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Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:54 am

Terminal C is not designed for use in your car. Perhaps just cover it up somehow to prevent others from being confused. Glad to hear it's working now!

Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:57 pm

I think the speedometer cable broke on my 1965 beetle. It was making chirping sounds for a few weeks off and on, sounded like a bird was in my trunk. Then today while driving the needle was jumping up and down and then I heard a noise under the hood and the needle went straight to 0. No speedometer. I lived without a horn for so many years and now no speedometer. Is this a major job to replace?

type1vwjapan wrote: Hi. My speedometer just started making a clicking/ticking sound a couple of weeks ago. My speedometer appears to be in fine working order and the speedometer cable seems fairly new. All the lights work on it, the odometer turns fine, and the speedometer needle moves nicely as it should too.

Still that doesn't go to say that something doesn't need serviced inside. The speedometer cable still has all the rubber insulation and spins fine when I jack the car up and spin the front left wheel. While I was down there I inspected the cable and all seems well. It is in the wheel nice and good it seems and isn't loose. I can pull the cable out just a hair and then push it back in though. Should you be able to pull on the cable down by the wheel and move it in and out a little bit?

Also, I tried taking the speedometer out greasing the inside where the speedometer cable goes in too. I also squirted some engine oil down into the speedo cable. It would only take a little bit though. I must have a cable that isn't meant to be serviced.

I'm really at a loss what to do. It will sometimes not make noises for days and then other days it will do it a few times on one trip. If I shut the car off and then back on the noise goes away. Seems like the noise will start when I'm at an idle or when I'm just starting to take off. The clicking sound speeds up when I accelerate usually too.

This might be irrevelant but I'm also not 100% sure it is the speedometer making the noise or not. It definitely sounds like it. I was thinking it might be my speaker at first since I have a stock one behind the fresh air grill. I turned on the radio when it was making that noise once and the sound came through the speaker very loudly. Does that mean the sound is electrically related? I unhooked the radio and speaker and it still made the noise though.

I just don't know why the noise would stop after I restart the car. I even tried this once when the car was in motion and the sound stopped immediately as soon as I turned the car off. I thought it might still make the noise since this seems to be a mechanical problem in the cable or speedometer. The noise isn't that horrible just a faint clicking sound. But it is definitely very noticable.

My next idea is to try unhooking the speedometer cable from the speedometer to see if the noise goes away. THat won't however tell me if it's the cable or the speedometer making the noise. All that will tell me is that it's the cable or the speedometer making the noise for sure or not.

I might add that my electrical system is in excellent shape and very clean. Has given me zero problems since I've owned the car for the past few years.
Thanks for the help.

Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:56 pm

I learned a long time ago to never ignore a chirp or a squeak. I had a wheel fall off on me while driving (not a Beetle).

It's a good story though. Driving along and all of a sudden I hear CLUNK. I pull over and the wheel falls off.

Sun Oct 22, 2017 6:19 am

My self-canceling doesn't work at all, It's not even close to critical for me, though, so eventually I'll do something about it.

If you change out the turn signal switch, let us know how it goes.

Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:54 am

vwgirl1961a wrote: I think the speedometer cable broke on my 1965 beetle. It was making chirping sounds for a few weeks off and on, sounded like a bird was in my trunk. Then today while driving the needle was jumping up and down and then I heard a noise under the hood and the needle went straight to 0. No speedometer. I lived without a horn for so many years and now no speedometer. Is this a major job to replace?

First thing to do is to determine whether the speedometer itself is stuck or "seized", which would then cause the speedometer cable to break.

In the trunk, the speedometer cable can be unscrewed from the "front" of the speedometer and then one can try to spin the speedometer with a broken end of a speedometer cable or a small screwdriver while a helper or mirror is used to yell if the speedometer needle shoots up if the speedometer is operational. Of course if the speedometer locks up, the cable will also break, but that's a pretty straightforward replacement, attaches to a square hole in the dust cap of the front driverside wheel.

Toughest part of a complete speedometer replacement is to label all the wires in advance (and disconnect the battery) so that replacement can be installed correctly. I don't know if Dick's Speed-O-Tach in Tempe http://www.dicksspeedotach.com/ even does old VW speedometers.

Note that sometimes bad speedometers can be taken apart and cleaned and fixed by the VW owner, I did mine in my 1970 last year.

Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:07 am

Thanks again Cusser. The horn died about 4 years ago and I still haven't fixed it. I am getting quite a list of things to fix on my car. I feel like I am neglecting her. Times are rough right now financially. The things I fix first on my car are the mechanical problems which seems to be happening back to back lately. I still haven't gotten around to get the bowden tupe fixed properly. Again, I am thankful my drive to work is 6 miles round trip.

Cusser wrote: vwgirl1961a wrote: I think the speedometer cable broke on my 1965 beetle. It was making chirping sounds for a few weeks off and on, sounded like a bird was in my trunk. Then today while driving the needle was jumping up and down and then I heard a noise under the hood and the needle went straight to 0. No speedometer. I lived without a horn for so many years and now no speedometer. Is this a major job to replace?

First thing to do is to determine whether the speedometer itself is stuck or "seized", which would then cause the speedometer cable to break.

In the trunk, the speedometer cable can be unscrewed from the "front" of the speedometer and then one can try to spin the speedometer with a broken end of a speedometer cable or a small screwdriver while a helper or mirror is used to yell if the speedometer needle shoots up if the speedometer is operational. Of course if the speedometer locks up, the cable will also break, but that's a pretty straightforward replacement, attaches to a square hole in the dust cap of the front driverside wheel.

Toughest part of a complete speedometer replacement is to label all the wires in advance (and disconnect the battery) so that replacement can be installed correctly. I don't know if Dick's Speed-O-Tach in Tempe http://www.dicksspeedotach.com/ even does old VW speedometers.

Note that sometimes bad speedometers can be taken apart and cleaned and fixed by the VW owner, I did mine in my 1970 last year.

Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:19 am

Inoperative horn can be a safety issue - it's needed to warn others (drivers and pedestrians).

The function of the horn is for safety - not so one can honk at other people they know as a greeting (like one of my old girlfriends thought). Really.

Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:36 pm

A horn, just like your blinkers should be used regularly. My wife does disagree and so do some communities.

Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:46 am

I do plan to fix the horn. I miss hearing it too.

kawfee wrote: A horn, just like your blinkers should be used regularly. My wife does disagree and so do some communities.

Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:11 am

The horn itself is easy for a mechanic to check out. Your horn (underneath front on driver side) needs to have 6 volts positive going to it when the key is in the "run" position, and needs to blast when the second terminal is "jumped" to ground".

If so, then the horn itself is OK, and likely the issue would be in the contacts in the horn switch in the steering wheel, like maybe the wire has fallen off.