its a 2 piece cable, where both pieces hook up to a box of some sort, i unplugged the bottom cable and watched it while the car was in gear and it was spinning, does that mean its good or can it still be bad, i screwed it back in the box and unplugged the top one and watched the box and it wasnt spinning, could it be the box? never dealt with speedometer cables any help is appreciated.

 

That box is your cruise control. the first cable seems to be working fine still. If you don't use your cruise control, you can buy a longer cable that will bypass it. It's realively easy to replace and it's fairly cheap too. http://www.npdlink.com