Trip odometer cable - keep or replace?

[Erik H.]

I'm whittling down to the small items on my car, and one of them is the trip odometer. It was very hard to reset, and sounded like the gear was slipping due to not being fully engaged when pushing up on the reset knob. I was hoping it was just a cable routing issue, so I played with that this morning to no avail. With the cable dismounted from the underside of the dash, it was much easier to reset the trip odo, but with the cable mounted it was difficult and sounded like the gears were slipping when pushing up on the knob. I removed the cable (not fun!) this afternoon, and below is a photo of it. I was going to lube it and reinstall, but with all the work involved I'd first like to know whether my cable is good. Below is a photo of the end that goes into the trip odometer. Should I lube and reinstall, or is the cable bad and needs replacing? This is a job I only want to do once!

Also, if anyone can post a photo of the proper trip cable routing under the dash, I'd appreciate it. I know it needs to go through the hole in the crossbrace, but from that point on is where I'm interested to know the ideal position. Thanks!