I was helping a buddy replace the speedometer gear inside the tcase in his 1996 ford explorer today.

We were going to replace both the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor), the gear attached to it, and the gear that's inside the tcase.

We took off the rear driveshaft, and the yoke that the driveshaft attaches to, thinking that we could just slide the gear out... We were wrong. It seems like there is a seal there and maybe some sort of metal ring behind it that we cannot seem to get out of the way.

Can we even remove the gear from the back of the tcase? or do we have to take the case apart...?