Philotomy's Vermonster

[philotomy]

I noticed tonight that there is a dot on the big red thing and a dot on the case that line up(speedo gear),besides the red line I drew on.
 I haven't been able to pull the shifter rod off the gear selector so I tried to dismantle the shifter thru the top side,no go even the 4 phillips screws wouldn't budge WTF!?!?!?anyways soaked em in pen.oil again and banged a screwdriver with a hammer to try and break the rust,went back under the car and removed the 4 crossmember to mount/cushion bolts(9/16).think  I'll wait for the weekend to drain the pan and get my jacks in place.
 Still trying to find a local place to test and clean and repair my radiator.

[philotomy]

I v'e had a night to rethink my approach and look thru the eaglepedia and a few other threads,next step is undo the 2 bolts that hold the trans to the mount(directly up inside the hole in the crossmember)didn't know where to look before,got the other 4 out that hold the mount to the c member.Then undo the 4 nuts holding the crossmember up; drain the pan, retighten and lower a bit to gain access to the shift linkage and kickdown,then onto the next step but we'll see how it goes this weekend,raining now

[philotomy]

Well it's Sunday and its raining on and off but i'm determined to get something done,step 1 wake up and have coffee with wifey and say yes I'll fix the fence for the horse then have the rest of the day to myself,step 2 more coffee and find my tools i'll need.Hopefully some pics of my progress( or lack of) later.

[philotomy]

Its been a long day with a lot of rain but I did manage to make progress.The trans is still in the car but not for long.
 I drained the pan ,cleaned and put it back on.Cut the trans cooling lines with a pipe cutter and moved aside then unbolted the trans mount using a breaker bar on my rachet and slid it out.Next was getting the jacks right under it with a block of wood to spread the load.oiled up the studs for the crossmember and removed those with the help of my breaker bar again.I had to pry the cross member out by the exhaust tube(the studs were just so long it interfered with it sliding out) but it came out fine,cleaned up all parts and labeled em.Lowered it a bit after a brief rain,just enough to gain access to the shifter mechanism,used a 7/16 wrench to unbolt both shifter lever and throttle lever,my kickdown is a cable and popped off the top of the whole bit with little effort.Came in and had dinner then with a little recharge attacked again,took off the inspection cover and set that aside,using my  3/4 inch socket and  tire lug wrench I moved the crank around to get each converter bolt so I could put my rachet  and breaker bar on it and crack it loose(mine were 14mm)I had also removed 2 spark plugs to aid in turning the crank.
Thats where i stopped and came in,from what I can see I need to remove the dipstick tube and the other 4 bolts and nuts holding the bellhousing to the engine and it should be free.
 

Thats all for now gotta go rest and have a beer

[philotomy]

a couple more pics

[Smitch]

Glad to see you're going to get 'er done!!

[philotomy]

 Trying anyway,back has been killing me again prob from sitting on my side in the rain all Sunday so I laid one the other side that wasn't killin me,It's like I evened it out :)got the trans dipstick and tube off tonight and the 2 5/8's bolts on either side of the oil pan,need to get at the 9/16's ones next.I was going to take more pix of my adventures under the car but the camera decided the batteries(rechargables) were toast till I can find the charger which I probably left at work time for a couple pints of Guinness.

[philotomy]

Went out this morning with one of the pit crew and while drinking my morning coffee I noticed the rear chrome strip from tail light to tail light was missing and broken judging by the snapped right end,thought to myself I had some trim and didn't know where it went so I dug it out and perfect fit cept for the broken tabs.dug out a washer for the off center support tab and replaced the left side screw slipped a little adhesive filler and looks original probably was the orig part
So I can say I did something on her today without gettin dirty and for no $$$

[philotomy]

Got out yesterday,about 11:30 and started on my last 5 bolts holding the trans to the engine.I started on the 2 that had nuts on the other side,it was a bit tricky and not much room for hands even after letting it down for a bit of clearance.anyways it was going good but then realized I really do need another extension for my rachet ;I had also misplaced one,so my stepson was going out for the cookout so I asked him to stop by an auto parts store for a 1' extension.When he got back I put it on and yeah it brought the rachet out to where the trans tapers down and there's more room to swing the rachet,all 3 came out with little effort.(the driver's side WAS tougher than the passenger side because of the header and intake assembly being in the way),once all bolts were cracked loose they came out nice an easy almost with my fingers.
 checked and tucked my cooling lines and shifter linkage and kickdown cable out of the way;checked the torque converter to flexplate and wiggled it off/away from each other.I had to go from lying on one side of the car,wiggle it back a bit then go to the other side and repeat this a couple times till it all cleared.
 then i sat and with 2 floor jacks let down the front a bit then locked it ,then let down the back a bit and so on till they were all the way down,started pulling them out and the bellhousing still hit on the bottom of the frame of the car....so I slipped the trans onto my creeper then rocked it past the car and SUCCESS!!!! pic coming next

[philotomy]

[philotomy]

and the last 3 p

ics

[Smitch]

Arte you going to try to rebuild the tranny yourself or farm it out?

[philotomy]

I printed out the manual and methinks it's too complicated and I don't have a press etc or a clean workspace soooo.I'll be saving up for a while

[philotomy]

after washing the transmission and transfer caseseveral times in degreaser and simple green and Pine-sol. I noticed the selector for the 2wd/4wd was in a 1:00 position and stuck(with the vacuum motor still attached),the spare np129 has the selector in a 11:00 position and clicks as it goes into the 12:00 position,so I'm guessing I should have that checked out too.Everything turns manually just fine;the converter makes the most noise,so I'll probably have that replaced.I have a couple diff quotes ranging from 800-1000 from 2 shops in the area.anyone know how much extra the tc will be to inspect or repair?

[philotomy]

soaked the shifter screws from underneath with pen.oil and pulled out the remainder of the trans
cooling lines thats all 4 today.