Questions and Answers

Nissan Speedometer Cable Q. Hello Vincent, can you help me with some of your expert advice? My problem is that the speedometer gauge gets stuck and when I slow down it gradually comes down and sometimes doesn't come down all the way. When I speed up it increases in intervals. Can you please let me know, before I take it to the shop, what the problem could be?

Is it something I can do on my own? If not is it going to be expensive?

1991 Nissan pickup
2.4 liter manual
143,000 miles

Thank you very much,
Joseph

A. The problem is in the speedometer cable, it's either broken or dry. What you can try is this, disconnect the speedometer cable from the transmission and pull the center insert out. It is pretty long so try not to let it drag on the ground. Once it's out, the first thing to do is make sure it is in one piece. The opposite end of the cable should have a square end. That fits into the speedometer head itself. If it is not there and it looks like it's broken, you'll need to replace it. If you have it, then there's a chance we can fix it.

Clean the cable with some carburetor or brake cleaner and dry it off. Being carefully not to get it dirty again, get a hand full of Vaseline and rub it into the cable as you feed it back in. Feed it in and spin it at the same time. Go in a two feet and back it out a foot so you get the Vaseline worked in there. When the whole cable is in, spin it to make sure the square end sits inside the speedometer head. Reconnect the other end and take it for a drive.

It should operate smoothly now. if not that's all we can do with it and it will need to be replaced.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA