The Adventures of Ash and Baby Taco

I have found that nothing really goes right with 35's . I have a similar wheel set up to other guys on here and I still rub my frame ever so lightly. At full stuff I still rub some but not enough that it bothers me. Rarely do I rub off road. Just have to keep chipping away at it until you get it right. One day I'll get my tires off the frame .

 

Land cruiser speedo freaked out on the way to school. Needle is jumping and a consistent "grinding" noise as I increase speed.

Any idea?

 

Speedometer cable is sticking. probably because of old lubricant and the cold.

 

Speed sensor in speedometer head may be going bad. It works with the speedo motor, which may be going out as well. Only fix: Replace speedo unit or find another cluster to swap in. You might try LRW (formerly Rinker's) and see if they have one, it's kind of a bitch to test because you have to ohm out the circuit from the speed sensor to the speedo motor. There's a slim chance that the problem is at the t-case, but unlikely. This is a famous problem for '85 to early '95 Toyotas and Land Cruisers up to '98.

 

They don't use cables, except on some Canadian and Australian models. Ours are electronic.

 

Really? Even one as old as his?

 

I thought his was an older vehicle. My '96 Tacoma has a cable - the head seized and had to be replaced. Not cheap, but now it appears I have only 5k miles on it.

 

I think his is a '92, so it should be. They started that in '87 on the TLCs with the advent of EFI. '85 on the trucks & 4Runners.

 

Strange. All of my Tacomas were electronic. 3 '99s, an '04, and the '15. Now I gotta look at my other '04 2wd. Got me wondering.

 

I had a few:
'89 truck was a cable
'90 4Runner was electric
'94 truck was electric

I'm not sure exactly when they made the change and on what vehicles.

 

In the 1st photo, this is a traditional speed sensor on my '04 2wd shop Taco. In the 2nd photo is a hall effect sensor, like what's in Gage's TLC. It gets a signal from the ECU, runs a pulse off of the tone ring inside the t-case, and sends that pulse to the speed sensor in the back of the speedo head, which in turn bumps power to the speedo motor that runs the needle, showing a given speed. When you regear (axle) one of these type of systems, you either have to change the tone ring, or use a VSSB (vehicle speed sensor buffer) in order to correct the speedometer signal and show accurate speed.

 

Were these carbureted trucks by chance? I've seen some cables on those. And yes, they did make some Tacomas with carbs with special emissions.

 

Mine has a cable, so yours should also. Should be easier to diagnose than sensors.

 

What year is your Land Cruiser?

 

The '89 truck was an EFI 3.0 edit: cable
The '90 4Runner was an EFI 3.0 edit: electric
The '94 truck was a 22re edit: electric

 

From the little research I have done, the cruiser has some cable that connects from the tranny to the speedo. I can remove the transmission connection and pull the cable out. Clean, lube and reinsert (that's what she said). Came home at lunch and all was well. Looks to be temperature dependent, I had to rush out and the truck didn't have time to fully warm up. Going to watch it for now and maybe take a look at it after christmas. Won't be driving much from now till break. Just to my final.

 

Interesting. All I can vouch for is what I've serviced, but have seen some differences for no apparent reason. All the carbureted trucks I've seen had cables from what I remember but who knows.

 

My 96 taco is cable speedo. My supra was too. 87

 

Mine is a 91 also.

 

96 here and cable driven as well.
I had the same issue with mine as you describe @BabyTaco .
It eventually broke the speedo cable but the cable itself was not the cause.
The plastic gears right behind speedometer (they drive the mileage counter as well as the speed sensor) on mine were completely dry. I used some lithium grease on them and haven't had a problem since.