Ever heard of a speedo cable causing injuries?

It seems like on older cars which use a rotating speedo cable running from the transmission to the speedometer, the cable might come loose at the speedometer, drop under the dash panel and the spinning part injure the driver. But I’ve never once heard of this happening. Just a curiosity is all, has anyone ever heard of an injury caused by a dislodged speedo cable?

2 Likes

I reconnected a speedometer cable on a neighbors hot rod. Extreme PITA, Even with a complete separation I doubt the cable would drop down. There is a lot of stuff crammed under the dash that would keep the cable in place

I have had a couple come loose but never came out far enough to cause any harm.

My vw had the cable going to the front wheel. When it broke I did not get injured. I think the new cable was two dollars.

How would it cause an injury? It’s a small cable rotating inside a casing.

1 Like

If it somehow managed to come off the speedometer it would still have to find its way through all the under-dash clutter of wires and struts to make contact with the driver. If you’d ever installed one you’d know how improbable that is.

If, though, it somehow made it out from under the dash, the cable housing would not be rotating, only the wire inside it spins. And once it pulls about half an inch out of the cable housing it’s no longer connected to the speedometer drive, so it would no longer move at all.

Doesn’t seem too deadly to me…

1 Like

Sounds like @George_San_Jose1 is changing the speedo cable on one of his vehicles this weekend . . . ?! :thinking:

2 Likes

Ever heard of a Speedo cable causing injuries?
The short answer is NO.

1 Like

Never heard of anything like that ever happening. Biggest problem I could see would be that if it did happen the driver might get startled and crash.
It would be a once in trillions event IMO.

1 Like

I also never heard of any injuries from an errant speedo cable. My most vivid recollection of anything related to the old speedo systems is from a ride on the NJ Turnpike in a friend’s first-generation Pontiac Tempest. All of a sudden the speedo needle started oscillating from 0 to 120, and then it began to do that dance faster and faster and faster until–pop!–the cable snapped and it read zero… permanently.

The speedo problem was relatively minor compared to the cost of replacing the rear tires at least once a year, as a result of the swing axles and–I assume–weak rear springs. I suggested frequent tire rotation, but he just kept on replacing the rear tires every 10k miles or so, when the inner edge of the tread was bald. The first-generation Tempest had the same rear suspension as the Corvair.

1 Like