The cable is held in by force only, and very little at that. The rubber
you are speaking of, is there to keep dirt out. Unless you drive on
dirt very much, or in water/rain alot, very little dirt will have
gotten in there. Although it could not hurt to repack the wheel
bearing. Its an easy job, except for the fact that on the 80-85
you must disconect the brake line.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Fri, 24 Sep 1999, Steve Elfelt wrote:

> 84 vanagon
>
> Speedo cable from bearing to box with my oxygen sensor
> reset switch seems to be broken at or inside the bearhing
> housing.  How does that end of the cable come out?  There
> is a rubber plug thing that the cable goes through.  It looks like
> that cable should be jammed into the bearing housing.  Instead,
> that thing has slid up the cable a ways and does no good at all.
> Has that exposed the interior of the bearing to dirt?  When
> I jack  up the car and spin the wheel hard with the engine in
> neutral it goes *maybe* 2 around before stopping with a soft
> grind.  Could that be dirt that has pile in through the loose-fitting
> cork thingie?
>
> Unrelated.... sort of..... should I think about repacking my wheel
> bearings?
>
> Steve
>