Quote:
Originally Posted by amcpacer
I got the new tires installed and now the car works great! 5th gear becomes useable by 55 mph and it is easy to take off in first gear on a hill. I like the low RPM highway cruising that the 3.1:1 axle ratio offers. The new tires do not look good on the car because of the black sidewall. As soon as the rains stop I will paint the sidewalls white.  
A serious transmission problem came up while driving yesterday. The speedometer suddenly stopped registering while traveling on the highway. I pulled off and removed the speedometer cable and found it was in perfect condition. Next I removed speedometer gear and found it was also in good condition. Finally I stuck my finger in the transmission and discovered the big speedometer drive gear on the transmission is totally missing. Damn T-5 transmission! How does a drive gear simply disappear from the ouptput shaft? I am not looking forward to taking the transmission out of the car. 
I installed the new fuel tank sending unit so the gas gauge works correctly now! I was able to calibrate the gauge by adjusting the solid state voltage regulator that I had substituted for the old 5V bi-metallic strip thermally controlled regulator. While changing the sending unit I could see a lot of rust inside the gas tank. That must be why the fuel filter before the pump periodically clogs. The great thing is I found rockauto sells a replacement tank that fits 1959 Ford Fairlanes for $190 shipped! It looks the same as the Edsel tank and appears to have the same measurements.
More Information for SPECTRA PREMIUM F34C
I wish there was a way to fix the transmission speedometer gear without disassembling the entire case. I bet the drive gear somehow shattered and is in a bunch of pieces in the bottom of the case. Without a speedometer there will be no way for me to know the car is going 88 miles / hour. GPS speedometer may be affected by the interference that the Ford 5 speed flux capacitor generates. |
I am going totally by memory but you may be able to remove tail off to expose output shaft . The speedO gear is plastic and only held on by clip AFAIR .
To remove tail section , remove shifter and 4 bolts on tail. then you see shaft to shifter block, this is held in by a pin .just use punch to remove spring pin.
Then remove lower mount and the tail bolts to main case and pull off .First drain oil of course .
Its not hared to do but at end it maybe easier to pull it out totally so you can do work on bench, it would depend on how much room you have by tunnel of car .