Here's where we stand as of January 2023! If you're unable to watch the video below, I've got the luggage rack installed, and I've spent a considerable amount of time sorting through the electrics, which were quite a mess. I've added relays to the headlamps to allow them to be brighter, as well as save the controls on the inside of the car, which up until now had all the headlamp current flowing through them.
Before I get the transmission connected back to the engine, I need to replace the rear seal. I think I damaged the original when I pulled the engine and transmission way back in 2021. I had a little accident with the engine hoist after a bolt snapped and the back end of the transmission smacked against the asphalt. Ouch.. After this there's been an oil leak if ever I tilt the tranmission back too far. Sigh...
For this I'm using a hammer, a chisel, a flathead screw driver, vicegrips and my dremel with a cutting wheel to remove the old guy.
The old one is really stuck in there... had to pull at it from multiple angles to get it free
There we go... victory is mine!
And here we are all cleaned up and ready to receive a new seal. I inspected the seat and lightly sanded everything with some fine grit paper to smooth any imperfections.
There we go. All back together again. Now to attach it back to the engine! Just prior to doing so I filled the transmission with oil and hooked up the wiring harness from the transmission to the main harness to test the reverse lights. All is well!
Yay! I've reached a critical point! Time to put the engine back in. First off I had to install the oil filter adapter, not to mention check out to make sure the starter motor was in good working order.
Here we go, you may notice in this picture that the bumper is on. I did get that done too...
That took a while, I think a few hours, I had to adjust the hoist once, and then from there everything went in pretty smoothly. once the engine was mostly in the bay, I used my floor jack to support the rear of the transmission to finesse it into place in the transmission tunnel. The most difficult part of getting the engine in was re-installing the transmission mount in the rear. It's certainly a job made easier with two people, but I managed to do it myself. My thanks to neighbour Kevin who lent me his hoist for the weekend. He also restores cars and has been an inspiration for me. Thanks man!
