drolston
Well-known member
Because of an ill fitting repro floor board that takes five different kinds of fasteners to hold it to various stripped and rusted out screw holes, I will do almost anything to avoid taking the floorboard out of my '41 coupe, including attempting to change the turtle gear from underneath the car.
It takes some contortions and working by feel, but it can be done! A 1/4" drive ratchet can be used when the bolts are near all the way down, but further out than that, you have to use a 7/16 box end, one twelfth of a turn at a time. Luckily I could run the bolts with my fingers, once they were loose.
I could have avoided the problem altogether if I had changed from the stock 19 turtle to an 18 turtle when I changed from the 19 tooth gear to the smaller radius 17 tooth gear when the rear end was out to change from 3.78 ring and pinion to 3.25.
The 17 tooth fiber gear from Braton in the 19 housing just barely engages the worm gear on the drive shaft. The speedometer worked at first, then started skipping, then quit in about 100 miles. You can see the worn off teeth in the photo.
The turtle from Mac's is unmarked, but they swear it matches the 18. It is hard to measure from the curved surfaces, but best I could tell, the shaft centerline is about .030" closer to the mounting surface than the 19 housing. I left out the gasket to gain another .002. What's another little leak?
Long story for a little job, but I thought some future thread searcher might benefit from the experience.
It takes some contortions and working by feel, but it can be done! A 1/4" drive ratchet can be used when the bolts are near all the way down, but further out than that, you have to use a 7/16 box end, one twelfth of a turn at a time. Luckily I could run the bolts with my fingers, once they were loose.
I could have avoided the problem altogether if I had changed from the stock 19 turtle to an 18 turtle when I changed from the 19 tooth gear to the smaller radius 17 tooth gear when the rear end was out to change from 3.78 ring and pinion to 3.25.
The 17 tooth fiber gear from Braton in the 19 housing just barely engages the worm gear on the drive shaft. The speedometer worked at first, then started skipping, then quit in about 100 miles. You can see the worn off teeth in the photo.
The turtle from Mac's is unmarked, but they swear it matches the 18. It is hard to measure from the curved surfaces, but best I could tell, the shaft centerline is about .030" closer to the mounting surface than the 19 housing. I left out the gasket to gain another .002. What's another little leak?
Long story for a little job, but I thought some future thread searcher might benefit from the experience.
