Hello,
Recently, the speedometer on my 1990 4runner SR5 (V6 3.0L 4WD) starting making a clicking noise and the needle would bounce up and down rather than hold steady at any given speed. While trying to make it home, the clicking continued and eventually the needle stopped moving completely.
Since I thought that it would be easier to disconnect the cable at the side of the transmission, I tried that first. After disconnecting it, I tried to spin the gear and could tell that the cable was binding up top. I had expected it to spin freely, indicating that the cable had snapped internally.
So, after putting that back together, I removed the instrument cluster. There it was, the cable had broken at the very tip. Of course, when I tried to extract the broken piece from the speedometer, I just pushed it further in. Any ideas as to how I can extract that piece? Do I need to disassemble the speedometer itself or would that just be a waste of time? If so, does this mean that I need to start looking for another one? Any links?
BTW, if I place a small screwdriver in the back of the speedometer and twirl it, the speedometer appears to work properly. At this point, once I replace the cable, I don't know if I'll be able to use this speedometer in its present condition. I suspect that the new cable may not seat all the way, due to that small broken piece that's still inside.
As far as the cable is concerned, can just the inner cable be replaced as opposed to the whole speedometer cable assembly? The local dealer quoted me a price of $92 and change, plus tax. And, as I expected, it's a special order item. Does anyone know of any alternative places to buy one? I tried searching for one online, but couldn't come up with any sources.
The up side, if you can call it that, is that I'll be able to replace my broken parking brake cable at the same time, seeing as how they both pass through the floor at the same point. In fact, it looks like the parking brake cable, although separate, has to be removed in order to replace the speedometer cable anyway. Is that the case?
Of course this had to happen in the middle of Winter, so I'm not looking forward to doing the job. But I really do need to get the vehicle back on the road again.
Thanks in advance to those who post a reply here.
Peter.