Getting up to speed...

kramerica · June 16, 2003

I lost my speedometer a few weeks ago in my 1989 Chevy Suburban. I was told it may be a "speed sensor"...what and where is that located and how hard is it to change?

If it is just the cable that is broken, is that easy to change and are either of those parts able to be found at an autoparts store or do I have to bend over at the dealership parts counter...again?!

ANybody want to buy a 'burban? On the highway it'll pass anything but a gas station or parts store.

MarkD · June 16, 2003

I believe the '89 trucks had a magnet in the output shaft of the tranny. A magnetic sensor in the tailshaft housing picked up pulses from the magnet. I would look at the tailshaft for a wiring harness and see if you could remove the sensor w/out removing/replacing the tailshaft. It would probably be a good time to snap a pic as well.

seadoons · June 16, 2003

We have an '89 suburban, and the spedo hasn't worked for almost 9 years. When it was new, it stopped working on the average of every 6 months, but it had a 5 year warranty, so we kept getting it fixed. Since the warranty has been out, which has been like 9 years, it hasn't worked. The truck belongs to my dad, and we use it as a spare vehicle, so he never got it fixed. There is an obvious defect in the design of that spedo, and the magnet concept sounds correct. I know that there isn't a spedo cable, it is some sort of sensor/magnet. Ironically enough, the spedo works when you first start driving each day. It works really well, probably for about 5 minutes, then it starts freaking out, and then it quits. One advantage to it not working is the truck stops racking up the miles. Our has had 80,416 miles on it now for the last 9 years, when it probably has around 150,000. Only downfall to that is it kinda looks like odometer fraud. It's really not though, the thing just doesn't work. Good luck!