87 300D Speedo Screeeeeching
 

Driving to work this morning (cold last night here) and once it hit 40mph I heard a loud screeching noise from speedo. It got louder with speed, by 70 mph I couldnt hear the radio anymore.

So I pulled the cluster (on the fly, mind you) and reached back and unscrewed the speedo cable from speedo and the noise stopped.

Is there some fix for this problem on the speedo? Any way to rebuild or replace the worn parts? Speedo worked fine before today but today is a whole new day. Apparently.

I would try lubing it before I started replacing parts.

Pull out the cluster, turn it face down, and put a few drops of ATF (preferably synthetic) at the inside edge of the hole where the speedo cable is inserted. This will usually cure the noise, but a couple of treatments may be required. Photos of the offending parts are below... the metal shaft sits inside a bronze/brass (?) tube, and once the lube dries up... it makes noise.

Make sure you pull the speedo cable down after re-installing the cluster... look for white stripes on the cable, behind the brake pedal. The marks should line up with the metal clip on the plastic trim. Otherwise the cable will be kinked behind the cluster, and the cable will break within a few weeks or months. (Don't ask how I know...!)

http://www.w124performance.com/image...internals6.jpg

http://www.w124performance.com/image...internals7.jpg

Thanks! As always, this forum comes thru!!

While Im in there, are any of those gears associated with my non-working odo that I can easily replace?

Whoa, whoa, whao... hold on there! ;) You don't want to take the speedo apart. The photos were just to show what's inside. If you take it apart that far, it may not ever go back together properly, or may not work (or be accurate) when you're done. Full disassembly should be left to a VDO repair shop (usually $100-$125 or so for a 'rebuild').

To cure the noise, you don't even need to take the speedometer out of the instrument cluster housing. Just put a few drops of ATF at the inside edge of the hole where the cable inserts into the back side... let it sit face down for a while, that should allow the lube to penetrate in there. Don't use more than a few drops though.

:o