Speedo gear down in ******

zoegrant

zoegrant

Well-known member
Hi...I removed the speedo cable from the Fordomatic ****** of a 56 Victoria the other day and the "plastic" drive gear stayed inside the ****** and when I tried to fish it out, the gear slid forward and "DOWN" into the tail shaft.
Shoulden`t there be a stop of some kind to prevent that gear from going forward and doing just what it did ?
Also,what would be the easiest way to remove that gear ?

Thanks in advance for any advise....John in CT
 
You will have to go fishing for it or remove the tail shaft extension housing. It may be alright left in there as there are no gears or anything in the bottom of the housing? I have never dropped one but I believe it is a common occurrence. A pair of long nose pliers might be able to fish it out in conjunction with a bit of wire to bring it up to the speedo hole.
Regards
 
Rick...is there supposed to be some type of cage or blocker inside the speedo opening so that would not happen ?
 
There's no type of blocking unit that I know of in there. Dropping the speedo gear in those cars are a common occurence. Most guys just leave them in there. Good luck fishing though.
 
That's unfortunate but not uncommon. Also unfortunate is that there are several different gears with different number of teeth to accommodate different rear gear ratios so your speedo read correctly. Maybe someone on here knows what speedo gear goes with what rear end ratio. I don't.

In '57 Ford installed a clip to hold the gear to the cable. They are not backwards compatible.
 
The 1954 and earlier cars had a two-piece gear that had a c-clip on the shaft that held the gear on the cable. The two-piece design had a metal shaft with a slot on the cable end for the c-clip. The other end of the shaft was machined down and knurled. The gear piece was made of phenolic and was pressed onto the knurled end of the shaft piece. The '54 and earlier assembly is actually interchangeable with the one-piece nylon gear for the '55 and '56 cars.
You can stick your finger in the hole where the gear goes and feel where the end is. Now take a piece of coat-hanger, cut it and bend it in half then bend down the open ends 90 degrees. The bent ends need to be about 1/4 inch long. stick it in the hole and squeeze it to pick up the end of the gear. guide it carefully out thr the hole. Once the end of the gear is exposed out the hole grab it and pull it out.
 
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