Now that the weather is getting above freezing, I put my '53 88 up on ramps and crawled under it to investigate.

All I know about the car is what I see, no prior history available. I knew that it had been subframed, and a 1965 425 with A heads swapped in, bolted to a TH400. None of the wiring was done, except for the minimum to let it start and run. One small spot of rust in the passenger fender, none anywhere else that I can find. Even the rockers are in good shape.

Then, presumably, someone crunched the driver side quarter panel and the guy lost interest.

So after cleaning up some minor issues (rusty gas tank which caused fuel pump/carb problems), I drove it home and parked it till I had time and money to start tinkering.

I see lots of little projects, besides the Big Three (quarter panel, paint, interior). Like, it has a single reservoir master cylinder, with brake lines running half an inch from the exhaust crossover. Very bad. Not good. The fabricated battery box is an inch in front of that single reservoir master cylinder - maybe I'll move it to the trunk while I'm doing all the wiring. Woot, front and rear sway bars! Need to replace the bushings on the front, the rear looks great as is...

I started looking at the transmission, just because I found the speedometer cable tucked neatly up on the frame, and tracked down enough info to know it's a '65 TH400 switch pitch (OC 65 7038), with no provision for speedo gears in the tranny. However, I'm pretty certain at this point that the subframe was from the same car that the engine and transmission were from - something I was just guessing at before, simply because it has front drum brakes (why else would someone go to the effort of subframing without using a front end with disc brakes?).

So, I found what appears to be the opening in the wheel hub for the speedo, and finally here's my question: assuming the guts in the wheel still work, how do I connect a cable to it? There is a threaded hole, maybe less than an inch diameter, deep enough I can't see the bottom without cranking the wheels around (not gonna happen while it's on ramps, anyway). I'm guessing there must be some kind of connector that just threads into it; is the cable something special, or just the same kind of cable as for a normal transmission mount? Does anyone still carry these kind of components?

I've done some surfing, but haven't yet managed to track down anything useful. Any ideas?

 

The speedo cable threads through the spindle and is attached to a special dust cap that allows it to spin with the hub. This dust cap is not currently reproduced, so good luck if it is missing. Note that the diameter of the tire will affect speedo calibration, and there is no gear that you can change to calibrate it. You might be able to use an in-line ratio adapter, however.

Is the trans case not machined for the speedo adapter at all, or is the hole blocked off with a freeze plug?

 

Joe,

The trans does appear to have the typical mounting shape in it, but appears to have a freeze plug in the hole and no bolt hole for the retainer.

I found a couple other threads which talk about this situation, but no definitive answers. Can the standard speedo gears be added to this transmission by removing the plug? Would it require anything more substantial than removing the rear housing and popping in the gears, such as replacing the output shaft entirely or something? I'd hate to have to really go to extreme lengths for this. I'd be entirely happy to pull the wheel apart and find a working dust cap, even if the calibration ends up being off somewhat.

Thanks for your help.

 

Whee! I pulled the wheel apart, cleaned things up a bit, snarled at the brake fluid leaking from the wheel cylinder, sprayed air through the hole through the spindle, and chortled with glee when I figured out the dust cap arrangement - which appears to be complete and in fine shape. It sure looks like all I need is a cable to poke through the spindle and a threaded cap on the back side of the spindle to hold it in place.

Fun times ahead!

 

We are really pleased that you and glee were able to figure out the speedo spindle thing and were able to chortle together...

 

When you removed the dust cover did you find a Cotter Pin through the spindle securing the Nut? If you found a Cotter Pin instead of a Circle Spring Clip you still need to do more searching for parts including the nut that preloads the Bearing. These Parts are needed for a proper install.

 

There was a circle spring clip wrapped around a funky retaining nut - definitely not the standard nut and cotter pin I'm used to, so I figured it was part of the system.

I think I lucked out. Now I just need to find someone to fabricate the cable for me. Frankly, now I'm surprised the cable wasn't with the car, since they just swapped the whole front end. They obviously knew the stock cable wasn't going to work, since they had it tucked neatly up on top of the frame back by the tranny...

 

Hope what I said helps but you might get lucky with what you're looking for from a '60 through '64 full size Olds in a salvage yard depending where you live...