>i forgot to say that it is a 1998 dodge dakota 2wd truck automatic
> transmission. sorry for not including this in my first post
Okay... in that case, you don't have a spedometer cable. It's electronic.
The signal that drives the speedo/odometer comes from the rear-wheel speed
sensor, located on top of the rear differential. Remove the electrical
connector, then remove the bolt holding the sensor down. Twist and pull on
the sensor to remove it (it's got an O-ring on it, so it's a little bit of a
tight fit). Try cleaning off all the accumulated crud on it (it's magnetic,
so it attracts lots of sludge from the differential), and put it back. If
that doesn't do it, you'll need a new sensor. They're not that expensive
(about $35).
However... if you have 4-wheel anti-lock brakes (easily identifiable by an
electrical wire running in parallel with the front brake hoses going to the
calipers), and you do NOT have illuminated 'BRAKE' and 'ABS' lights on the
dash, then the problem is either in the wiring between the ABS computer and
the PCM, or something wrong with the PCM or instrument cluster itself.
If you only have the rear-wheel anti-lock (ie. no wire running alongside the
front brake hoses), then the most likely culprit is a bad rear wheel speed
sensor.