Speedometer cable lubrication

I’m working on reinstalling the speedometer cable today but thought I’d clean it up first and lubricate it. According to past posts it appears graphite lubricant is preferred for the cable itself. What about the angle drive? There’s a little screw on the side of it that I figured was for oil. Is that correct? And if so, what type of oil?

Hi Rick, this is from a 1968 Smiths Industries publication. As far as the gearbox- a lightweight moly grease would be good, IIRC.

Yep, this is what the E-Type Service Manual recommends too.

Jerry

Still a little confused about the angle drive that attaches to the transmission. Is the hole with the little screw in it for lubrication? If so, it seems that due to the size of the hole, it would have to be a liquid lubricant.

Never had to lube mine, nothing is called for in the manual, no problems for 42 years…

Jerry

The screw in the angle drive is not for lubrication.
If you want, you could take the angle drive out and take it apart and reassemble with grease.

One thing to watch out for is that you should NOT over grease the cable. I did this and with the cable rotating the grease worked its way up to the speedo and went into the speedo and made problems.

The speedo cable’s design is that with a little grease once, it should be good for a lifetime.

I had many cable failures so I made sure there were no kinks and I got special insulating cloth to cover the cable in the area near the exhaust manifold

Thanks everyone. I’ll just lube the cable with graphite.

I am still curious what that little screw is for though…:nerd_face:

Hi Rick,
It looks as if the little screw hole is an oiling port. Just a drop every 25 years or so and the screw is to keep dirt out.
A few weeks ago my speedo packed up and I have just removed the centre console in order to get to the angle drive, which proved to be the culprit. The drive from the gearbox to the angle drive sheared, with one half stuck in the gearbox.
I must have missed the 25 year angle drive oil change.
Regards
Chris
Cape Town

I’d always assumed one end was lubed by the transmission fluid and the other end by whatever cable lubricant worked it’s way down there. I never lubed one either.

Rick,
I opened and repaired my angle drive today. The angle drive case had grease inside. Therefor the little screw is not plugging an oiling hole. The screw is obviously to keep dirt out of the hole. So hopefully that solves the question regarding the screw, but not that of the hole, yet!
Regards
Chris