1981 Camaro Z28

[JoeliusZ28]

Im going to attempt to lubricate mine this week without removing it. Might be a failed mission, but its worth a shot

[MP81]

Im going to attempt to lubricate mine this week without removing it. Might be a failed mission, but its worth a shot

If the cable itself comes out of the housing, it shouldn't be too difficult. I tried pulling the end behind the speedo (which is the end that it comes out of, confirmed with the new one) out, and it wouldn't budge.

Best of luck - it's better to be able to lubricate it, than replace the whole thing.

At least I know now to disconnect the cable underneath the car before pulling the cluster out - the cable will then be able to pull out further.

[JoeliusZ28]

Yeah the needle is wobbling more and more so i know its a matter of time before it says "f-u im out!"

I hopefully i can remove the inner cable, but if not i was thinking id disconnect it on both ends, spray some lubricant in the top and use a drill to work it down. But wouldnt surprise me if it cant be that easy

[MP81]

If it still works, it should come out without too much of a fight. Just disconnect it at both ends, and you should be able to pull it out. Putting it back in, sometimes its easiest to turn it a little while feeding it in to get it to travel down the housing. The graphite lube works the best for speedo cables (it doesn't dry out - and shit doesn't stick in it) - but be forewarned, it makes a BIG ****ing mess. I lubed the lower cable and the new upper cables out of vehicle, pulled the cable itself all the way out, and would lube a few inches, insert, then repeat until I had it all the way back in. Then I pulled it out a bit and sprayed some of the lube directly into the housing - which will cause it to seep out of the crimp, mainly where the mess all came from.

[MP81]

I haven't had any time this week to continue this endeavor (Monday time got devoted to the Cavalier's spark plug, and Tuesday to the Cobalt's exhaust leak, and yesterday to it raining), so I'll probably tackle it again this weekend when I know I have more than an hour or two to go at it.

Anyway, now that we have a solid date for dyno day, I want to make sure I've got everything buttoned up that I need to. Car has new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, ICM, air filter, shocks, tires, oil, valve cover gasket (left), lower speedo cable, and the soon to be completed (hopefully) upper speedo cable. Assuming that is all done, I should have everything done that deals with the vehicle running and driving correctly.

I do need to pull the ICM back out and slather the top and bottom with dielectric grease (or do I use something else instead?). Also, I'm missing the two lower spark plug wire retainers and have no idea where I can find replacements. I'd have to peek up fron underneath again and see if the metal brackets are still attached - if so, I think I can just get away with some Dorman retainers (or similar), and then I won't have to rely on my oil-filter-mounted mechanic wire deal (which I don't really trust that much, once the car is out driving, turning, hitting bumps, etc) to keep the wires off the downpipe.

Also, if it is raining on dyno day, there's no way this thing is going there unless I have new t-top, door and trunk seals. I had a 5% off code at 1A Auto, and I had determined which weatherstrip package I needed (I have a decor-trim car, so that was the big factor of what I was required to buy), but I chose not to buy it, as my credit card was a bit higher than usual from buying tires and a sectional on the same statement. . I now regret that decision, as I have not seen another code yet.

Thoughts?

[JoeliusZ28]

Use dielectric grease on the module

[DynoDave]

I do need to pull the ICM back out and slather the top and bottom with dielectric grease (or do I use something else instead?).

I think dielectric grease would be find. It's just to fill the gaps in the imperfect surface between the ICM and the plate it mounts to, to aid in heat transfer. I don't think anything attaches to the top surface, thus no need to grease the top, that I know of.

[MP81]

No, nothing sits above it - just the rotor, but it isn't touching (nor should it be!). Good deal, I may still have some left over from the plug wires.

[MP81]

So I finally was able to work on the upper speedo cable some more. I clipped the lower end off, pulled off the grommet (installed it onto the new one without destroying it too much - should be okay I'm thinking), attached mechanic's wire to the end and pulled the old cable up and out.

After a good amount of struggling and swearing, I got the speedo end of the new cable up into the car, but I am absolutely stuck trying to get it up into the dash. I obviously have the mechanic's wire going through the path of the original cable, but it gets probably 1/3 of the way up and it stops. Can't pull anymore from above, and pushing from the bottom just gives you the illusion of progress (thought I was getting somewhere, turned out, nope, didn't go anywhere). I spent probably a solid 30-45 min trying to shove that thing up the dash, but I called it quits (I did the lawn earlier and I was absolutely beat already).

I can't see how I'm going to be able to do this, considering it's a completely blind operation - am I just going to have to do what I don't want to and remove the dash? It's almost a two person operation, but those two people need to be in nearly the same area.

I'm also going to pull the cable back out from behind the dash and electrical tape the wire all the way to the end of the cable. I'm theorizing now that (because this happened while I was trying to feed it into the car) the wire is pulling off to the side of the cable, meaning the cable isn't feeding in line with the wire, and getting stuck, and I'm trying to pull it sideways.

Whoever invented the electronic speedometer sensor is a genius. Whoever invented the mechanical speedometer cable is a dick.

[MP81]

Only had about 20 minutes to spend on the car yesterday. Barely had any cable under the car, far less than I should've for how little of the cable was in the dash - or so it seemed. I took a look into the dash from where the cluster goes and saw the damn thing had gone it's own way, separate from the wire, and had about 1.5 feet curled up right in front of me. . That explained where all the extra went - and the wire had just slipped down the cable and stayed at the bottom of the dash, and was pulling on the side of the cable instead of the head (as I thought was happening).

I had to pull the cable back, since that wasn't the way it routes correctly (needs to go through the "tunnel" behind the speedo, to connect straight to it). I taped the hell out of the wire to the cable, so hopefully it'll pull straight this time...guess we'll see.

[JoeliusZ28]

Sounds like youre having a blast hope ya get it figured out asap

[MP81]

Replace your speedometer cable they said. It will be easy they said.

Oh wait, I said that. Dammit.

Yeah, it's much more involved than I hoped - but not much more than I expected. Hopefully I can get a breakthrough. Problem is, the wiring is such a mess under there and in the way, and with the fuse panel there as well, if I pull the mechanic's wire a certain way, it'll turn on the key chime. That's real reassuring.

[JoeliusZ28]

^lmao maybe its a transformer camaro

[Atrus]

LMAO!

[MP81]

Maybe it is - Saturday it started making the key chime nearly non-stop. My mom called me at about 8AM (she was house/dog-sitting) saying she heard it (and doesn't think she heard it at all during the week). I had her go out and pull on/wiggle the mechanic wire, but to no avail. When we got home that afternoon, I went out and tried to pull/push the speedo cable from under the dash (previously, a light touch would stop it), but it didn't do a thing. I finally just disconnected the battery so it at least doesn't murder itself.

So not only do I get to continue to try to pull that ****ing cable up, I get to find out what is causing the key chime to short on...