In every car thread someone always posts a message like "I wish I knew how to fix cars". You think you do, but you really don't want to know. Cars suck, they're a pain in the ass. You think a cheap PC case has sharp edges? Try reaching through the dashboard of a car to the firewall. It's like reaching through a twisting turning maze of cheap PC cases, where the widest holes are about 1/2" narrower than your arm. I think about half the skin on my right arm is missing...
All this to replace a speedometer cable, which, of course, took half an hour to get through the firewall in the first place. You have a cable that's roughly as flexible as re-bar, and you have to bend it 70 degrees in a space about 2 inches wide to thread it through a hole that's just slightly smaller than the connector at the end of the cable. An hour later, once you've got that through the firewall, you get to put the dash back together, which requires you to be able to put the gauge cluster within 1/2" of the dash, and then somehow reach behind it to plug in electrical connections.
After the dash is back together, you get to crawl under the car into a big pile of greasy dirt, to attempt to hook the cable up to the transmission. Only n ow do you discover that the end of the cable, which is supposed to fit inside a VSS sensor, is about 1/16" too big to fit in there. So, you spend the next half hour sitting in the dirt next to the car with a file, since the cable is only so long and you can only lift it about 1 foot off the ground.
Eventually, you've reduced the size of the cable to fit in the VSS, so you hook that up, and spend the next 20 minutes trying to wedge the VSS/Speedo cable assembly into the transmission, where there's exactly 1/2" too little room above the crossmember to fit it.
Eventually, 2 hours later and covered in blood and dirt, you get to start the car and find that the speedo needle no longer bounces up and down about 10mph on either side of your actual speed while driving. Was it worth it?
All this to replace a speedometer cable, which, of course, took half an hour to get through the firewall in the first place. You have a cable that's roughly as flexible as re-bar, and you have to bend it 70 degrees in a space about 2 inches wide to thread it through a hole that's just slightly smaller than the connector at the end of the cable. An hour later, once you've got that through the firewall, you get to put the dash back together, which requires you to be able to put the gauge cluster within 1/2" of the dash, and then somehow reach behind it to plug in electrical connections.
After the dash is back together, you get to crawl under the car into a big pile of greasy dirt, to attempt to hook the cable up to the transmission. Only n ow do you discover that the end of the cable, which is supposed to fit inside a VSS sensor, is about 1/16" too big to fit in there. So, you spend the next half hour sitting in the dirt next to the car with a file, since the cable is only so long and you can only lift it about 1 foot off the ground.
Eventually, you've reduced the size of the cable to fit in the VSS, so you hook that up, and spend the next 20 minutes trying to wedge the VSS/Speedo cable assembly into the transmission, where there's exactly 1/2" too little room above the crossmember to fit it.
Eventually, 2 hours later and covered in blood and dirt, you get to start the car and find that the speedo needle no longer bounces up and down about 10mph on either side of your actual speed while driving. Was it worth it?
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