Wobbly ZX Speedo Needle

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russellfowden
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Wobbly ZX Speedo Needle

Post by russellfowden »

Annoys me. I've changed the speedo head, same result so must be cable or drive from gearbox. Is this a regular one? Anyone know what it is likely to be? Understand wobbly speedo quite a common Citroen problem....
Cheers all,
Russ
volcane305
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Post by volcane305 »

Hi I've seen three zx speedos wobble badly at around 60-70 mph. I first changed the cable which helped a little I don't know why. The problem was finally sorted by replacing the unit on the gear box. On my own car I just took the unit apart and 'cleaned' it a little which helped.
Chris_L
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Post by Chris_L »

OK this is quite a common one (it happens to mine too). Fortunately I've learnt to use the tacho more than the speedo and can't really be bothered to fix it, but I know pretty much how to do it. You need to go to your local Citroen garage and buy an LHM seal (about 10p or something). Then apparantly, you have to cut it in half and put it over the cable where it enters the speedo unit. I've never done it so I don't know the exact details, but it sounded really straight-forward when I was told. I'll ask my brother again as he used to work at a Cirtoen dealership. Watch this space for more details... In fact, when you go to get the seal, you might want to ask one of the mechanics there because it is a really common problem.
Hope this helps,
Chris
russellfowden
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Post by russellfowden »

Let me know Chris, because the Haynes manual says that changing the gearbox speedo drive assembly is a 3 spanner job (see their job coding system.) Which I'm up to, but any advice much appreciated!
Thanks
Russ
Jon

Post by Jon »

We talked about this problem last year (my speedo still flickers by the way)
Heres the link to last years topic.
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... PIC_ID=387
Jon Wood
IT Supervisor
GSF t/as Andyspares
Chris_L
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Post by Chris_L »

Hi again,
Well I've just had a chat with a couple of old mechanic contacts at Citroen and they've given me a bit more detail. The wobbly speedo problem occurs (as the previous conversation by Jon pointed out) when the speedo cable is badly alligned or loose fitting within the speedo unit. The fix that the garage usually uses (Citroen dealership) is to take an LHM seal, cut it in half length ways (ie make the length half of what it was before), remove the speedo cable from the speedo, push the seal over the end of the cable (it should be a really tight fit), then push the cable back into the speedo. This should make the cable fit a lot more snuggly in the unit and stop the wobble (or significantly reduce it). I was told that in most cases this works, but in some cases, a new cable must be fitted. I reckon this is probably worth a go if it means you only need a 10p seal and don't need to replace the cable (which sounds like a swine of a job).
Give it a go and let me know how you get on. If I have time, I might do mine this weekend too as I have a seal at home, so I'll let you know too.
Cheers,
Chris
higgy
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Post by higgy »

I had a similar problem on my xantia, the needle would wobble at about 40-55 mph.One day it started swinging wildly (the needle would swing from about 10-60mph regardless of my speed)then after a few days of this it stopped working altogether. I took out the speedo drive, no problem with that.I then used an electric drill to drive the cable, testing the upper and lower cable seperately. The problem only happened when the lower cable was connected,the only problem I could imagine was wear.I used some superglue on the part of the upper cable that joins into the lower and to this day the speedo has worked faultlessly.
hope this is of some help
spanners
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Post by spanners »

THERE USED TO BE A SIMILAR PROBLEM ON THE BX MODEL. THE WAY TO SOLVE IT WAS TO SEPERATE THE TWO CABLES AND PUSH A SMALL AMOUNT OF WELDING ROD INTO THE BOTTOM HALF (FEMALE END)ONLY A SMALL BIT SO THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR THE MALE PART TO GO IN THIS WILL TAKE UP THE SLACK.
russellfowden
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Post by russellfowden »

OK, for future reference the process of narrowing the problem down that I followed was to drive around with the binnacle removed - I could see the speedo head end of the cable was turning irregularly. I then split the cable at the join by the intercooler, jacked a wheel up and put the car in 1st and let it idle and turn a wheel - could see that the bottom end of the cable from the gearbox was turning regularly. I then replaced the top section of the cable (bless my local dealers who tried to give me the wrong part, luckily brain was in gear) and the needle is now steady. It was annoying me, especially around 30 mph speed cameras (as it was giving a 20mph odd wobble) and although taking the binnacle out is a bit of a fag it was well worth doing, see the Haynes manual or EMAIL me if you need further explanation as to how to do the job.
Cheers all for diagnosing the problem correctly, just shows the worth of experience!
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