Morning all,
As part of my nightmare drive to work this morning (I won't bore you with most of it), of all things that decides to play up, the speedo is playing tricks on me!

When I bought the 69 bug in late March, the speedo always 'waved' - fluctuated between two points rather than a steady speed reading. For example, when driving 30 mph, it would wave between about 25 and 35. By the time you got to 50 it was levelling out. I made a few enquiries, checked the cable connection at the speedo (ok) and was told it could be the 'square peg' rounding out the hole at the front wheel. Haven't got around to checking that yet...but...

This morning, while coping with other 'ailments' of a cold (-3) day, while doing about 50mph, all of a sudden I was hit with a loud continuous rubbing noise, so loud I assumed it to be mechanical and pulled over. Engine was fine. Drove off....ahhh....it is making repeated noises (cyclical?) from the back of the speedo. BUT.....the speedo now reads perfect! I can actually see what speed I am doing! I just can't hear anything!

Sound gets louder and faster with speed so I'm going to assume its making noise with the rotations of the cable or whatever. I would have thought it was stuffed completely but the speedo now reads correct!

Ideas? Help? Too noisy to drive like this, I could disconnect the cable but that will only mask it....

:cussing I know that one well, being the dodgey that i am, i was in middle of long drive and jumped out of car armed with can o' WD40,,disconnected cable at speedo sprayed half (well maybe not quite 1/2) a can of it directly into speedo, re connected it and it seemed to work ok after that!lol. ??? thats my 2cents worth anyway,lol. (prob not wat ue sposed to do, buttt....I didn't care, just wanted the noise to STOOOOPPPPP!lol)

Strange this.....yesterday afternoon on the way home it was fine, no noise AND speedo read great. However, this morning, back in the minus temps, speedo read fine and then at the SAME point in the road where it went off yesterday.....the noise starts again. Could it be the cold?

I like the idea of the WD40, I suppose its only a bundle of gears and mechanics and stuff in there, isn't it? So WD40 wouldn't hurt? Will look at this tonight.

Sounds familiar. Does it sound like its coming from the cable or the gauge?
Speedo cables tend to do that when they are on their way out. Usually the bends in the cable can cause wear and the cable sort of slaps around inside the sheath, causing the wobble. Might also explain the noise.

Could also be the speedo too though. If I remember correctly, all the speedos consist of is a spring a metal drum and a magnet or two...oh, and the stuff for the odometer. The cable spins the magnets, the magnets rotate inside the drum, and that moves the speedo needle. I guess there could be some contact between the drum and the magnets too. Long shot though.

Most problems with speedos - is the cable drive....

I think Your cable is slowly breaking, strand by strand, and allowing the cable to flex... then for some unknown reason,
it has jammed up and stopped flexing..
I wouldn't spray anything in the speedo...
I would put a few drops of oil into the top of the cable...
it will run down and coat the inner cable and maybe stop the noise... if it doesn't.. try the WD40 into the speedo.... You can always get another speedo... there isn't much in a speedo actually... to cause any problems...
is the small circlip still on the end of the cable ??
in the grease cap under hubcap...

Lee

I had the same problem.Only does it when it is cold.I pulled mine to bits and cleaned out all the old grease which seemed to be pretty hard.I sprayed all the gears in the odometer part which is where the cable goes into with a dry lube.It seemed to have fixed the problem but occasionally in the morning when I go over a bump it makes the noise again for a second. I think the shaft is a bit worn so I might pull it apart again one day and pack the gears and the shaft with some new grease.It is a fairly easy job just be careful , you don't need to pull the needle or the faceplate off. Everything comes off from the back once you have it out of the housing.

sounds like Lee said the cable is slowly breaking apart, had similar in a holden speedo jumping up and down replaced cable then it was A1

If it was the speedo cable then why didn't it do it with a different speedo in the car ??