clock cable for rallye gauges

[EV2RTSE]

I have a couple of original rallye dash clock cables where the plastic sleeve has become brittle and broken into pieces. I was wondering if anyone has ever repaired one of these and if so how did you go about doing it? I'm thinking it may be possible to get some semi-rigid nylon tubing, slit it lengthwise to install and then use some small clamps on either end to hold it together so that it functions properly? Instead of shelling out a hundred bucks or so for a repop?  It's otherwise intact and in good shape.

[Racer57]

I've never used it, but this is something Ive considered for fixing situations like yours.

https://mrshrinkwrap.com/msw-711-roll-of-1-x-108-preservation-tape-white.html

[7E-Bodies]

@EV2RTSE this may or may not help, but after a career in power generation and transmission/distribution, I dealt many times with instrumentation that required tubing from a manufacturer called Tygon. They supply all sorts of comparable material like you are looking at. I know you don't need 25', but the stuff is cheap. Just make sure you get the exact ID and OD and take a look. Some of their material is a soft see-through and some is a more rigid white-ish plastic yet still pliable. Check them out and maybe it will help.

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23703&catid=864

[EV2RTSE]

I think that the preservation tape would work well enough if all of the pieces of the sleeve are there, but unfortunately some chunks were already missing from mine. I ended up buying some of this tubing that I found on Amazon, it seems to be close enough to the original material in terms of composition and size. I cut it to length and then was able to carefully slit it lengthwise with a razor blade and slide it over the cable. I found some heat shrink tubing that just fits over the knurled nut that attaches the cable to the clock. After heating & shrinking it down I found that it fit snugly, but not quite tightly enough - after pushing in the clock reset several times I found that the heat shrink tubing wanted to walk / pull away, so then I brushed on a coat of glue over the shrink tubing to help prevent movement. That seemed to do the trick and now both of my cables are working properly again. 

[pschlosser]

Nice work @EV2RTSE 

I, too, was going to recommend the polyethylene tubing, frequently used to connect the water to ice makers and water dispensary of kitchen refrigerators.

They also make heat-shrink tubing in clear.  It may "walk" less, if you use a single piece of heat shrink, the full length of your split tubing.

In any case, you did a fine job.  Thank you for sharing your results.

[EV2RTSE]

I like that idea - the full length of shrink tubing in clear would also make it look better, more like it was originally, even though no one will ever really see it. I have a shrink tubing kit in various diameters on hand but all are shorter lengths for covering soldered connections or whatever. 13mm is what I had that fits over the knurled nut, 1/2" might also work and be a little bit better yet.

[pschlosser]

The electronic parts houses sell heat shrink tubing in 3-foot lengths.  There was a local brick-and-mortar I would frequent to buy mine.  Some of the stuff coming from China (example Harbor Freight) isn't made the same, and shrinks into a thicker, stiffer result.  The stuff you want is made by 3M.  Possibly by mail order through mousers or digikey.  The hard part if figuring out the size of tubing, but it looks like you got that nailed.

[FC7 cuda]

I used metal tape on mine..lol