Me reinstalling the flywheel and clutch after putting the “transmission plate” on. We got as far as installing the transmission before realizing that I had left it off (d-oh!):
Transmission plate in place and transmission waiting to be installed:
Note the reddish dowel completely pushed into the dowel hole on the bellhousing (in line with the fill plug). We had the transmission almost installed before we noticed that a dowel in the block was interfering with the aforementioned one.
Me installing the transmission with Chad(biggie) guiding the tail:
(I’m sure he enjoyed ace in the face
)
Transmission installed after all the bolts had found homes:
I noticed here that the picture in the FSM and requisite numbering system are oriented such that it’s looking at the engine side of the transmission. It would have made much more sense to have it oriented like you were looking at the engine from the transmission tail.
A nice view of the engine and transmission assembled:
Rob is installing a KA dust boot over the clutch fork/slave cylinder interface and Robin is playing with the shifter.
Car elevated and awaiting engine:
Me installing bolts to hold the steering collar to the rack input shaft:
The threads on the collar were either stripped themselves, or had metal pieces in them that prevented me from tightening them to spec. Instead of finding a used collar and risking a similar issue all over again, I simply bought some hardware from Lowe’s and used a lockwasher and nut on the other end of the bolt to keep from relying on the collar threads to hold the load.
Engine monkey, Japanese-style:
I was actually trying to prevent testicular removal via the radiator support while stepping out of the engine compartment, as the car was elevated. Damn, my head looks huge.
Rob and I rigging the overhead crane and straps to lift the engine into her new home:
Rob and my younger brother maneuvering the engine in place with me lying underneath the car trying to push the transmission tail:
In retrospect we had difficulty for two reasons:
1) It’s hard as hell to move the transmission tail around considering the weight one has to handle. I’m stickdiesel, but damn! I went this past Saturday (almost 2 weeks after initially attempting engine installation) and bought a
HarborFreight jack, and
2) It’s much easier to put the mounts on the engine and lower onto the crossmember instead of putting them on the crossmember and lowering the engine onto the mounts, unbeknownst to us at the time.
The engine almost in place:
If you haven’t gathered as much from the above text, we were unable to get the engine installed, and will be attempting to do so again armed with more knowledge and tools than previously available. Wish me luck!
