First off, Happy New Year. I have been a lurker here for quite some time now, and have found most of my questiond answered by searching. However, the search has come up short this time. My truck is a 97 T100 4WD auto, with 173K on it. I was heading to work this morning and my speedo just died. It came right back at the first stop, but shortly died again, this time throwing a "check engine" light with it. I would guess that the ECU not seeing the speed is the culprit for the light, but would like your input on the sudden death. There was no bouncing of the needle, or noise coming from the cable. It just died. I figured I would head up to autozone and get them to read the code, but I have more faith in the knowledge here than the fellows at the autozone. Thanks in advance.

Matt

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What codes are present? Does your cruise control work?

Speedometer cable could have broken or become disconnected at the dash or t-case ends. Also could be a problem with the speedo drive gear at the t-case. I think its plastic and I've heard of them getting stripped out sometimes. Those are the first places I'd look.

----UPDATE-----

I did some looking in the day time, unscrewed the t-case end of the cable, and the problem was found. The cable snapped right above the keyed end. Loks like its time for a trip to the stealership parts house for me tomorrow. Any tips on changing out a cable? Looks to be pretty straight foreward. I just need small hands!

Thanks, Matt

It's pretty tight up around the bellhousing. Try not to squish the heat insulation on the speedometer cable as you install it. Once your speedometer works again the check engine should go out after a couple of trips but the fault will remain stored.

----------Update----------

The speedo cable replacement is complete. The hardest part was having to dis-assemble the dash to get to the gauge cluster. From start to finish, it was about a two hour job. Would have been shorter, but taking the standard refreshment break or two, it drug out a little longer. The check engine light cleared, and the speedo is all well again. A bonus to the replacement was I found the loose heat-shield that was making racket. For a total of $67.00, the truck is fixed. Probably would have been triple that if I would have had it done. I appreciate all the help.

Matt

Matt I have a noise that sounds like a loose heat shield. Where did you find yours?

Check the crossover pipe. (between firewall and engine)