The speedo cable on my 1984 300D is making noise. It sounds like scraping each revolution. The speedo shop says to lubricate the inner cable. I was told to unscrew it from the speedometer, and then pull the inner cable out of the jacket and lubricate it. But mine does not want to come out. I used a small bit of force with pliers. But I don't want to totally mess it up. No experience with this.

I have to admit that it may even be the speedometer. The sound comes from it, but the speedo shop said it comes from the cable through the speedometer.

Please help.

Thank you.

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1984 300D Turbo

The noise is most likely from the cable, as you were told. However, your cable and housing are inseparable from the factory. As a temporary fix, apply 90w gear oil at the top of the cable in the housing head. Prop it up so that it stays put in an upright position. It takes about 20 minutes for the oil to empty into the housing. Repeat this 4 or 5 times. Sooner or later though, you will need to replace the cable/housing assembly. It's an easy fix.

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

EZ,
I hope that's all it is. I ordered the cable already. Is it something a novice can do?

BTW, what do you mean by polish instead of chroming? You probably mean the wheels, right? But if the chrome is worn and pitted, I don't think can you really polish it out. My mechanic told me that he could get all 4 rechromed for less than $800. I am not really going to do that just yet. But curious anyway.

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1984 300D Turbo

Yes, a novice can do it. The most difficult part is installing the rubber grommet through the hole in the firewall. I found the easiest way is to push the grommet inside-out first. Once installed, put some liquid soap on the cable where it slides thru the hole. If not, when pulling the cable thru, it may pull the grommet out, making you start all over again.

MBZ alloys are not chromed to begin with. So if you have the the plastic coating stripped off, have the wheels polished. Chrome on soft alloy will always chip off.

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

wrt the cable, you might just have it pulled too far towards the speedo or tranny. You might want to get under the car and verify that it is about in the middle of its range of allowable movement, with some slack at both ends.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

EZRider, Thanks. I'll get to this on Monday.

RS, This could be part of my problem -- that I pulled the cable to far when attempting to loosen the speedometer cable from its back.

ANOTHER POINT
I unscrewed the cable yesterday and drove for a while. I heard NO noise from the cable. Two thoughts came to me:

1) the problem is in the speedometer itself

OR. . .

2) the cable noise is only heard when using the speedometer as a sound board. Without the sound board effect, the noise is lost below the sound proofing.

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

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1984 300D Turbo

A mechanical speedometer definitely transmits noise.

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Don't Chrome them; polish them