I have a 50 Ford with a 3 speed manual transmission that has a oil leak at the tail shaft housing gasket. Can the tail shaft be removed while in place in the car. Not sure if something else would have to be done internally to get it off.
You may have to remove the speedometer drive gear first, and the driveshaft. If you have a trans mount under the tailshaft , take out the bolts and jack up the trans to take the weight off. Remove the bolts holding the tailshaft housing and slide it towards the rear. Some gear oil will leak out so put a catch pan under it.
Thanks for the reply. I had someone tell me that they tried to do it once and it would only move back about 1/2 ". Not sure if he took out the speedometer gear first.
Yes, just as aaggie said. Now if it happens to be a 50 Convert it won't work. With the X member there isn't enough room to get it off the end of the shaft. The Wizzard
1950 passenger 3 speed tail housing is NOT removable by itself. The trans output shaft and bearing are fixed to the housing by an internal snap ring. The housing and shaft assy could be pulled back and out (bringing the 1st/rev slider gear, second gear, and the synchro assy with it) but......you'd have to do a couple things first. The side cover (shifter housing and the forks) would have to be removed first. The front synchro ring would probably flop loose, which is not a big problem. With the rear housing off, you can replace the gasket there. Assuming you pulled the rear housing and mainshaft gear assy straight out without disturbing the synchro assy, it could be reinstalled right back in place. All you'd have to do is hold that front synchro ring in place and slowly rotate the mainshaft til the synchro dogs were realigned , allowing the mainshaft and housing to seat against the back of the gearbox. The shifter forks must be replaced in their respective fork grooves (keep everything in neutral during the process). The rear fork has its offset to the rear. Fresh gasket for the side cover and you're done. It sounds easy.....in reality it's not so simple. Especially if you let the synchro assy become disassembled when pulling the mainshaft and housing out the back. Likewise, getting the forks correctly reinstalled is a bit tricky. The entire job is twice as rough if you try this with the trans still in the car.
Boy did I miss that call. Sure hope lowride50 isn't ahead of us here. I forgot about the snap ring. I had just gutted my 50 Merc gear box for parts when doing my 39 style box for my Roadster and there is no snap ring there. Assumed the Ford box was the same. Shame on me. I've done the 49 up boxes but it's been several years, the memory fades. SORRY for giving bad info. The Wizzard
If it would slide back at least a quarter inch I'd be tempted to spray some carb cleaner in the gap to remove the oil then smear some silicone around it and button it back up
Sounds easy......just a quarter inch. That's all the front synchro ring needs to fall down slightly from the taper on the input shaft synchro cone. The frustrating part comes when you try to get the synchro ring to hop itself back up exactly in place so that the front of the synchro hub slides perfectly into alignment. I think he'd get better entertainment value pushing a rope uphill. If you're not quite ready to pull the trans and disassemble it properly, buy a little more time with a large drip pan and some cat litter. Keep an eye on the fluid level of course.
I tried to do that on my dads 51 and I head parts falling off on the inside of the trans so it had to be removed and completely taken apart.
You can do it on the overdrive trans. The output shaft comes out with the housing and then the snap ring removes the output shaft from the housing.
Ahhh......if it were only that easy. To release the OD housing from the OD adapter casting, you'd have to pull out the lockout shaft first (driving the little tapered pin up and out before pulling out the shaft about 1/2"). After removing the four bolts/nuts that secure the housing to the OD adapter, you could tap the housing free and pull it off, complete with the OD mainshaft and bearing. Now it gets sticky.......the 12 freewheel cam rollers will fall out of position. But all is not lost. Put the rollers back in place with heavy grease (or a thin rubber band) and put the OD housing back in place , after replacing that leaky gasket of course, carefully lining up the OD shifter fail with the hidden opening in the tail housing. If everything was in place, the housing should reseat on the new gasket and be ready to be rebolted to the OD adapter casting. Doing this with the trans in the car will be tough. Keep your fingers crossed that all the parts went back in place correctly.
Been there and done that. Pulled my tail housing to change the output bushing. Used grease to hold rollers in place.
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