Lancer speedometer problem (cable)

I've had a really annoying problem with the speedometer ever since getting the Shelby Lancer running again last summer. At first, the speedo would skip around all over the place (rather violently) whenever the car was moving forward. That has since smoothed out, but now it is always showing about 25 MPH above the actual road speed. At a stop, it reads about 25 MPH as well.

Is there a chance the clocking of the needle itself could have gotten off when it was doing the skipping around? If so, is it possible to pull the needle off and reattach it at zero to fix it? Also what is the best kind of lubricant to use on the speedometer cable? I was thinking of removing the speedo cables, and flushing them out with brakleen and trying to lubricate them with graphite or something.

I've had about a 50/50 chance of taking the needle off without breaking it. Usually once the needle is off it's because the internal spring is damaged and you're screwed anyway. Mine was clicking when I bought it. A new cable didn't fix it. Luckily found an 87 at the j-yard that was in good shape and was able to carefully take it apart, roll the odo to the correct mileage and put the new one in.

I have just repaired the speedometer in my Spirit. It is one that does not use a cable to drive it, but uses the signal from the SDS through the SBEC to drive it. But I think the construction of the speedometer needle assembly may be the same.

On the one for my Spirit, I bought the gears to fix the odometer and the instructions told how to get the needle off the post without destroying it. To take apart the speedometer to replace the gears it is necessary to remove the needle from the shaft.

To remove the needle:
Find the place where the needle is at its travel stop (it may be there already by your description). Then spin the needle by hand towards that stop to loosen it. Make a couple complete revolutions with the needle all the while gently pulling up on it to get it off the shaft. To put it back on the shaft, just push it on, then reset the needle to the zero mph position turning it toward the stop.

If all you need to do is reclock the needle to zero, then I would think this last step would be all you would need to do. Just turn it toward the stop till it is at the 0 mph reading.


Barry

where do you get the speedo gears?
My lancer odometer just quit but my speedo still works

This is the place I got mine (I just did a google search for Dodge speedometer gears) www.odometergears.com

However the first sentence on the part description page says they are only for cars that do not use a speedometer cable.

If you take apart your speedo and look at the gears on the side of the odometer, you should be able to see what is bad and if the ones shown on that site will work or not.


Barry

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've thought about replacing it with an electronic speedo/cluster from an '89 H-body (my brother used to have one in his '89 TII Lebaron GTS), but so far I can't find one.

I still have the old broken original cluster from my SL, so I'll give that a try first as practice before I work on the one that's in the car now just in case I break something.