speedometer cable location

hiball3985 · 2013-05-28 11:52

Can someone provide an interior picture of where the speedometer cable comes through the firewall. I know mine is in the wrong location but I can't seem to find the right one. Thank you

BWhitmore · 2013-05-28 12:37

Jim - on my Ranchero the cable comes through the 1 inch hole in the metal plates that are attached to the floor surrounding the steering column.

hiball3985 · 2013-05-28 12:40

Quote from: BWhitmore on 2013-05-28 12:37
Jim - on my Ranchero the cable comes through the 1 inch hole in the metal plates that are attached to the floor surrounding the steering column.

OK, thanks. That was the only other hole I could find but I wasn't sure. I should have taken a closer look at yours from the interior but was overwhelmed looking at everything else.

57AGIN · 2013-05-28 19:07

hiball3985:

When reassembling my 57 the attached photo shows where the speedometer cable comes through my firewall. Since Rick did the routing, I'm pretty darn sure this was where it is supposed to come through.

Bob
57 AGIN

hiball3985 · 2013-05-28 19:18

Thanks Bob, if I'm looking at it correctly it looks like it's going through the main wiring harness grommet.. I'm not sure that's correct. I hope some others have pictures to compare..

Ford Blue blood · 2013-05-28 21:37

Bob I too believe that is incorrect. My Ranchero and Retractable both come up through the steering column plates on the floor. The Ranchwagon I had and the 300 I parted also had it uo through the floor.

hiball3985 · 2013-05-28 21:44

Quote from: Ford Blue blood on 2013-05-28 21:37
Bob I too believe that is incorrect. My Ranchero and Retractable both come up through the steering column plates on the floor. The Ranchwagon I had and the 300 I parted also had it uo through the floor.

Thank you, I believe that is where it should be located as Bill W stated in his post.

57tudor · 2013-05-29 22:12

All,

Bob's Speedo cable is not in the original location for good reason. With the 351 and the header configuration, the radiant heat from the header would destroy the cable if it was ran from the stock location. The inboard of the two floor panels has the opening just for the cable. The opening in the outboard panel is for the clutch link from the peddel to the equealizer. The rubber bushing was a perfect location for his cable and one of the three molded openings in the bushing fit the cable perfectly for a good seal, and alowed me to run the cable in a different manor to safeguard the life of the cable. This is why we call our cars, restomods! Not everything is stock, and not everything maybe in its stock location when built by Ford.

Have a nice day....

57Tudor.

BWhitmore · 2013-05-29 22:27

It appears from the pictures of Bob's car that the speedo cable was run through the firewall grommet for the wiring loom. There is a 1 inch hole in the plates that screw to the floor surrounding the steering column. There is a similar hole in the rubber seal beneath these two plates. I ran my cable through this hole and everything works fine. I recommend to use an all metl speedo cable as opposed to the repro cable which is normally a rubber outer casing. If the rubber coes into contact with het nd of cable. The all metal cable is not as effected by heat.

57tudor · 2013-05-29 23:00

BWhitmore,

The metal cable that I removed from Bob's car in 2011 was burnt to a crisp! It had been ran in the stock location. With his addition of performance goodies in his car, this bushing worked best for US with no new issues as well and was almost a straight shot to the speedo head inside the car. This also eliminated making a new hole in the firewall as we had almost all the holes in the firewall welded closed before paint. As you saw in the pic, the wire harness is well insulated with plenty of distance between the two.

57 Tudor

57AGIN · 2013-05-30 00:06

Guys:

I knew there was a good reason why the cable was put there. But for the life of me I couldn't remember why, probably because I didn't do the relocation and Rick has a fabulous memory for things he;s done mechanically and why. Rick is a real mechanic and a great fabricator, neither of which I am not. Without Rick's expertise my 57 would have turned out much differently and not nearly as nice as I think it did.

Bob
57 AGIN

hiball3985 · 2013-05-30 10:29

I can see why people would need to move the location with a modified car. I don't know why some previous owner punched a hole in the firewall to relocate it on a stock version. Thanks for all the input, I located back to the original location yesterday.

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speedometer cable location