I have a rebuilt bw1356 and the tail shaft does not have the groove in it for the primary drive speedo gear so I am trying to figure out a way to get accurate speed readings and an odometer without using the cable. I didn't know if there is some kind of electrical speedo i could try to put on? I also thought about satellite speedometers but they are pretty pricey.

 

you might be able to use a newer rear end setup where the sensor is in the rear axle and reads a tooth gear bolted to the ring gear. You would probably need the rear end complete plus the speedo in the dash to have this work.

I am not 100% sure you can adapt to this setup using your existing speedo or not.

 

if you bought a newer 1356 chances are the truck it came from had a VSS in the rear diff... this means it won't have the hole in the tail shaft of the tcase for the driven gear that runs the speedo gear...

Now you'll have 3 options that I can think of (if indeed this has happened...)

1.) put the proper tailshaft back on the tcase so you can bolt the driven gear back up

2.) Get a electric Autometer MPH guage wire it in somehow and get an A-pilar mount to put it in.

3.) get a $75-$100 Garmin and bring the speedo function up on the main screen.

4.) converting to a VSS (a bigger pain than the above options- this is the option cozzb mentions)

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought about the electric autometer but I couldn't find any on the internet to fit my truck. And the tail of the t-case has the hole but no way to put the drive gear on. It's from an 89 and has been rebuilt and the guy I bought it from said he had the one in the rear end. Is there any place to find out if i can fit an electric autometer on my '87?

 

You can... just depends on how much work you want to do... I have seen guys make custom bezels and replace all their guages with autometers. Others have gotten a-pilar pods and put 2-3 autometer guages in them. I don't know if you can get a MPH guage small enough for a pillar pod though...

Pillar Pods:
Catalog Search

or
Amazon.com: 87 - 97 Ford F-Series Dual Pillar Pod: Automotive

As far as the drive or driven gear... What type is your chassis origionally set up for? If you have a cable running from the back of the speedo you can get a 87-88 style cable, and run the cable with a small driven gear into the transfer case. But I am guessing from what you wrote you don't have a cable? or you have the newer style VSS? What do you mean there's no way to put the drive gear on? The drive gear should be inside the t-case already if it has the hole in the tail shaft. All you'd need is a speedo set up with a cable and the small driven gear on the end to stick in the hole...

I personally think the older style cable driven systems are easier to deal with. If you change gears (ie 3.55's to 4.10's) all you have to do is pull the cable out of the t-case and replace the small driven gear to corredct you MPH guage. I'm not sure how the newer VSS systems are set up but you could always get a older cluster with the cable driven speedo and just swap clusters... Then run the speedo cable down and into the t-case. I know guys swap clusters to get the OEM tachometer cluster too...

On a side note I wish someone would make a 4 pod cluster like this for the 87-91's!
Amazon.com: 92-97 Ford F-Series (F-150, F-250 & F-350) Quad 4 Gauge Pillar Pod: Automotive

 

The t-case shaft doesnt have the hole for the ball that holds the drive gear on and my axle doesnt have VSS. I tried glueing the drive gear on but for whatever reason it burnt up.

 

ok so you now have 4 options...

1.) convert to vss (PITA)
2.) get a t-case off craigslist that has the proper parts for the OEM speedo cable
3.) get a Autometer MPG guage and custom fit it into the OEM guage
4.) get a $75-$100 GPS with a speedo function on it. My garmin is 2mph off the lil yota the wife drives so i figure it works good enough for every day use if needed...

PS: I know T-cases can be found around here for $50-$100 pretty easily on www.craigslist.org or www.crazedlist.org (if you want a more regional approach)

 

Alright thanks again for all the help! I'll do some checking around

 

SpeedHut sells speedometers and may have a fit for your truck. Their speedos are GPS so no need for any cable, just power to the lights and the mileage screen.

 

Man thats incredible, maybe you could dimple the output shaft in the right place with a good sharp drill bit. As far as glue, I know it will work, I did exactly that on an old jeep once with a very good quality 2 part epoxy.

 

Thanks I will try using an epoxy, before I wedged the gear on the shaft with the snap ring under it so it may have caused the gear to warp. At least its only 10 bucks for a new drive gear.

 

If your talking about the snap ring thats about a half inch wide, that snaps over the shaft forward of the drive gear. Normally you would slide the gear onto the shaft, forward of the dimple (if you had one), put the ball bearing in the dimple, slide the gear aft over the ball bearing so the bearing rides in the slot in the inner suface of the gear, then install the snap ring on the forward side to hold it all in place.

 

Right but it wont work that way since i dont have the groove. So I wedged it on to stay in place