Stuck at 80

[patrick66]

This is the third time I've pulled my cluster out of the '66 Coronet dash now. Twice, I've driven the car and had the Speedo needle stick at 80 mph. Three grand on the tach equals 80 in my car, and I've been on the highway up to 3,400RPM since. It won't unstick unless I pull the cluster and the cable. I've lubed the point on the cable connector with 3-in-1 oil. That has quieted the needle and got rid of the flutter it had, but it's getting stuck at 80, despite this. Any thoughts?

 

[moparwacko]

Not another stuck nut thread.....
"It won't unstuck until I pull out"

Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

[Bb70charger500]

Sounds like you should try disconnecting at the trans and see if it drops down if it doesn't that says the cable has a problem (unlikely) I'm going to guess the trans is the problem child .since you already stated that once you pull the cable out of the gauge it frees up ! But then again who knows with old gauges . Guess you can attach a drill to the cable at trans and run it up to 80 mph and that would tell you where the problem is I guess !

 

[Mike67]

Check this out....
http://www.chargersourceguide.com/speedo.html

 

[Cranky]

If after cleaning and lubing it again and it still sticks at 80, you might have to take the cluster apart and check the needle to see if it's rubbing on something. If they get bent for any reason (the needle is pretty delicate), it could be dragging on the face. Is the cluster original to the car? If it came out of a wrecked car, the needle could very well be bent.

 

[Z-Man]

Only drive it to 79mph.

 

[moparwacko]

Don't take it up to 88mph, weird things happen.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

If after cleaning and lubing it again and it still sticks at 80, you might have to take the cluster apart and check the needle to see if it's rubbing on something. If they get bent for any reason (the needle is pretty delicate), it could be dragging on the face. Is the cluster original to the car? If it came out of a wrecked car, the needle could very well be bent.

I think Cranky is onto something here.....always stick at 80, huh? That DOES sound like the needle is hanging up on the face/base of the gage.

 

[patrick66]

I'm thinking that the needle is rubbing and hanging up at that point, too. It won't come off that spot. Once the cable is released, it goes to zero. The Odometer continues to operate just fine, so this too, leads me to believe the needle is physically being kept from moving once it sees 80. I'm pulling the cluster out tomorrow and work on it a bit. It'll give me a good excuse to re-orange the needles on the other gauges, too. This is the original cluster to the car, BTW, and has never been wrecked.