stephenca118

I have a 58 98 with hydramatic. I fixed all the tranny leaks, but after driven a while a leak appears at the speedo cable at the transmission. This has the speedo gear housing that screws into the tail shaft housing. Not the plastic speedo gear as in later models. It looks like the driven gear shaft is installed in the housing then the gear is pressed onto the shaft.
My question is, is there an o ring in the shaft housing? If so I will need to press the gear off the driven shaft to remove the shaft from the housing. I thought I would ask before I try that.


I actually put an o ring on the top of the housing and then screwed the cable onto the housing. That seemed to work until the car is driven a while. Then it appears that the tranny fluid is actually traveling up the cable and seeping through the cable housing.
Any ideas? Will pictures help?
Thank you, Steve

Tedd Thompson

I believe what is happening is it isn't leaking while you are running/ driving but when you shut off the engine. The fluid that was operating the transmission will drain back into the sump and the level will rise to the point it is higher than the speedometer inlet and it will leak/ weep. On a 55 slant pan (what I have) There isn't a O ring I'm not sure about The Jet a Way but I suspect it is the same. I do know the later transmissions do have that O ring.

I just had this very same conversion with my transmission rebuilder last week, he offered no fixes, said old worn parts have to much clearance and are going to leak... Tedd

stephenca118

Thank you Tedd, I was afraid it would be something like that. I see there is a puddle under the car now, so the leak down problem makes more sense. I will look into that further.
Thanks again for your reply,
Steve