1972 Fury Speedometer Noise

[1970FuryConv]

Drove my Fury to work today, 68 miles round trip
Heat worked, everything was good except:

Speedometer: Temperature was 31°F. Speedometer made a serious rattle for the first 10 to 15 minutes of driving. Speedometer needle was bouncing side to side, at a range of about 10 to 15 mph. After that, the rattle went away, and then returned. This process repeated itself several times, until the rattle was gone after about 20 minutes.

Drive home: temperature above freezing, no noise from speedometer.

My experience is the speedo cable or speedometer makes more and more noise until it breaks. Not sure on this. What do you think caused it?
Noise Maker

My Fury. Awesome to drive after noise went away.

 

[C Body Bob]

Pour some graphite into the cable housing at the instrument cluster end. Drive it a few miles. That should improve it. Should get better as you drive it

 

[Davea Lux]

Pour some graphite into the cable housing at the instrument cluster end. Drive it a few miles. That should improve it. Should get better as you drive it

Try the graphite first, if that does not solve the problem, the bushings in the magnetic coupling may be failing, in that case your speedo will need to be rebuilt.

Dave

 

[CBODY67]

With age and hot/cold cycles, the lube that was in the cable housing when it was all built has probably dried up/evaporated. Just adding the lube to it can help a bit, BUT that's a long cable in a long casing, so that bit at one end might not get down into the middle of things. End result, when things warm up and you have a good work area, take the cable housing loose at the top and gently pull the "cable" out of the housing. Lay it out on a work bench on some paper towels (or similar) and wipe all of the old lube off of it. Get it clean again. The use an appropriate speedometer cable lube (which is sort of a jelly-like lube) on the entire length of the cable. Might wipe away the excess after the cable is put back into the casing as you don't want it to migrate into the speedometer head. Then put the casing back onto the speedometer head, making sure to get the cable correctly indexed into the back of the head.

When we had just the flexible metal casings, the wear surface was somewhat smooth internally. When they went to the plastic housings/casings, that was better and generally quieter. BUT inside of the plastic is a layer of metal wire mesh for strength. When the internal plastic wears to where the metal mesh can contact the cable as it turns, noise can happen. When it progresses until the metal mesh is more exposed, eventually a part of the mesh will tear into the cable as it turns. Not good! The speedo gears seek to keep the cable turning, but the internal interference with the metal mesh seeks to stop/slow it, too.

When you get the cable laid out on the workbench-type area, slowly turn it over to look for kinks or an area that doesn't turn over smoothly. If such a place is found, you might better start looking for a new cable/casing set from a recommended speedometer shop, for good measure.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[1970cat]

the cold stiffened up the speedo cable lube. use powdered graphite like was said above.

 

[1970FuryConv]

Sounds good. I'll try graphite at the top first. If that doesn't work, I'll lube the entire cable. Failing both, I'll pull the dash apart and have the speedo rebuilt. Hope it's just the cable.
Thanks! Ben

 

[CBODY67]

Unless the speed needle jumps wildly with EACH turn of the cable, or does this accompanied by scraping/sliding metallic noise, it's most probably a cable/casing issue.

CBODY67

 

[1970FuryConv]

Unless the speed needle jumps wildly with EACH turn of the cable, or does this accompanied by scraping/sliding metallic noise, it's most probably a cable/casing issue. CBODY67

Hi CBody67 Thanks!
Supposedly, NAPA still sells a new cable, 68". I'm investigating replacing the 46 year old cable with new.

There is a rhythmic scraping metallic noise, which increases in speed and volume as mph increases. Ben

 

[1970FuryConv]

New Speedometer Cable, NAPA Balkamp 615-1659. $21.05 including tax. In stock at local warehouse.

Cable & Ends

Speedo fitting

Trans Fitting

Differences from original: NAPA cable is 7" longer and does not have hex fitting to mount at trans
Original

New cable at trans

Routing clips under driver floor pan keep cable away from torsion bar and exhaust.

Hard to get pic of firewall opening under booster. Bend that takes up extra 7 inches.

Slotted firewall grommet to get it over new cable. Begin install engine side, pull passenger side thru with needle nose pliers

Install new cable under dash is a right arm only job, blind, while lying under dash. Cable end feeds thru a hole in a metal panel above steering column and into a conical fitting at rear of speedometer. Install at speedo required several attempts and several cuss words. Need to replace leaking fuel pump before test drive, gas leak. Hope new cable works! Thanks for everyone's advice.

 

[1970FuryConv]

Test Drive: 47°F, new fuel pump installed, speedometer worked OK. Steady needle and no noise. NAPA speedo cable seems an affordable solution at $19.99.

 

[1970FuryConv]

Subfreezing Test
· I drove to work this morning. The temperature was 30°F. Old cable made noise below freezing so this is the real test.
· Speedometer Cable: the new cable made no noise. It was great not to hear grinding from my speedometer or see crazy bouncing needle.
· Speedometer needle bounces a little on hard acceleration. It didn’t just go straight up the dial, but this problem is minimal.
· Once the car reaches cruising speed, the needle is steady and does not fluctuate.
· My drive to work is 68 miles round-trip. In a 70 mph zone, I cruised with traffic at 80 mph. The 72 Fury was a blast to drive. The steering is not loose, so the car didn’t float all over the road, but stayed in lane.
· At one point traffic got up to 85 mph, but my 72 Fury 360/727 had no problem keeping up. Speedometer needle held steady at 85 mph. High gear 8.25 rear. Don't know ratio.
Overall, at $21.05 including tax, Napa 615 – 1659 is a valid solution to the problem.
FURY AT WORK
What a pleasure it is to drive that car after a year of working on it!

 

[Davea Lux]

Even has police cruiser wheels and hub caps for highway driving.

Dave

 

[TxDon]

#1970FuryConv, thanks for this old thread. I am having the same speedo problem with my 66 Monaco, only at cold temps when I got the car but now has progressed to all the time. I will try the relube ideas first but may do what you did if a replacement cable is available for my car.

 

[1970FuryConv]

Best of luck, Don!