So the car is on the road again. I have a little under 500 miles on it since I put it back on the road and the speedometer goes from bouncing, to steady, to barely responsive. It will actually get stuck at speed. I took the cable off and it turns as I drive. Based on what I was able to find in archives, sound like the speedometer is the problem. Any tips on what I can do to the speedometer without sending it out to a specialist?

Well, if you're willing to take it apart / clean it / lube it / reassemble it, that's pretty much what can be done.

Before you do that, check the cable. Cables can do crazy stuff!

One thing to check: make sure your speedo cable didn't have some kind of tight bend or kink in it. Make sure it does a nice wide arc going smoothly into the speedo housing, and that the cable seats properly in that housing. It's also possible for a broken cable to continue turning in a kinda pathetic way after breaking, because the two broken cable pieces are sitting against one another and the one might still be able to turn the other, kinda, some of the time.

So, go ahead and substitute another cable. See that the speedo still has issues on a known-good cable, before you go overhauling the speedo.

thanks. i put the speedometer from the 72 parts car in and it works. now that you mention the cable doing funny things, i am able to pull the square drive out from the cable. i dont know if that may be the sign that the cable is broken or if it just sits freely in its sleeve. i may be going after the cable from the parts car. any tips on lubricants to use if i am willing to take apart the old speedo? any tips at all really. sounds like there is some sort of magnetic coupling that can gunk up and be stuck.