My car eats speedo gears

[69_Dream]

Don't know how clear the pic is going to be, since my camera is one of the poor variety, but here goes.

When I got my car the speedometer wasn't working, so I changed the speedo gear and voila, perfect. No skips, no needle bounce, just perfect speed reading.

Now, 500-700 miles later, speedometer dead. I remove the casing for the speedometer gear and I see teeth that are chewed up. What gives? By the way, the last gear looked almost identical in the way of teeth.

Could it be...

When I inserted the last gear I put it ever so slightly "off", creating just enough play for the tranny to give my gear a workout?
A poor quality replacement?
Somehow the fitting for the gear warped or loose at some point?
Internal problem within the transmission?
Anything else?


I could always keep a dozen or so in stock at my garage and change them periodically but buying speedo gears in bulk... not what I had in mind.

Sly

[cruzer99]

Get some speed-o grease and lub up your cable. If it does the same thing then it's something inside the tranny. You could also check with a speed-o shop or tranny shop. Good luck

[Scooter76]

you may want to check the "drive" gear on the trans. tailshaft. If you have been chewing up gears, then it is likely that it is bad also, which will rapidly destroy the new "driven" gears that you have been instaling. I believe that it is plastic or nylon also. Just an idea.

[69_Dream]

Thanks for the info.

I was attending a car show yesterday and decided to throw your suggestions out there. Most agreed the first thing I should do is fully lube the cable and see if that clears it up. After that, the problems inevitably transfers over to the tranny. Be it the drive gear or something else, it has to be something in the transmission chewing these things up.

I'll try the lube thing and hope it's only that.

Sly

[69_Dream]

Thanks Sherry, every little bit helps

I tried attaching a drill not too long ago to the cable and seeing how the speedometer reacted. It read perfect, no needle bounce or anything. By the way, my drill was going about 75 MPH

I understood this to mean there were no kinks and the cable ran smoothly through the housing. Am I wrong?

Sorry, half the time I think I'm pretty smart, the rest... well.. not quite so smart.

Sly