1941 pickup 4-speed speedometer gears

[glennpm]

I would try using a short piece of copper wire 12 or 10 AWG NMB, i.e., household wire. You want the wire to stand proud of the slot. 12 AWG would be easier to twist the ends of and then bend the cut ends up toward the universal joint. Use a drift pin to help bend the twisted ends forward. Looks to me that there is enough space to do it and sure easier than pulling the rear-end back.