The first tools I suggest you find to tackle this problem is a small set of hands! Do you have children or grandchildren who can assist? You will also need a phillips screwdriver.
Take off your glovebox and you should see a black cable, or grey cable outer housing. The OEM was grey if a remember correctly and the aftermarket ones are black.
The OEM ones had an extension on the nut connecting the speedo cable to the angle drive. You can undo this now and pull the cable down. There will be a bracket that you need to undo as well that holds the cable to the correct routing in relation to the steering column.
If your cable is aftermarket then get your screwdriver out and take off the cover off the top of the instrument cluster. The top will slide back towards you. There are a couple of clips that you push up on as well I think. Then locate the two screws. Do not loose these screws. They are an odd thread. Undo the screws and now the cluster can be slide towards you. Disconnect the wires for the warning lights in the cluster. You will have to feed the cable up a bit. What you are looking to access is the angle drive. Get a small hand back there and undo the angle drive from the cluster. Then remove the whole thing. If you have dis connected the OEM cable then you can leave the angle drive on. And remove it once you have the cluster out, as you have already disconnected the speedo cable.
Here is what the angle drive looks like:
The Smiths number is BG 2410/0.
www.ebay.com
BG2410/00
You can see the thin threaded "nut" that you will have to undo.
I would get a square driver that fits the back of the speedo and spin it by hand and see if it spins freely. Then spin it with a drill. You should be able to get a good idea if your speedo is good.
Now inspect the angle drive. Does it spin freely or is it seized. Also inspect that you do not have a cable stub stuck inside from a broken speedo cable.
Then inspect the speedo cable. Has the tip broken off? Often they break by the angle drive. If it has then you need to check the angle drive and speedo to make sure they are in order, as if they are seized and you replace the speedo cable then the new one will break straight away.
If there is a speedo and gauge shop nearby they should be able to make a new cable if you send them a sample of the inner. They should be able to check your speedo for you in you have doubts about it also. Replacing the inner and outer cable is a bit more involved, but not too bad. We can go through that if you need to.
The angle drive BG2410/00 is readily available on ebay. If you look at the photo you see the plate on the back held on by 2 screws. This is the only difference between a BG2410/00 and BG2410/01 02 03 04. The plate is a locator plate and goes over a pin (dowel) on the back of the speedo. So if you have one of the other variants of BG2410 angle drive you can just swap over the plate.
Do you have a wiring diagram? If not record the wire colors that you disconnect from the speedo warning lights. This will make reconnection easier.
When you reassemble things, if you have an aftermarket cable I would recommend connecting the cable to the angle drive then angle drive to instrument cluster. Small hands work best for this!
Then reconnect the wires and then push back the speedo and put in the screws and do them up. If you cannot get them started then a wire might be in the way. It is a little tricky to get it line up sometimes. Then reinstall the cover over the warning lights.
This should get you started. If you need explanation about full change out of the speedo cable then let us know.
James.
