Where Is the Speedometer Cable Located?

Q: Where Is the Speedometer Cable Typically Located?

A: On vehicles with cable-driven speedometers, you can typically find the speedometer cable with one end connected to the gauge cluster and the other end to the transmission. It runs through the firewall and underneath the engine bay, where it connects to the transmission.

On a 1982 Celica Supra, you can find one end of the speedometer cable connected to the back of the gauge cluster and the other end screwed into the transmission. Older Ford and Chrysler models also used speedometer cables, but most modern vehicles don’t actually have speedometer cables anymore.

The speedometer cable is an important part of older speedometers, but speedometer cables began to disappear in the very early 1990s. It helps translate your vehicle’s drivetrain revolutions into a number that you can easily read on your speedometer so you can know how fast you’re driving.

The speedometer cable itself is a flexible steel cord that resists twisting force and runs all the way through a stiff, hollow, kink-proof internally lubricated tube all the way from the output shaft driven gear to the back of the speedometer, where it spins a magnet inside a small steel drum that is attached to the speedometer needle.

There is a small, weak spiral spring attached to the needle drum that keeps the needle at its resting post when the cable driven magnet isn’t spinning in the needle drum. As the magnet spins, the steel drum tries to follow the magnet, and the faster the magnet spins, the more the drum and needle move to indicate higher speeds.

Pro Tips are nuggets of information direct from ASE-certified automobile technicians working with CarParts.com, which may include unique, personal insights based on their years of experience working in the automotive industry. These can help you make more informed decisions about your car.

Pro Tip: Over time, the speedometer cable’s lubrication may fail to the point that the cable makes noise, or the needle might move erratically as the vehicle picks up speed.

Tips on How to Access the Speedometer Cable

Accessing the speedometer cable can be a complicated process. On some vehicles, you’ll have to pull out parts of the dashboard first just to get to one end of the speedometer cable. To replace the speedometer cable, you’ll have to get to the other end too, which is screwed into the transmission.

You’ll have to jack up your vehicle’s passenger side and crawl under so you can see the speedometer cable connected to the transmission. You can usually unscrew it with your hand, but it’s a good idea to keep a pair of pliers around in case it gets stuck.

Pro Tips are nuggets of information direct from ASE-certified automobile technicians working with CarParts.com, which may include unique, personal insights based on their years of experience working in the automotive industry. These can help you make more informed decisions about your car.

Pro Tip: On old Ford vehicles, you can remove the speedometer, carefully disconnect the cable, and you can actually pull the flexible cable out of its tube for inspection and lubrication. Then you can feed it back into the tube, very carefully spinning it with your fingers until it is reseated in the gear down at the transmission output. Not all speedometer cables are the same, though.