59 Fleetwood-- Speedometer removal from cluster

[curly]

My 59's odometer quit at 79999.9 It made a loud popping sound and the needle began to bounce all over the place.  Both the trip and regular odometer quit counting.   Speedometer cable is good.  I just removed the cluster from the dash and I want to remove the speedometer itself from the cluster, but I cannot figure out how to remove the trip odometer cable.  It has what looks like a nut on the backside of the cluster, but it doesn't want to move.  Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks
T Lewis

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

It does unscrew.   Had mine out many times.

I think you will find that the odometer transfer gearing from the speedo base to the odometer rotator has become seized, and possible has a couple of worn teeth on either the nylon or diecast gearing.

You will need to be careful if you want to remove the speedometer needle from the shaft, and mark its' position on the "spinner" wheel as to where it sits when putting it back on.

I have lots of pictures when I rebuilt mine.

Bruce.

[MY 59]

My speedo died not long ago, made an unpleasant whirring sound, swung wildly and before I could stop the car she dropped to 0..never to work again

took it to a specialist, bearing had seized, stripped gears etc, wanted $400 bucks to fix,
got a second hand, nicely lubed replacement from a forum member for Waaaaaayyyyy less, and it works great
almost the same thing happened in my Fairlane many years ago, the high speed vibration was such that the pin that the needle clamps onto snapped before my eyes!

From what I remember, as Bruce said the odometer cable does unsrew though

[curly]

Thanks for the reply, I got it off. I was afraid to put too much oomph on that small nut, not being sure how it was attached.  Dropped the speedometer off at the shop today, hopefully the news will be good.

T Lewis