35-36 speedometer lubrication

Lawson Cox

Lawson Cox

Well-known member
I am wanting to lubricate the speedometer in my 35 pickup, however, I do not see any way for it to be lubricated from the outside, that is, without taking the thing apart. Is there a way to lubricate it without taking it apart? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks
 
Lawson, i answered this on shellys site but i will do it again, the only thing you can do is lube the inter speedo cable and put a few drops of lite oil where the cable goes in the speedo, to lube anything else and get to the place that really needs oil you need to remove the speedo from the housing
 
When restoring a '39 I had the gauges out. Discovered a soft plug at the speedo shaft housing and prying it out revealed a felt wick. Drive shaft was stiff so I pulled the wick out to put in a dab of WD. Put felt back and soaked it with light oil & stuffed soft plug back in. I blame it on the !!%**! swing out windshield. WD applied externally with the cable off may help
 
Barry WNY said:
When restoring a '39 I had the gauges out. Discovered a soft plug at the speedo shaft housing and prying it out revealed a felt wick. Drive shaft was stiff so I pulled the wick out to put in a dab of WD. Put felt back and soaked it with light oil & stuffed soft plug back in. I blame it on the !!%**! swing out windshield. WD applied externally with the cable off may help
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Thanks, but there is no such wick on the 35-36 speedometer that I can see. I may just take an old one apart and see what makes it tick.
 
I'm pretty sure you will find a little plug down there somewhere.
Here's something I posted before...this will get a sound but sticky speedo going again:

Here's my speedo repair technique: remove bezel and glass, get speedo out of case. Get a tin can or something that allows you to set the speedo down with face up and secure balance, and study how you are going to hold the thing so neither your fingers nor the liquids to be used can touch the face or odometer. That stuff is VERY delicate and easy to destroy.
Near the cable end, on what amounts to the speedo's main bearing, is a tiny brass plug. Get it out--I usually manage to extract them unhurt by threading a tiny machine screw into the cup--and extract the piece of felt within.
I then repeatedly flood this lube well with first kroil then WD40 as it frees up, sometimes liquid wrench if I feel something thinner is needed. You want lots of fluid to go in there and then leak out the bottom to dissolve and wash out the petrified lubricant and crud.
When the shaft will spin freely by finger twirl--you should be able to get 5-10MPH easily by finger--soak several times with carb cleaner and then brake cleaner to remove all those miracle solvents. When drained and dry, I fillerup with Marvel Mystery Oil, based on my scientific observation that the only real speedo tech I ever saw in action used something that sure looked like MMO. Stuff felt&cap back into hole, well soaked. Let drain, reassemble.
The multiple screwdriver tip sets you can get at discount stores contain a Canadian Robertson tip (square) that fits early Ford speedos and allows you to motor them up. You can also do a very rough test based on the supposed RPM of your electric tool, based on the speedo's calibration of 1,000 RPM=60 MPH.

Here's a ratio test page:

http://www.speedometershop.com/rep-pag.htm
1. http://www.speedometershop.com/rep-pag.htm

 
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