Fitting & routing a BX speedo cable.

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alan s
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Joined: 26 Jan 2001, 15:53
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Fitting & routing a BX speedo cable.

Post by alan s »

Before you start, disconnect the speedo cable under the bonnet at the junction of the upper & lower speedo cables to confirm whether it is the upper or lower cable that is broken.
In most cases it seems the upper cable (the top one) is the most likely culprit.
Remember: <b>There are no shortcuts in this job!</b>
To access: Remove the tray near the clock. Put your left hand into the hole it leaves, & feel around the left hand side upper part of the speedo binnacle for a thumb screw. On some earlier models I understand it is a 10mm nut that requires a spanner to loosen.
Then remove the panel on the right hand side that carries the electric mirror and driving light switches and feed your arm up & in approx the same location as the left you'll find another thumb screw/wing nut. Remove these two completely & <i>carefully</i> slide the binnacle towards you.
<i>What usually happens is that the plastic fitting holding the outer cable has gone brittle & snapped or alternatively (and I feel more commonly) there has been stress placed on this fitting over a period of time. This can be caused by several things; tension applied when the motor has been worked on and in the process the engine lifted such as in the case of fitting a new engine mount or a cambelt, so the moral of the story is if you want to avoid the chances of creating the problem, always disconnect the speedo cable at the halfway connection when doing these jobs.</i>
Next step is to remove the glovebox completely. Once out of the road, you'll find a grummet in the firewall that the cable passes through. Pull the grummet along with the cable back into the cab.
Now; take the new cable & using ductape attach it to the old cable <b>at the speedo end. </b> From the passengers side start to carefully pull it through preferrably with an offsider (patient wife) feeding it through. If it feels as though it is sticking on things, get them to pull it back to where they are & use a silicone spray on the outer cable. Try to again pull it through to the area around the passengers side footwell.
Once through, remove the grummet from the old cable & fit it on the new one; use silicone spray to make it easier. Connect the upper cable to the existing lower cable & fit the grummet back into the firewall; again using silicone spray on the area of the firewall where it fits as well as to the outer edges of the grummet.
Follow the path of the new cable & wherever it is making contact to plastic air ducts, firewall or dash, use foam as a packing to prevent direct contact between the cable & any other surface; that's how you get rid of 90% of BX dash rattles!!
Check the routing of the lower cable to be sure it has not been ppaced under stress and is not fouling any other parts of the car.
At this point, fir the upper cable to its fitting on the speedo head.
<b>Be sure to try to keep the fitting and the first part of the cable where it leaves the head as straight as possible.</b>
When this has been achieved, then take a zip tie & attach the speedo cable firmly (neither loosely or tightly) to the steel bracing behind the speedo. This allows the cable to exit the speedo without <b>any stress</b> and supported just enough to both keep it that way & still allow the speedo binnacle to be refitted without grabbing on the cable.
The end result should be an almost flicking free speedo that should never again need replacing.
I suppose I could say <i><b>"Refitting is the reversal to removal"</b></i> but I'll leave that to someone else; just put the glovebox back in & you're finished.....that's better!![:D]
Alan S
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