VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1971-1979 1972 El Camino

How does one fix what appears to be a squeak (whining sound) coming from the speedometer in a 1972 El Camino? It is one constant sound. Does it need greased? If, so, how do you do that? Thanks,

You can get speedometer cable lube at most parts houses. Just follow the instructions. If that doesn't cure it you may need speedo work....Joe

Joe: Thanks for the help. Do you also know how to get to the speedometer cable? Do you go through the interior of the car? It seems very hard to get to. Help. Thanks,

You lay on your back in the drivers side & fish your hand up behind the dash & find the cable. It either clips in or it may be threaded. You will need college coarse "Contortion 101" once you get the flashlight in there too.....Joe

Hi Dan,

It may not be the cable whining..... it may be the bearing inside the speedo head.

The only repair solution is to remove the speedo head from the instrument panel.

There is a bronze bearing on the speedo head, that the drum spins. At this stage of life - I am sure, the bearing has lost most of its oil. It can be relubricated with light machine oil such as 3 in 1.

If you have a SS dash - it will have to be dropped to access the speedo head. I am not sure if the standard El Camino dash will also require removal, as I do not recall if the speedo head came out from the front or the rear?

The cable is held on the speedometer by a spring clip. It is nearly impossible to push the end of the clip and pull on the cable simultaniously so it will come loose. There is probably a tool that makes the job easier but I don't have it. I used a screw driver to push on the clip but since you can see anything it is all by feel.

An alternate is to remove the instrument cluster and then when pulled partially out the clip and cable are relatively easily removed.

Hopefully you will find that you can remove the cable from transmission and force some lube up the cable or remove the inner cable and lube it. Been too long since I took my '72 apart to remember if that is possible. My speedometer makes a horrible noise and the needle jumps around occasionally. So far nothing has broken so I do my best to ignore it. It eventually settles back to normal and then I feel better as I don't have to work on it.

Thanks for all the help.

I had a '72 Chevelle, same dash as the El Camino. Save yourself lots of headaches and skinned knuckles and pull the trim around the instrument cluster, take out the screws that hold the cluster in and gently work it back. The speedometer cable may try and hold it back. You might want to go under the hood and see if you can push a couple inches of cable into the car. Once you get it back a few inches you can take one and use your fingers to push the clip that goes around the cable forward towards the instrument cluster and take your other hand and gently turn and pull on the cable housing and it should release off the speedometer. Once the cable is off you can take the cluster out of the way. Then you can pull the cable out of the housing. Have a few rags handy because it will be a oily mess. Clean it good, if it seems real gummed up I would take the cable off the transmission and then spray some brake cleaner down through the housing to clean it. Make sure that the brake clean drys before you put the cable back in. If you can find some actual cable lube I'd use that, put it on the cable as you feed it back into the housing If you can't find cable lube get some powedered graphite, do the same. Put it back together and things should be all better. Sounds worse than it is, you should be able to do this start to finish in less than 2 hours.

Don

Thanks, Don. Everything is looking good, now. Appreciate the help.

I would like to thank Joe, Oliver, Chipper and Don for all the help in correcting this problem.