big one with most of
the wires if you are looking from the intereor of the car) and that
there is another, slightly larger and completely empty hole above the
one i used, where the metal is parralell to the road.  if there is
enough slack, could re routing the cable through that hole change the
way it applies pressure to the gauge?  which is the stock location of
the cable? how expensive is it to replace the spedo?

thanks.

Ben.