Chrysler Repair: speedometer/hesitating, mitsubishi eclipses, speedometer cable

Question
Ihave a 1995 Eagle Summit GL, 1.5 litre.  Just recently, my speedomter completely stopped working.  Not relating, it also started to hesitate really bad at low RPM's.  I checked all that I could; plugs, air filter.  What else could it be?  I heard the speedometer quite possibly could be the sensor, but i know nothing.  Please help an idiot like me.  Thank you.

Answer
Don't feel bad.  You own a semi-rare one and there's not alot of information out there on your summit.

I checked on a service manual site and I'm getting mixed information.  No lie, in 4 sentences they say the signal is electronically sent from the transmission to the speedo/odometer assembly.  In the last two sentences they say that if the speedometer fails then the cable is probably broken.

Regardless, the precise answer is out of my area of expertise.  I will, however, give you some general information about other Mitsubishi and chrysler products from your car's time frame that MIGHT help you figure things out.

The mitsubishi Eclipses and Talons that had the mitsu engine in it in 1995 had a speedometer cable.  This was a cable in a moderately hard coated sleeve.  It went from inside the dash to a screw in fitting in the transmission.  At the end there was a flat section.  

The common way to check the cable and speedo head was to unscrew the cable and attatch a drill to the end of it.  Spin the drill and the head should move.  If it doesn't then you've got either a bad cable or a cluster problem.  If it moved then you've got either a problem on the component the cable attatches to or you have to tear in to the transmission to repair/replace the companion component that the cable attatches to.

That was kind of easy.  It would unscrew by hand (most of the time) and thanks to Home Improvement, ever REAL MAN had a drill.

Then things got stupid with computers and electronic transmissions.  The sensors used a gear inside the transmission and a gear on a sensor.  It operated in an on-off-on pattern over and over again.  The more on-off's the faster you were going.  That translated in to a signal in front of your face so you would know how close you are to getting a ticket or not.

The one thing that seems to stay constant here is that the auto and manuals use the same part number: MB803899 which retails for about $50.00 if you can even still get it.  They call it a cable so I'm kind of leaning towards the cable from trans to cluster idea.
Hope this helped in some way.
Doug