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Hard fought night in the shop. I got the front driveshaft disconnected from the front diff, the 8 cross member bolts broken loose, and all 8 bellhousings bolts out. The only connection point between engine and trans is the torque converter. I also have to separate and cap the trans cooler hoses. Not bad for a nights work. Those damn bellhousing bolts were so difficult, literally 1/8 a turn at a time, flipping the wrench to get adequate sweep. More than 2 hours on 4 of 8 bolts there.
Matt helped me to take the hood off Redee to make engine yanking possible.
I started out last night with the best of intentions to disconnect the trans from the engine…. But a call from inside to help with bedtime killed my momentum…but alas I returned an hour or two later to continue, only to be distracted with a couple frosty beers. My summary of activity concluded at ONE bellhousing bolt broken loose…that is all haha. I also located the original handle from the B&M slap shifter, just gotta take some pictures and create the kijiji ad.
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Last night I got the interior trim and all the switch wires removed and pushed out of the way. I then removed the B&M slap shifter, and the custom mounting plate.
I tried to unthread the t-case shifter handle, but it appears to be welded together. I’m just gonna have to live with it, perhaps someday I’ll put in a twin stick and can obsolete the ghetto handle.
There’s only two dozen bolts holding the trans and t-case in place, hoping to get them taken care of this weekend.
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I’ve heard plenty of good reviews of facebook marketplace, but I quit that group more than 10 years ago and have no intention of returning. Too many headaches from less than reputable former social connections.
Mother Nature interfered with my Shop time last night. 2-hours on the snow blower, finally inside to put the kids to bed about 9pm, and that was all she wrote for Wednesday haha. Tonight is a new opportunity, same plan
I realized that I need to make shorter goals to get myself motivated (less overwhelmed perhaps), more of a week-by-week task list. This week my goal is to have the old drivetrain (trans/tcase/driveshFts) ready to come out. I dont know fir certain that it’ll come out with the engine in place, but I’ll find out soon enough. Last night I got the rear driveshaft out, and sprayed tons of bolts in PB blaster.
I think for tonight my plan is to pull the interior trim, and fill plates for the auto shifter and bellhousing bolts.Last night on Redee I did a thing, technically 3 things.
First and least exciting is that I cleared the space under Redee so I can physically fit under and start working.
Second order of business was spraying the driveline hardware in PB Blaster to start the soaking process.
Thirdly, and actually exciting, I swapped the bellhousings on the W56 trans for the 3RZ. I gotta look up torque specs, but otherwise I completed my first task!
Typical kijiji no-show, waited all weekend to host nobody.
I’ve decided to go ahead and start pulling the drivetrain, gonna start at the rear diff and work forwards till the trans is out. Decided, but no action yet.
One small step towards 3RZ, one giant leap towards bangin’ gears!
I made a youtube vid, and posted the SBC on kijiji with the video, and have an interested buyer who expressed interest to come tonight. Fingers crossed Scott likes what he sees, and we come to an agreenent.
I really want to start spending 3RZ swap money, and turn some wrenches.
Carryover from the other thread….
Are you thinking of putting lockers into the Taco? Or weighing out the options for a replacement?I love that the Sapphire is getting used, but I still cringe and shed a tear whenever I see the battle damage. I guess that’s why I’m building a much less capable truck, avoid the temptations of the hard line.
Got this sorted out, now my impatience for spring has grown exponentially. Add in the lack of snow in Shrlburne, and I’m starting my countdown to warm(er) weather. I tap out at 5 degrees.
Still haven’t pulled any component of the small block chevy, stalling out of laziness. One of these nights I’ll make my startup and run video, and break out the wrenches and disassemble SOMETHING. One day…
Theseold bikes are built tough. The nut had plenty of witness marks on it, so thankfully my good luck aligned in there. I couldn’t find a torque spec on that nut, so I defaulted to “very tight, but not stripping threads”.
The chain itself had more than an inch of slack in it too. There’s a 6,000km service interval on the tensioner, assuming it has missed at least one interval. I ordered 3 more side cover gaskets off ebay, hopefully between our two bikes, I wont need any more for a whileHoping so! I gotta neighbour looking to add Fuel Injection to his Square Body chev, figure I’ll try to make him an offer for my 350 and FiTech EFI as a package. Keep my stupid TH350 trans and t-case adapter on a shelf should I ever come across a need for it.
Full speed snd no reverse was killer, glad it was an easy fix.
Last night in The Shop, I finally winterized the bikes. Long overdue, and I’m not fully finished as I haven’t filled the gas tank yet. I also did some repairs on my bike, where I re-taped and re-routed all the wiring harness connections behind the headlight. A main harness was chaffing its way through the electrical tape, so I put an end to that gahhbage before I had wires to repair. I also FINALLY adjusted the tension on my counter balance chain, it has a 6,000km service interval, and by the slack on the chain I’d assume it had been missed at least once before. It’s an easy procedure as the tensioner is spring loaded to set proper tension, just gotta loosen jam nuts and it auto adjusts. Whilst in behind the magneto cover, I uncovered the source of an audible rattle. A retainer nut for a sprocket had loosened off, and fallen into the oil sump, the rattling was it being stirred and knocked about by the magneto and counterbaance chain sprocket and chain. Gonna buy a lottery ticket, that coulda been the end of my bike had the nut gotten jammed somewhere in there. Cheap fix, but I tore the main paper gasket, so I ordered a few more from my ebay source, about $12 each to my door.
Two small wins in The Shop last night. I finally got the 3RZ off the engine hoist and onto the rotisserie stand. Finally the hoist is open to yank the small block out of Redee.
Secondly I repaired my snowblower. Right at the beginning of a non-stop snowing weekend, I lost control of travel speed and direction. It was an easy fix to pop the control linkage back into the friction wheel sliding bearing, and re-bend the control linkage back to its original shape. With the linkage separated I was left woth Forward travel at FULL speed, not ideal for how much snow we got.
An hour overall, but so much better off on both frontages.
Next up is an oil change on the Caravan, and some winterizing on the bike. I also gotta make a “start and run” video for the small block. Hopefully that’ll make it easier to sell
Recently in The Shop, reassembled Matts bike after it got some cosmetic uogrades. He put new grips on, got my buddy to recover the seat in an OEM pattern, and I applied a cool “pixel” livery he grabbed online. His bike looks damn cool, easily doubled the curb value of it with just the seat and decals.
I’ve attached a before and after for comparison.
He hasn’t even seen the results yet, perhaps he’ll pop over tonight after his wife gets home from her weekend away.
