MG Car Repair: MGB speedometer trouble, driveshaft, speedometer

Question
The speedometer on my 1979 MGB stoped working... What should I do?

Answer
Hi James,
First step is to remove the cable from the back of the speedo and either jack up the back of the car and rotate the driveshaft by running the car in gear or have someone hold one rear wheel and hand rotate the other wheel and watch to see if the inner cable rotates. If it does hold the inner cable lightly between your fingers and do it again to see that the cable is able to spin in your fingers. If it does turn then the speedo head is bad. If the inner cable don't spin you need to pull it out of the housing to inspect it to see if it is broken.  If the inner cable is not broken you need to remove the cable housing from the transmission and check to see if the drive is rotating the inner cable.
Howard