Technical Shoebox speedometer removal

Hi everyone,

Like most Shoebox owners, I discovered pretty quickly that my gauge cluster was essentially useless at night. After no small amount of research into the problem, it seems that getting rid of the dark filters that used to make the gauges glow is the solution.

When my speedometer quit working this week and I had to get in and start messing around with that cable, I figured that maybe it would be a good time to pull the speedo and do that too. So of course I started tearing into my dash. At this point I'm about halfway there but I can't for the life of me see what is the procedure to get that thing out of there. At first I thought it was a couple of little nuts accessed from the back side of the dash, but when I lay down on the floor and try to get my hands much less a little ratchet wrench up in there it just doesn't seem like that could be right.

In all of the multiple threads here and at Ford Barn that I read dealing with this problem, no one ever really said explicitly how to get the speedo out, just what to do with it once it's removed. So what am I missing? I can't tell if the feeling of "I think I'm doing this wrong" is correct or just because I'm inexperienced. Now that that thought has crept into my head I am having visions of an unnecessarily torn apart dash that I won't be able to put back together.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice

 

On Edit:
Here's a free download of the factory shoebox shop manual. Very helpful publication!
https://www.scribd.com/doc/249258710/1949-1950-1951-Ford-Passenger-Car-Shop-Manual

From the factory shop manual...……………...

 

Exactly what I needed to see, although it looks like my suspicions were confirmed and it will require a lot of lying on my back and twisting into uncomfortable positions. Thank you very much for this


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I used one in an off topic car's dash that i built, but the cluster is all centered off of the speedo and the other gauges just piggy back off of its housing so thre isnt much chance to just remove the speedo. Theres 3studs that actually secure the housing and bezel into the dash, 2 on the side that are actually on the bezel and 1 stud at the top on the cluster housing.
I thought i would have had some better pictures but you can sort of see the location of the studs

 

Evintho, I can't thank you enough for supplying that link to the manual! It is going to make my life soooo much easier on my '51!