The lower speedometer cable (attaches to the transmission and to the cable that goes through the firewall) in my 88 v6 is bad. All the local places I have called say they have one but they are all 80" long and that's the only cable they show for this car. The cable I pulled off is only 50". The car does have cruise control but the Speedometer cable goes from the transmission to a shorter cable that then goes through the firewall. I am going to try to match one up at a local shop but, who might have the correct cable? I don't want 10" of extra cable to try to route around without kinking just to get the speedometer to work.

The Chilton manual says there is a vehicle speed sensor, which is one of the codes I get since the car is moving but not sensing speed(I forget the wording of the code, 24 I think). The gear that the cable connects to in the rear of the transmission, is that just a gear or is that what they call the sensor? There are no wires going to it externally. I hate to pull it out, I am afraid there will be a flood of fluid poring out and I don't have anything to plug the hole right now. Anyone have any experience with this gear/cable combination? Thanks!

 

I pulled the Speedometer drive gear out of the transmission, the car is on jack stands and is level so just a small amount of fluid came out. All there is to it is the drive gear and housing. This gear is a 41 tooth drive gear and looks good, the gear inside the transmission looks good as well. There is no binding to the gear in the housing so the cable must have been seized. The end of the drive gear, where the cable goes in, is round, I can't tell if the hole is tapered, what does the end of a good cable look like? Does the cable just press into the drive when you tighten the cable onto the housing and get driven by friction? The old one looks like it has been stripped.

Anyway, just thought I would put this up to help anyone who may be having similar problems.

Still looking for a replacement cable, any ideas?

 

The hole in the end of the speedo driven gear is square, as is the end of the cable. If yours is round, then it got reamed out from the cable being seized. You'll need to get a new gear if the hole is in fact rounded out.

 

Thanks for the info, I was afraid of that. Another part to look for. At least I know it is a 41 tooth gear and won't need to pull it out again to look at it.

 

Make sure you have your current gear in hand when you purchase a new one. Apparently there was a recall back in the day and the new gears look a little different than the old one. So, the new style gear will not fit in the old style housing. You'll just need to do a little backround work to get the right combo.

 

I had to order a new speedo gear and sure enough, it is different that the gear in the car. Anyone know what the recall was for? The shaft on the plastic gear I bought is slightly larger and slightly longer than the old gear's metal shaft. The plastic shaft has a spiraled groove all the way down the shaft, I assume to lubricate the shaft. Was lubrication for the shaft the reason for the change?

Other than a junk yard, where can I find the housing for a plastic gear? The gear I bought was from eBay, I didn't see any different housings or gears the same style as mine. I was thinking about having the old housing machined to fit the new gear. Any ideas? Thanks!