I recently acquired a 1988 raider and the speedometer doesn't work. The guy I bought it from said that a few weeks before, the speedometer was jumpy and then stopped working entirely. My neighbor knows a lot about older cars and said that it sounded like the gear that drives the speedometer cable got chewed up. My Haynes manual calls it the speedometer driven gear and instructs that when removing the unit, to make note of what orientation it was in to begin with. I verified that the cable does not spin when I drive around.
1. Is there anything else that might produce the same results?
2.Why do I need to mark what orientation it was in? I of course read that warning after trying to unscrew the thing, realizing that it pulls straight out, and finding that I needed to drain the lube first anyways.
3. When I do drain the lube, how much should I expect to have to put in?

Thanks in advance

Without removing anything with oil inside, you can remove the speedo cable by pulling it out from behiond the speedo. Remove the gauge cluster, dismount the speedo cable clip from the speedo and the cable will present itself to you. If the cable has two square drive ends on it still, your cable is fine. Use a light application of white lithium grease on the cable and reiensert it in the housing. If the cable is not complete, it's easy to replace at this time, too. If the cable is good, and the speedometer is actual culprit, again... If the speedo drive gear is bad, it's not likely the PO would have commented on the speedo being jumpy.

If you need a speedo or cable, I (and others) have them for sale from parts cars.

Do you have a stick or automatic? Not sure if there's a difference in the cable, none in the gauge. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have the spedometer assemlby I removed from my 87 Raider/Montero if you need it. It is showing only about 78K on it. Anyone need it to increase the value of a trade-in <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />
Bob Shaw

my 87 quit once. It was the driven gear on the speedo adapter on the tcase. The pressed sleeve in the tcase output housing had walked forward and chewed up the driven gear. Don't worry about orientation on the driven gear. Count the driven gear teeth and align the mark with the right teeth count number on the housing. The driven gear shaft is offcenter in the housing, and you rotate the housing to get the right drive-driven gear clearances. Drain the whole tcase (you don't know what's in there, anyway) and pull the driven gear adapter, and the problem should be obvious if it's not the cable itself. Mine was "jumpy", too, but this could be snagging, unlubed cable or the gear train getting eaten up.