The speedometer on my '86 Hatch pegs the needle past 100mph by the time I reach about 20mph. I did a search on this and found that it is caused by a bad oil seal where the speedo cable screws into the tranny. That allows oil to travel up the cable into the speedo head. There is an air gap in the speedo head that when contaminated with oil causes the speedo to register much faster than it should.

Anyway, I ordered the oil seal from the dealer. When I got it I disconnected the cable, but could not see how to replace the seal. I decided to let the pros do the job. Today I took it to the dealer who thought it would be less than an hour to fix. The mechanic worked on it for about 45 minutes then came in the office and said he could not get the old seal out. To do the job, he would have to remove the tranny and open it up. I told them to forget it and brought the car home. I know some of you have done this repair, any secret tricks on getting the old seal out?

Maybe I should also mention, the mechanic suggested putting grease in the speedo cable to act as a plug to stop the oil from migrating up the cable. Anybody tried this? Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated.

This is me now

This is me if I fix my speedometer

Tranny gets hot - will melt the grease till it runs out anyway. Mechanic should know that.....

 

Fish it out with a hooked bit of wire.

 

Basically it's a twisted nightmare to get any tools or hands down that way.... dropping the tranny may be your best bet. I'm sure the mechanic got real sick of trying to get to it, and his time is better spent on newer cars (more money).

 

GD

I made a hook with a piece of clothes hanger, but there wasn't enough room to force it between the oil seal and the speedo drive gear. I ended up leaving the old seal in. Then taking into consideration GD's tip about grease melting I used some "premium high temp grease" (maybe it won't melt) on the speedo cable. I then pulled the speedo head (not an easy job). Cleaned the speedo air gap with some penetrating solvent. I now have a working speedo, (for how long, who knows). I sure wish I could have got that oil seal replace. Altogether I spent 5 hours on the job, if I had to do it again, could probably do it in 3 hours. If anyone ever comes up with a good method of pulling the oil seal, I would appreciate learning their method (other than pulling the tranny out).

Thanks GD for your advice.