Speedometer Cable Lube

[DBSHELTON]

What kind of lube that is readily and locally available for speedometer cable? Is dry graphite good? Mouse Milk? Royal Purple? Marvel Mystery oil? Lithium Spray Grease?

[ryanheacox]

I've lubed mine once, used chassis grease. Pulled the cable out of the housing and through my palm full of grease. Put it all back together. Works great. If you keep your universal joint well greased some may also find its way into the speedo cable.

[Kurt in NJ]

I have used cv joint lube, it comes in small packages , and I have leftovers
Before you lube roll the cable on a table, if it rolls smooth it's straight, if a spot jumps work the bend out so the cable turns smooth

[jb-ob]

No reason to re-invent something already on the self....'Chain & Cable Lube'.

[Bob Bidonde]

If you pump gobs of grease into the u-joint, the cavity fills and grease goes into the bottom of the speedometer cable. So whatever lubricant you put into the top of the cable needs to be compatible with the grease in the bottom of the cable.

[rotorwrench]

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For automotive use, the graphite based lubricants are made for this purpose and sold as such. For the helicopters that have a fair amount of rpm with the cables and can be in a moisture laden environment at times, we use Lubriplate 930AA which is a general lubricant that can take moisture contamination and high heat.

The procedure used is to clean & inspect the cable then insert it back into the flex conduit for 1/3 of it's length then lube the other 2/3s of the cable as it is inserted into the casing. The lubricant tends to walk itself toward the drive end while in service. This way, the lube won't get into the instrument.

[RonC]

I had asked the Lubriplate Lubricants Company that question; What type of grease should be applied to automobile speedometer cables? There response was "we recommend LUBRIPLATE Aero".

[Synchro909]

I swear by graphite lubes. I add a little graphite to my water pump lube and use it in places where a liquid lube won't help, in fact they often hasten wear. I even use it on the brake clevises. Mix it with a little petrol or kero (something that will evapourate away), apply and drive on knowing things are slippery.
As a kid, we used to add powdered graphite to our 2 stroke mix. Never seemed to do any harm but we didn't do it for long enough to find out whether it helped either.

[rotorwrench]

I always wondered why Lubriplate named the light Lithium grease "Aero". I've been in aviation for many years and never noted a call out for the stuff for airplanes or helicopters. The Lubriplate greases that are called out are the 630-AA lithium based and the 930-AA bentone based lubes. The 130-AA is a general purpose grease that was used a long time ago but it is calcium based thickener. It was always called out where moisture was involved.