I plan to put in a speedo cable today (well plan is keyword lol - fam and kids... you know) into my 205 TF... it has the white gear in it which I think is either 16 or 18 teeth - I forget exactly - but I guess it's gonna be a fun experiment to figure out!

 

least as far as our availability, it's only 16t to 21t range (https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/produc..._Transfer_Case) so hopefully you have a 16 on there now and the one from the C6 is 21t.........

Paul. Is that price per each or for the 6 pack?

 

So - got my cable installed today in my 4-speed manual (NP435) and have a couple of follow up questions for those with more experience:

1. The driven gear that I had already in the TF was a yellow 18-tooth count that looks like this:



The driving gear is also yellow and based on my observation - the teeth also also slanted right (i.e. they look like this when looking in the hole: ///////) - I believe this is what I have:


Now I did some poking around in the event I'd have to replace the gear (gonna test drive tomorrow as it was getting late) and found out that apparently the "proper" driven gear is supposed to look like this:



Notice the teeth are slanted left instead of right and the bottom is not smooth like the yellow gear but instead has straight cut teeth. So - what is the correct driven gear for a 4 speed NP435 with a NP205? The left slant or right slant?

2. This is going to sound stupid but what is the proper orientation of the clip - does the flush part points into the TF or out of the TF?

3. And the last but most annoying question: When I was installing the cable, I realized I could only install one end fully - either into the cluster or the TF. After digging and poking I realized that the inner cable inside the speedo cable was too long. If I was to snap the cable into the speedo, on the driven will not slide fully onto shaft because the inner cable gets stopped by the nub:





So what I ended up doing was snip the tip of my gear off to allow the cable to go through. That allows the inner cable to go through and then the driven gear can slide to its proper place and get locked by the clip. Is that right, though? Am I missing something simple that would allow everything to install correctly without modifying the gear?


Thanks all in advance!

 

Cutting the gear should not be necessary. You might have to apply some "pressure" to put the gear on the cable end and clip it. If it cannot be done that way, I might suggest that your cable is incorrect or needs replaced.

 

The cable I got is this one:

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c...er+cable&pos=0

And I based installation on this video:


I've tried pushing that gear as far as I could but it would just not budge - I was not able to get the gear to slide all the way down the shaft so I could lock the clip...

 

Well, I'm about to go swap mine from a 16 tooth to a 17 for a trial run...I'll snap a few pics

I'm running 35's with 4.11's with a 7 tooth drive gear.

 

Here, just swapped mine out. I press the tip of the new gear on a solid piece of metal surface to really dig that gear in there, then, popped the clip on. It was tight, but I was able to press hard enough to get the clip to snap in. Make sure the square gear hole is lining up with the cable properly.

 

That should be good. If your tires are close to 35" with wear and squish the 17 should be closest. If they are worn etc. and closer to 33" then an 18 should be closest.

 

I tried the 16 tooth and the 17 tooth, no Bueno. I'm still 32 mph on the speedometer in the dash when the GPS says I'm going 40.

I think my dash gauge may have been "dropped" once or twice tbh! I have a new cable, new drive gear, and now new cable gears!

Ohh well, it's easier to put in a phone mount

 

Alright - thanks for the tip. I'll see if the exiting gear works (the 18 tooth one) and get a replacement to try and install without cutting the tip off. Thanks!

 

Update from my test drive:

1. The 18 tooth gear is... not the correct one lol. At 30 MPH on speedo I am actually going 35; at 40 I am ~47, 50 is ~58 and 60 is 70. Can anyone point me to the right gear?

2. The speedo needle is wobbly despite it being a brand new speedo cable. It definitely wobbles a lot at lower space (under 10) and as speeds get higher it jiggles rapidly but not a wide wobble across many tick marks (the jiggle is basically like a +/- 1 MPH on the speedo). Any idea of what that could be? Old speedometer gauge? Worn gear (if so which one)? Could be cuz of the snipping I did because I couldn't get the driven gear all the way on the shaft?

Thanks!

 

Ford Speedometer Calculator This site is accurate for me, so I wonder if some numbers aren't the same as what you thought, or maybe your speedo is broken. It seems unlikely that it would be broken, but still work, just slow, but I don't have much experience with that.


Do you have 3.50 gears and 35s? 60-70 is about 15% and each tooth on the driven gear adjust about 5%. If you want to make things spin faster then you would put a smaller gear on the cable end. If you wanted ~15% then you would need to drop 3 teeth.

My rig with a NP205, stock gears (3.50), stock drive gear (7 tooth) needed a 16 tooth for 33s. With 35s I would have needed that imaginary 15 tooth driven gear. That's why I have an 8 tooth drive gear sitting on my workbench. I just ended up buying 33s and not needing it currently.

 

mine is only off by 2 at 30 but it’s off by 5-6 at 60, I’ve heard there’s mathematical explanation for that.

Have you pulled the cluster apart and lubed the speedo mechanism? I’ve had the needle dance in old stuff I’ve resurrected and it’s sometimes the speedometer head is dried out. A little lube and a drill they’ll smooth right out

 

I have 3.73 rear end with 33". At 2500 RPM in 4th gear, I am at about 65 MPH (using GPS speedo) which based on online tools comes to be 3.73 gears. I don't think I will upgrade to 35"s - looks kinda ridiculous lol. I just realized the link to the calculator is provided in the posts below - so, if I am at 33", with 3.73 and a 7 tooth gear - the math shows I need a 16.5 tooth driven gear... so does that mean 16 or 17?

And - any ideas what could cause the jiggle?

 

I did have it out - but no, I didn't lube anything... suppose I should have? Whats the best way to go about doing it? And when you say to use a a drill - how exactly? Sorry for the n00b questions... thanks though