Saginaw speedo gears

[Bonnewagon]

Saginaw 4 speed manual transmission. As posted on the "what did you do on your G-body today" topic, I am without my speedometer still. The cable burned up next to the EFE valve and the cable is locked up solid so I swapped in an old one. Nothing. Spun shaft with a drill and the speedo responded, so that's a relief. So then I pulled the driven gear, one tooth shaved a bit, nothing terrible. Swapped gear anyway, still nothing. That leaves the drive gear, on the output shaft. Crap. I am comfortable removing the tail housing and checking the gear. Does any one know if the housing comes off while the transmission is still in the car? It's been a while since I opened one and I've never had a drive gear fail before. Ironically, when I overhauled this transmission years ago I fixed all the leaks. Damn. :evil:

 

[pontiacgp]

Yes it comes off with it still in the car....we run Saginaw in our race car and the car owner build them for other teams. I'll check if he has any speedo gears hanging around case we sure don't need them.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Hey Steve, what about the big snap ring back there? Does it hold the shaft/gears assembly to the tail housing or the main case? Damn old age, the mind is the first thing to go!

 

[pontiacgp]

I will put that question to the owner who builds them.....I sent him a text tonight..

 

[pontiacgp]

you can remove the tail housing and the ring holds the shaft to the main housing but make sure you don't pull the shaft too hard or the shaft will pull out...

 

[Bonnewagon]

Understood. Thank's!

 

[pontiacgp]

Your welcome and I''ll pass on your thanks, any other questions just let me know but I think it will all come back to you when you start on it, that happens to me too often.. 8)

 

[Bonnewagon]

You mean "IF" I start on it. With all the crap on my plate right now, having no speedometer is a small thing. Besides, I prefer doing grungy jobs in the winter becuase then I don't mind wearing coveralls. Worst would be tearing it all apart and finding that all it was, was the little spring steel retainer clip popped off.

 

[Longroof79]

Mark and Steve,
Does the Saginaw manual trans use the same gears as a TH350 trans?

Mark, you could've popped the clip on the drive gear. I hope it's something simple like that. I assume you already looked at the driven gear. I was thinking that it could have stripped out where the inner cable fits into the gear..? You probably inspected that already.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Yes jack, I went through all the easy stuff. I *ss-umed the driven gear would be the sacrificial part, not the one that requires tear-down unless of course the damn clip popped off. The T-350's and 400's use a big driven gear while the Saginaw manuals and the Powerglide use the small gear. The drive gears "look" similar but don't quote me as the T-350 and Saginaws use the same size and splines output shaft, but the T-400 is different from them, yet same as the ST-10. They may very well be the same size drive gears, GM is funny like that. But I have so much work lined up, this is not a priority. Plus it's fishing season!