I am posting this because my VSS (vehicle speed sensor) needed to be replaced and I could not find much more than some vague info on the procedure for my model year (no speedo cable, a manual trans and a V6) in the search. I had been without a working speedometer for over 5 months. Although it's good for keeping the odometer from racking up the miles and I know about how fast I'm driving from the tach indicator the check engine light stays on (won't pass emission inspection) and my cruise control wouldn't work.
Fortunately, I have an MTX so I could keep driving it this way indefinitely and my inspection isn't due until next December. However, I knew it had to be fixed sooner or later and so I decided to give it a try two nights ago. I wasn't positive it was a bad VSS until I had the old one out but since there's no cable and since the forum search pointed to this from several others complaining about their speedo not working I figured I'd start there.
I'd bought a new VSS a few months ago and so I knew what to look for; it was just a matter of locating it somewhere on the transaxle. I finally found it by laying on my back and looking up just to the left (when facing towards the front of the car) of the Y-pipe exhaust and coming straight out of the top of the trans. Man, I could barely see it, much less get my hand up there with a tool to loosen it. I tried the other approach from the hood side and I couldn't even see where it was.
I ended up using a plumber's sink basin wrench from underneath. It has a long shaft with a multi-angle swivel head that self-adjusts to various large size nuts. It was perfect for the job. It'll come in handy the next time my wife wants another new faucet, too. I later discovered that if I removed enough vacuum hoses from up above I could see it and I probably could have loosened it from the top with the basin wrench.
After I loosened it with the wrench I removed it the rest of the way by hand. Unplugging the electrical connection wasn't easy either but I managed. I immediately saw that the shaft had broken off. The problem was the broken piece was still in the trans and well below the surface - too far down and too tight a space to get at with needle nose pliers or even tweezers. The official name for the part the VSS shaft fits inside is called the vehicle speed driven gear. The Ford service manual CD shows how to remove this gear but the dowel pin they say to remove is impossible to remove with the trans still in the car.
I ended up doing what I'd wanted to avoid - taking it to a shop and have them at least remove the broken piece of shaft. Since transmission fluid does not leak out of the VSS hole when running I left the old one off and just put a piece of duct tape over the opening to keep dirt and things out.
The shop got it out - eventually - but the guy said he spent probably 3 1/2 hours of time in the process. He said he had to take a bunch of things out, and partially disassemble the transaxle to remove the driven gear. I dreaded hearing what it was going to cost for this but he said he'd only charge me for 2 hours worth of labor - a total of $170, including installing the new VSS. I figure I might have gotten a discount because I already had most of the old unit out and I at least knew a little about working on my car. I had an idea he might have done it differently the next time, too.
I'd asked him to save the old piece of shaft. I discovered that thing is made out of PLASTIC! No wonder it broke. What idiot engineer came up with that idea?
The new one at least has a brass shaft.
I took several pics of what a VSS looks like, the broken shaft and where this is located on the transaxle. I do not have a web site to upload the photos so I cannot include them in this post. If anyone doing a forum search in the future finds this and wants some help on replacing their VSS just drop me a private message and I'll be glad to help.
