I was wanting to check on the number of teeth on the speedometer pinion gear (in the tranny tailshaft) of my '68 Torqueflite. BTW, it is 27 teeth.

When I started to remove the fixture from the tailshaft, tranny fluid began literally gushing out...the extent of approximately 2 quarts of fluid.

Is this "normal" finding that much tranny fluid on and around the speedo gear portion of the tranny?

Reason I ask, is on the 67 Charger I used to own....I recall there was very little tranny fluid in the tailshaft where the speedo pinion gear is located.

Also, while I am at it....on the outside of the fixture which holds the speedo pinion gear, there are three sets of numbers and corresponding set points.....I am assuming are associated with the number of teeth on the pinion gear.

Now this may sound really silly, but I gotta ask...does it really matter which one of those three sets of numbers I align with the "pointer" on the tranny case.

What exactly is the purpose of those numbers?

From the tech archives, http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/auto/21.html
Those numbers must be aligned or you will eat up the speedo gear. They indicate the size of the gear. They set the spacing between the speedo gear and the gear drive teeth on the output shaft. The ammount of fluid loss depands on the position of the trans.

I had the front end up on ramps, therefore that explains why so much fluid was present in the tailshaft.

The bit about the numbers still baffles me, though. As I rotate the fixture around to the different positions, I don't visually see anything different in how it "sits" in the recess provided.

And there is no visible difference on the inside of the thing either.

Now, of course, a speedo pinion gear with a DIFFERENT number of teeth, may very well indeed engage the tailshaft gear more deeper (or shallower if that be the case).

But I just don't see how any particular setting would affect the specific gear that's in there now.

Just another one of "life's mysteries", I'll have to learn to live with, I suppose

Thanks for the response

The gear housing is off set. The hole in the housing for the gear shaft is not centered. That is why as you turn it it moves the gear closer or further away from the output shaft.