After yanking out the speedo cable on my truck and lubing it with Phil Wood
bicycle grease, it's squeeking again. Any ideas on a good lubricant for this
application? I'm going to yank the cable again, but I don't want to make
this a weekly operation.

18 responses total.

What's a speedo cable? How much movement does it do?
You might try oil rather than grease, depending...

Speedo cable should be oiled, not greased... also, make sure it's
not kinking.

Way back when I was in high school and was into motorcycles, someone
sold a cable lube kit that consisted of a device to clamp over the
end of the cable so as to force oil into it, and an aerosol can of
oil.  It worked like a charm on brake and speedo cables.  I've never
seen anything like it since.  
  Part of the problem is that when you try to oil speedo cable, the
oil goes into it about 4 inches.  If the squeak is farther down, then
you're out of luck.  The above-mentioned device helped pressurize the
oil in the cable assembly so as to force it all the way through.
Lacking such a device, I guess you just keep squirting the heck out if
it with your favorite aerosol oil until oil (hopefully) drips out the
other end.

   I had a similar problem with the third-party (from Murray's...) clutch
cable I put in my old Chevette.  It would rub so hard that it would take
gargantuan effort to push the clutch in.  I just would take the cable out
every now and then (it was easy in this case, I dunno how a speedo cable 
would behave) and started pouring 3in1 oil down the top, holding the
cable up high, and running the wire in and out a bunch of time to try and
move the oil down.  It was a nuisance, but did the trick.

Any bike catalog will have an injection-style cable-oiler, possibly
quite like the one mentioned above.

Yes, use oil. In cold weather the grease will be too stiff and possibly
snap the cable when you begin to drive.  

Chevy speedo cables slip right out (from the top) once you take apart the 
instrument cluster. I pulled the cable and soaked it down with graphited lock
oil (the grease had essentially disappeared - Phil Wood grease is VERY light).
It seems to have improved the situation somewhat. With that noise gone (or
diminished), I have now noticed that the front U-joint is getting noisy. You
can't win (but for a total investment of less than $500, I probably shouldn't
complain). Thanks for the input.

Sort of like replacing your loud muffler and then hearing all those
squeaks in your front end?
 
Yeah, if the cable will come apart, that's great.  Clean it up with
solvent and then oil the heck out it.

What muffler? It fell off about a year ago - it sounded louder than I thought
it should and when I looked underneath it was just plain gone. The catalytic
converter does a pretty good job of keeping things reasonably quiet (I didn't
expect that) and since nobody has complained, I kept forgetting to replace it.

<grin>  Are you sure the catalytic converter is working properly
without a muffler?  I don't know that much about it, but converters
can fail if they get too hot...

It should run cooler with no muffler - lower back pressure, better gas flow ...

Well, whatever works...  I'd be scared about losing a catalytic
convert since they're so much more expensive than mufflers, but like
I said, I don't know much about it (I have a '73 Ford pickup -- no
converter).

Having no muffler is bad for your valves.

Catalytic?  No, officer, I didn't put that test pipe on there instead of a
catalytic converter, honest!

Bad for your valves??? I doubt It'll make much difference!

If there's no muffler and tailpipe, wouldn't the escaping exhaust corrode
the undercarriage of your car?

this is a $300 truck. the undercarriage is fine. the corrosion is where the
paint should be. GM can't make paint that lasts.

GM also doesn't know how to stick with primer that *works*, as is evidenced
on my Toronado.  Paint is fucking shriveling!

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