Not again.....stupid speedometer issue

My speedometer randomly started acting up last night. It has this issue when I bought it (sat for 5 years) and then it fixed itself and has worked fine for the year plus that I've owned it. Well all of a sudden last be night it went nuts. It will read up to 50-60 mph higher than the actual speed, and bounce around and do weird stuff. Then if you park it and run into a store, come back out it will be fine. Park it again and it'll act up when you drive next. It's more annoying than anything....the odometer seems to be pretty accurate still.

The only thing that happened prior to having this issue is last night I was idling into a parking lot in second gear, and some guy decided he needed to pull in front of me and block the entrance. I stepped in the brakes and couldn't get to the clutch in time before it stalled. No big deal I thought, and then it acted up when I left.

Any ideas? Is there a speed sensor somewhere that I can replace? Don't have much time to mess with it anymore as I've been working a lot. Hopefully it's a simple fix.

Thanks!

 

As a 1996 the speedometer will be cable driven. When the cables get older they can get wonky.

Mine does what you describe when it's really cold out and also makes a racket. I removed the gauge cluster and sent some silicon lube down the speedometer cable and it helped some but the ultimate fix will be getting a new speedometer cable.

 

Well great. How hard is it to replace the cable? Is there anywhere I can lube it? Weird how it's worked fine for so long and now starts acting up.

 

Also curious how exactly you fish the cable up into the dash?

 

It's not to hard to replace. It attaches at the back passenger side of the transmission and runs up next to the firewall over the trans and then in a grommet behind the gauge cluster. There may or may not be a clip holding it to the firewall. It has a plastic clip that holds it to the speedometer. It's a pretty easy job to swap out takes about an hour the 1st time. Let me know if you need a cable I have one off a 97 regular cab for sale.

 

Oh ok that doesn't sound terrible. I can drive without the speedometer and tell my speed within @ 5 mph based on rpms, but it's just annoying. And I don't want it racking up double the miles. I don't think it's affecting the odometer but idk for sure.

Thanks for the offer James, I'll send you a PM

 

If the odometer appears unaffected then the problem is in the cluster.

The cable drives everything .

Check and make sure before replacing a cable and not fixing the problem.

At the age it won`t hurt replacing the cable

 

Ok makes sense. Worked perfect yesterday and today, then I made a quick stop after work and it acted up when I left the store. Really weird how it "resets" when it sits for a while.

How would I check the cluster?

 

I wonder if you just need to breed the end of the cable and the back of the cluster. Maybe it's dry and keeps Skipping around.

 

You mean lube it? What's the preferred lube?