Speedometer woes

[Binford]

I'm back to working on my SS drive-train swapped '90 LS. Long story short, both speedos were working before the swap. I hooked everything up and the speedo never worked. I spun the cable in a drill and confirmed it's still attached the speedometer itself and is working that way. So that leaves the portion inside the trans. With the "plug" removed from the trans, I'm able to easily spin the speedometer drive with a screwdriver in the trans. Am I correct in thinking this is a bad thing?

[fishbone79]

Sounds like the speedo gear is stripped if you can spin the slotted drive fitting in the trans..... You removed the speedometer base extension from the side of the trans and turned the speedo drive shaft below it, right?

There's a chance it just fell off if the C-clip was not on correctly - but either way, the case has to be cracked to fix it.

BTW, I was recently told by the local subaru parts guy that the speedometer base extension is the #2 most replaced part on first gen model years.

[Binford]

That's what I was afraid of. I just don't understand what happened since it worked in the other car.