After a dauntless past two weeks, with more problems than solutions, I've finally got everything straightened out. First I needed a smaller flexplate (had two 168 teeth rings laying around, only to NOT need either and spring for a NEW 153 toothed ring : $48 - eBay), then my starter wouldn't throw. We got the starter fixed (bad solenoid $42, ***!) then found myself completely dumbfounded and needing shims to space the starter (FREE! It pays to be a regular at O'Reily's). Got the transmission installed (for the second time) and found a crack in my vacuum line (which caused about an hour of head scratching, luckily I had 6 ft of hose laying around from the cooler lines). Added 4 quarts of fluid, and got the car to turn over, only to have it die after a few seconds (leak in the valve cover vacuum line, fixed by tightening the clamp). Got it to STAY running, but wouldn't shift out of reverse. Figured out I had to let the car run in reverse for a little to get the fluid through to the cooler. Added 2 more quarts of fluid, ran in 1-2 gears for 5 minutes. Added 1 1/2 more quarts of fluid to top it off.
So, 7 1/2 quarts of B&M Trick Shift ($7/bottle), a $650 deficit, over 35 hours of agonizing ignorance, countless trips to O'Reily's, and many visits to HR.com later, I have a running 6 cylinder with a th350 behind it. Definitely one of a kind.
I have no pictures because...laying on your back on cold concrete really doesn't provoke much motivation to get the camera out and take pictures. Plus, when I'm working on my car...I'm in the zone.
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. I did have to grind about 1/8" off the back lip of the transmission crossmember, as well as cut a small groove on the inside lip. The th350 stud (where the cm bolts to the trans) was a bit too wide to sit comfortably inside. Other than that, all was peachy.)
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