Just want to make sure my brain hasn't gone completely off the track...

The Speedo in my old beast doesn't appear to want to spin at all. I removed the cable from the rear of transmission and the plastic gear seems fine...meaning it still has all of the teeth left on it; the cable doesn't appear to be bound up anywhere either.

SO! My thinking is to just replace the cable all together, however all the ones I've come across don't have the gear on the tail end, so is there a better upgraded gear (maybe metal) that can be used or is it one of those SOL deals stuck with the plastic gear?
Nate

 

the gear clips on the end of the cable.

you are going to have to pull the instrument cluster to get the cable out of the housing.
i would pull the cluster and see if it is indeed the cable, or if the issue is the speedometer head.

 

I've got the entire dash apart since I'm working on fixing the rats nest of wiring under the dash from the previous owner (it's a bloody disaster) so how would you test the Speedometer gauge itself? My intention is to swap the cable anyway but if the gauge is bad it can go too....

 

something in the cable port on the speedo head and spin it with a drill.
if you are going to replace the cable anyway, cut a few inches off the end of the cable and chuck that into the drill. i just don't remember which direction you will need to spin the cable.

 

ill give it a shot here in a couple with the cable (the cut method sounds more appealing &#128513 - just swapped out all the light bulbs for LED's in the dash and working on the leaky power steering pump