[Shotimes] Nope... It's Definitely Official.....I've Killed My Speedo Drive Gear

[George Fourchy]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 23:46:04 -0800, Tom Day wrote:

>From what I remember from replacing a speed sensor, if you have cruise I
>would think the tranny and ss are okay. Maybe the new cable core just isn't
>fitted into the ss. 

Nope....all the hopefull scenarios are dead.  I took the driven gear out, and it
looks OK.  So I was hoping that something like the above possibility was the case,
but it isn't.  The drive gear is worn to the point that it barely engages the driven
gear.  There is a _VERY_ small amount of wear (but no damage) in the center of the
teeth of the driven gear....enough to shrink its diameter by a tiny fraction....far
less than a 32nd of an inch.  So a new gear _MIGHT_ work, for a while, but I don't
think so.  A larger gear might work, or a mount machined to allow the gear to be
closer to the drive gear.  I cleaned everything off so that there would be a minimum
of pollution going into the oil, which is visible when looking down into the driven
gear opening.  Then I put a new O ring on the top of the driven gear...the original
was worn to the point it was almost not there.....the gear would fall out of the
housing that it rides in.  With the new O ring in place, it all works properly,
except that when reinstalled there is (still) barely any contact between the two
gears.  The driven gear will rotate...sort of...when things go forward, but stays
still when the diff goes backwards.  This is what was making the SS work, and
allowing the cruise to function.  There isn't enough of a connection between the two
gears to drive all the inertia/load of 3 feet of cable and the speedo yoke.

You'll all have to take my word for it that the car makes it to 300K...I'm not
taking the tranny out and destroying differential bearings for just this.  It gets
510 miles per work week on the commute, plus whatever else it might do on days off. 
So basically it goes 3060 miles in 6 weeks, which is about how often it was getting
an oil change.  For the last two weeks or so it has been up in the air in the
garage.  It will go together and be on the road either today or tomorrow.

Eva wants it to retire now.  If she lets me get a new set of Zinik Adrian wheels and
a set of RE-750s....245/40/18s....for the GS, I might do it.  (Fat Chance!!!) 
Otherwise....no speedo for the next 8 months or so.

Don't use Rock Auto speedo cables for SHOs.  They're the culprits.

George