Hi,

I live in a wet / cold country so i only use my Camaro when the weather is good. When i've not been driving it for afew weeks the speedo is very slow to respond, but as you drive it for a while and more regualr the speedo begins to operate normally.
Is this normal?, or do i have a fault?

Any help / advice would be great

Thanks from Luke

 

No it's not normal, but it's easily fixed, assuming it's a 2nd gen with a direct drive cable. Pull the speedo cable off the back of the speedo and drop it down from the dash. After that pull the inner drive cable from the housing and spray it down good with brake cleaner. The spray it with a good lubricant, and spray a little in the end of the housing before slipping the cabler back in. Reconnect it to the speedo and you should be good.
If you see any kinks in the cable while it's out (even small ones) you should replace the inner cable, or it wont run smoothly, and the indicator will be jumpy.

 

Although taking the cable apart, cleaning and lubing it wouldn't be a bad idea, I really doubt that's your problem. A sticky cable wouldn't make the needle "slow to respond" as you describe it, it would make it jumpy. First you'll need to remove the speedo from the dash. The cable is connected to a magnetic hub that spins inside the speedo at the same speed as the cable. However, the cable and needle aren't directly connected, if they were the needle would keep winding around and around like a broken clock. Covering that magnetic hub is a metal bell which is directly connected to the needle and a return/windup spring. The cable hub spins, and magnetism twists the bell and the needle at a slow rate, because of the return spring fighting against it. Your problem is either having gunk between the magnetic hub and bell (poor magnetism pull), or a stiff needle shaft in the speedo housing that needs to be oiled. Clean everything well and use a dab of very fine sewing machine oil, or equivalent on the needle shaft.

 

Thanks for both replys

I will give that a try over the next few weeks