speedometer does not work. - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

suprabran · 06-11-2008, 01:57 PM

Hey guys my speedometer is not working at all. What I have heard is they work by cable. I thought possibly it could be a sensor so I am letting all you supra gurus help me out. I followed the cable from the transmission to the exhaust side. Now when I pull on the cable near the fire wall it moves a lot. Could it not be hooked up from the motor swap a while back. I just started driving it 2 weeks ago, and no speed at all. Is it just cable operated? Or could it also be a sensor?

Jeeves · 06-11-2008, 02:56 PM

It's a cable, No sensor. A lot of people would be overjoyed if it were sensor driven.

It runs Out the tranny (passenger side), up the firewall, across, and in behind the drivers console. If it's in fact hooked up, the cable probably broke. Replace it. Depending on the year of your car it's either 2 or three pieces.

[img]http://xd.**********s.com/uploads/ffb270588c.jpg[/img]

suprabran · 06-11-2008, 09:42 PM

It is a 88 non turbo. Do you know any places with good prices. I checked autozone nothing so they told me the dealer is the best, but for one cable is $100 if I have to replace all 3 then it is going to get expensive.

Jeeves · 06-16-2008, 02:22 PM

Dealer is the only place. It's worth it

suprabran · 06-23-2008, 12:20 PM

suprabran · 06-23-2008, 12:21 PM

Is this a bad cable or just disconnected. I am sorry it is big I just learned how to put it up.

Jeeves · 06-23-2008, 04:19 PM

Looks like the connector broke, but the photo is outta focus so it's hard to tell.

suprabran · 06-23-2008, 08:51 PM

I will take another tomorrow if it is not raining.

suprabran · 06-24-2008, 09:01 PM

will a 87-89 turbo speedometer cable work on a 88 non turbo?

Jeeves · 06-25-2008, 05:38 PM

I believe the only differences were between the early models (86.5-88) and the later models (89+). But call toyota, they should be able to tell you if the part numbers are different.

suprabran · 06-27-2008, 08:05 PM

I have found one on Ebay its the only one I have found so far. If I do end up getting it, how do you change the cables out if it is only for the instrument cluster? Is it simple or hard?

***bgrieger*** · 06-28-2008, 01:01 PM

pain in the ass but not hard. Remove instrument cluster, remove the other end of the busted connector, fish the new cable through the engine bay and have fun taking the 2 cables apart. I found that connection to be corroded badly on my turbo car and had to replace the entire works. You might have not problems however.

myothersupra · 07-01-2008, 01:55 PM

Dude,
It's a 2-piece cable for a 5-speed or 3-piece cable for an auto, they should all be totally interchangeable from any year, and the 3rd piece for the auto is just a little 90 degree hollow metal "elbow" about the size of your thumb with a short piece of cable inside it where the cable meets the tranny housing so a manual cable with an elbow added should work with an auto or an auto cable with the elbow removed should work with a 5-speed afaik... There may be a minor length difference with the shorter section that runs under the car for the 5-speed or the auto but I know someone that swapped their auto for a R154 and connected their car's original elbow to it for some crazy reason even though there's enough length to remove it so I know the auto's cables will work on the 5-speed and I can only assume that if you add the elbow to a 5-speed's cable it will work fine on an auto as well...
The only reason for the elbow is that the 5-speeds' cable connection is at an angle that points towards the front of the car but the auto tranny's connection points straight out to the side instead.

Unscrew the cable from the tranny (may have to drop the tranny support to get to it, just 8 bolts) and spin it by hand with someone watching to see if the needle wiggles or bounces at all, if not then one section is broken and you can unscrew them from each other one by one and repeat the test to see which section has broken and replace just that section.
Typically it's an auto that's more prone to speedo failure because the little 90 degree elbow's internal cable fatigues and breaks after being spun constantly when the car's moving while bent at that angle and being flexed for so many years, but the nylon speedo gear inside the tranny will eventually get so worn down that it starts slipping, loses enough of a tooth that it gets stuck and instantly gets stripped flat at that spot, never to rotate again. A new gear is fairly cheap from the dealer and is easy to take out of the tranny (1 bolt) but sometimes turns into a major pain to reinstall.
I've seen the gear get replaced and the new one strip again a few days later on a friend's 91T but I think it somehow got installed wrong by the person that helped him do it and it bound up again for some reason and I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive... I'll find out when he calls me to come swap it out and we see how long this one lasts...

So test your cable to see if it's a section of the cable or the gear in the tranny and order the part(s) you need from your dealer.

I don't know for sure but I'm also assuming that there are physically interchangeable but different versions of the speedo gear depending on the various differential ratios to get the speedo to read correctly so you'd have to specify which model and year of Supra you have or which model and year Supra's diff you're running in your car now instead to get the right gear for your speed to read properly. LSD shouldn't matter, just 3.73 (late '88T - 92T) 3.90 (87T - mid 88T) or 4.30 (N/A) (all usdm, not the jdm diffs) and yes I know those ratio numbers aren't quite exact...

Hope this info helps...

Good Luck!