Rear diff is full, driveshaft is in place

Filled up the rear differential - no oil at all left in it after a 20 year hiatus...
The driveshaft is in - now all I have to do is get the controller, etc. hooked up...

Engine Is In and Tied Down!

Good news for me! The new motor sits nicely on the old 4 cylinder front engine mount, and a few pieces of heavy sheet metal finishes it off... 4 hours to get it in there, though...

Engine and Tranny installation, Part 1

Why, oh why didn't i do this BEFORE I lowered the car?!

The Engine and tranny are now in place- the engine is braced for now, but the transmission mounts are all in place...

Assembly

With my transmission reassembled, and all the rest of the parts in place, I merely had to spend 4 painful, nerve-wracking, swear-filled hours assembling the adapter plates and trying desperately to get the input shaft to line up. Eventually it did, but wow...

Coming Down, Part 2

After bringing down the rear, disaster struck in the form a a completely destroyed transmission. Upon opening it for a look, I found third gear was worn down almost completely smooth. I can't even imagine the incredible noise that would have made while it was happening, so I can't imagine how it got to this state. My only saving grace was the wreck I gutted last year. I thought its tranny was destroyed as water (!) poured out of it instead of oil when I opened it up, but after a look it's almost completely pristine! A few parts were rusted, but conveniently they were spared destruction in the original transmission, and after a bit of swapping, I have my transmission!

The secondary delay between the rear coming down and the front has been the appalling state of the garage. After numerous hours cleaning, it now just looks horrible, but more importantly, I can lower the car safely.

Riding high without the motor.

Coming Down...

New shocks - front and rear, new rotors, new pads, new rubbers, new lines, and I promptly blow a caliper. Ah well - it's coming down regardless. A replacement kit is already on order.

The Transmission Adapter

I decided to use the existing tranny and clutch as the poor thing's too old for me to trust its clutchless-shifting capability. The adapter plates were measured off of a spare bellhousing, mapped in DeltaCAD and cut on a plasma cutter at Cruickshanks Sheet Metal. The owners are great people who are always willing to lend a hand to a fool like me.




Flywheel's on.