Club 80-90 Forums

1986 1.6 jx
My speedo had packed up , fitted a new cable now only the odometer works ,no speed needle movement is this repairable ?

WILKS wrote: ↑27 Jun 2021, 20:19 1986 1.6 jx
My speedo had packed up , fitted a new cable now only the odometer works ,no speed needle movement is this repairable ?

Pull it open the mechanism is probably broken somewhere , depending where it may be repaired

I have similar problems with my speedo but only during the winter, when its operations became erratic, sometimes exagerrating speed other times hardly moving, but odometer would work.  I would fiddle with it take it for a drive to test and try again.  On more than one occassion I wished i had a spare cable, not to replace but as a means of testing the unit itself, ie connecting to the back of the unit other end to a drill and slowly run the drill to see if the needle moved therefore narrowing down the problem.  If you have the other cable maybe worth a try.

The Odometer and Speedometer needle have different drive mechanisms. Since the Odometer works then the cable must be engaging the shaft but it might be worth checking wether the Odometer is indicating the correct mileage travelled by comparing it with a SatNav.

I would remove the speedometer from the dash and check that the needle is free to move by gently winding the needle forward 50mph then release, it should return to zero. This will establish that the shaft is free and not binding. If it feels loose and wobbles then the shaft may be broken.

There isn’t much to go wrong with the pointer drive as there is no physical connection and it uses induction to spin the shaft. As already advised, connect your old cable to the speedo and try to connect it to a electric drill, the drill will need to be set to rotate anti clockwise. Other than that it’s a case of disassembly but it’s easy to break the pointer, later speedo shafts are thinner and can also break easily if not careful.