replaced the pinion seal. Replaced u-joints (still had had the originals with the nylon that needed to be melted) replaced diff cover

spent about 3 hours with "purple power" and a paint scraper. I got the crud off of the axle, the underside and the torque arm was just plain nasty. That pinion seal had to have been leaking for a while and the previous owner ignored it. Although the gear oil level was high and there was about a pound of silicon holding the diff cover. I guess he thought that was where it was leaking but it took all of 5 seconds to recognize it was the pinion seal with the leak.

I also wire wheeled the rust from the drive shaft and gave it a coat of "rust reformer"

Shocks, struts and bushings should arrive Monday. The engine also gets brought to the machine shop on monday and the tranny will be going for a refresh.

 

dropped off the engine today. The guy said that he'll be done Friday or Monday. Dang, I'm not ready for it yet.

Anyway, started to put in the new Monroe struts, shocks and bushings. I got the "energy suspensions hyperflex" bushing kit for it.
I went with the black bushings vs the red ones

can you guess which is a new one vs which is the old?

 

Good thread I hope to find me a nice fixer upper(subscribed)

 

engine has been rebuilt. Tranny also rebuilt

I might go with chrome valve covers

queue up AC/DC back in black

 

Nice Looking project dude, Im still waiting on the money tree to let me work on mine. Dont suppose you could ask that manual of yours how the plastic trim on the bottom of the doors come off?

 

Engine and tranny were dropped back in yesterday. I had to remove the drivers side header for it to fit. I put the engine/tranny combo in attached so I don't know if I would have needed to remove the header if I was just dropping back the engine only.

I'll start reconnecting the harness and reinstalling accessories this week.

 

Typically headers need to in from the bottom up. I rarely have luck going from top down.

 

the instructions that came with my hedman shorties said to jack the engine up out of the mount to do the passenger side. it said they would slip in on the driver. well, i need to pull sensors on the driver's side to get it in, and the passenger side i shoehorned in with just taking the valve cover off

 

I can probably see all that.

But, I was fortunate (if you will) because I was dealing with an empty engine bay and tried to drop the engine back in with both headers installed. The drivers side was causing me issues. We struggled for 20 minutes and I said to heck with it, unbolted the header and 2 minutes later the engine was in its mounts. I then simply used the hoist, lifted the engine up a little and re-installed the drivers header.

 

exhaust is bolted up. torque arm and driveshaft are back on. I took a nice fuel bath replacing the fuel filter. mmmmm Old Spice has nothing on the smell of gasoline.

My new plug wires also arrived. I completely forgot that I'd need 90 degree boots because I put on headers. I opted for blue wires. I also made a hardware store run to pick up some bolts. I'll begin installing the accessories tomorrow and will see what I have to do to get the AC to fit. I don't know if the headers make it a challenge and if i need a different bracket.

I'm also going to get a reman'd compressor because AC wasn't working and the compressor was disconnected.

I'm getting it all back together and hope she fires up. All of this and I still can't figure out how to make the turn signal cam go back into the steering column.