Questions and Answers
Ford Explorer Crazy Speedometer
Q. Hi Vincent, I have a 1991 Ford Explorer with an automatic transmission which was rebuilt in August of this year. The problem we are experiencing now is that the needle on the speedometer is spinning all the way around the dial and ending up just above the drive button. Is this a problem that my husband can fix or does this require servicing.
Also the fuel gauge needle is not working, so we can't tell how much gas we have. I appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from you.
DL
A. What you describe about the speedometer is usually caused by a bad speedometer cable. Since the transmission was out and put back in, it may have become kinked. So that is the first thing I would look for. If the cable looks okay, then you can try lubricating it.
The speedometer cable should be lubricated with special cable lubricant. Fill the ferrule on the upper end of the housing with the cable lubricant. Insert the cable in the housing, starting at the upper end. Turn the cable around carefully while feeding it into the housing. Repeat filling the ferrule except for the last six inches of cable. Too much lubricant at this point may cause the lubricant to work into the speedometer head. If that doesn't help you will need to replace the speedometer cable.
Checking the fuel gauge is fairly simple. Unplug the connector at the fuel tank and ground the YELLOW wire. Then look at the fuel gauge and it should move all the way up to full and drop down to empty when the ground is removed. If it does the gauge and wiring is good and it is the in-tank sending unit that is bad. The fuel tank will have to come out to replace it.
If the gas gauge doesn't move you will need to backtrack the YELLOW wire back to the instrument cluster and if it is good, the fuel gauge will have to be replaced.
If you do need to replace the sending unit, I would consider replacing the fuel pump at the same time, especially if you have a lot of miles on the vehicle. It's about due to go bad and this will save doing the job twice.
Additional Information provided courtesy of AllDATA
