I was driving the Belvedere out to a car shoew taday and about
halfway there, I looked down at the speedometer and the needle was gone......pegged out at 120. It stays there unless I come to a stop, and then is drops to about 100 or so untill I start driving again and it pegs back out. It doesn't jump around at all like some posts I've read. When the car is off, it stays pegged I checked the connection under the dash at the cluster and that was good, and the connection at the tranny is also tight. Any ideas? how involved is pulling the instrument cluster? Anything else that I should check that might cause this?

 

Troubles like that are right in the instrument. The speedo is not exactly mechanically driven DIRECTLY. It is driven by a magnetic coupling. IF the parts inside get worn and contact each other, or if rust/ debri get in between what you describe can happen.

Time to look for a repair shop, or another speedo.

I don't even use mine. I just use a GPS!!

 

Thanks 440...so you're pretty sure it's not a cable issue then. I was going to try to replace that first. (cheap). I'm assuming I would need to pull the instrument panel and find a place to send it to (no where around here that I know of). Any suggestions as far as quality work?

 

Sorry I sure don't know. Many larger metro areas have a shop that specializes in speedo/ instrument repair.

 

Found one online called "Autoinstruments.com" that sounds pretty good. Mopar muscle had an article about instrument panel restoration and they used this company. I think I'll give them a shot if I can get the thing out of the dash without any problems. Wish there was an exploded view or diagram of the inner detail of the dash that I could use as a guide.