Got an occasionally speedo needle vibration (yep only sometimes). It's a fast cycle, but it's only a 2mph arc.

So what's best?

1. gear lube
2. white grease
3. moly grease
4. wheel bearing grease
5. bicycle cable lube (with teflon)
6. a mix of some/all of the above

And is there a way to clean out 42 year old gunk in the cable sheath?

The bicycle cable lube (with teflon) works great on my motorcycle's throttle and clutch cable, plus I can just drip it into the cable.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

I don't think anything you can "drip" is going to work well for a speedo cable.

I used a very liberal dose of synthetic chassis grease on mine and it worked well. I could of sworn I was at an auto parts store once and saw a can of lube specifically labeled for speedo cables.

Squirting brake cleaner into the cable and let it run out the other end will probably get it clean enough. Maybe run a length of wire through it if you want to be more thorough?

How hard would it be to just replace the cable?
It wasn't too bad on my truck.
I did shoot a liberal amount of white litium grease down as I fed the core.
I probably could have put a lot more in and been even happier as it still wobbles.

The 42 year old cable only has 16900 miles on it, so I think the cable is fine, but the lube as dried out............

Plus I've never had good luck with replacement cables, the new lubed cable never was as smooth as the original (that is until the original broke)

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

I always used white lithium grease. Not the spray can though; you used to be able to get it in a tube, like toothpaste. I would fill the cup at the top of the cable housing then push the cable down through the blob of grease. Keep the cup full until you get to the last few inches then wipe off the excess before installing the cable

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

I've always pulled the core out of the cable and cleaned it with brake/carb cleaner. After the core is cleaned reinsert while still slightly wet with solvent spin by hand remove core and repeat until it comes out fairly clean. As for lube a thin coat of graphite based antisieze to the entire length of the core. The core wire usually will only come out through the interior end of the cable.

When my dad's speedo acts up like that, he dumps some powedered graphite down the cable housing. Seems to work every time for him.

Yep, I do the samething once every winter. That's when my speedo gives the most trouble.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

A word of warning- don't pull hard on the cable when you remove it to lube it, or it will stretch and then bind up after you put it back in because it's now longer. I did that, but fixed it using a Dremel tool w/ #409 bit cut off about 1/8" from the end.

I've had good luck with the graphite filled grease made for that purpose.