speedometer pinging

[skittles]

Hey all,

Another minor problem. The speedometer has been making some pinging noises for a few months now. It use to be when the speed reached 60-65 mph. It would make some pinging ringing noises and it would jump 5 mph. The car wouldn't go faster but the gauge would read 5 mph faster. NOW it starts to ping at 45 and by the time I reach highway speeds with the other cars I can't tell if I am doing 60, 65 or 70. The only way to regulate the speed is to look at the RPM and make sure I stay around 1500.

Here is the question. Has this happened to any other people.? I have a 94 Explorer Sport with 100,787 miles. How hard is it to fix? Is it something that we can do or should I take it to get done? Reasonable price?

Thanks for all the comments.
*smiles*
Dead Link Removed
skittles

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I'm just a girlie girl who *smiles* and *giggles* alot... *smiles* skittles@uplink.net

 

[indianajohn]

It sounds like your speedometer cable needs lubrication. I had this same problem with an old Ranger of mine and greasing it took care of the noise/fluctuation. I reccomend removing the speedometer cable. It should be attached to the transmission with one bolt on one end and to the rear of your insturment panel at the other. Once you have it removed, you can lubricate the cable with a good heavy grease(if you can remove the cable from the housing). On a lot of cables though, the cable can't be removed from the housing, in which case you may try applying oil in one end and letting it run through the cable to the other end (which may take a while)... the other alternative is to simply replace the cable. Hope this answers your question.
-jm