I laid the back seat down so it's just the metal platform. I'm making a carpet that will fit over it attach with velcro so I can remove it and put the seat back up in case some one needs to ride back there, which is hardly ever. And my little dog weighs a 7-8 pounds and he usually rides on my lap and puts his front feet up on the arm rest and sticks his head out the window. I can just throw his bed back there on the platform. I want to build a console attached to the one one I already have and make it come back between the seats with some nice cup holders and a locking storage compartment.

 

Drivelines are in! So nice to have a front driveline again... When I bought the trans I gave the PO my front for his zf-e40d swap.





Got the auto shift cable out from under the dash and the shift selector shaft.

Unhooked the auto harness. What is the smaller plug here? The one that is still plugged in.


Also, I see the slots for the key release switch. Do I just slide whatever that chalky little thing in there is forward until I can get the switches feet in there?

 

Lookin good Rick! Can you get a pic of the chalky thing you're talking about?

 

Almost! It's so close I can smell it. I got the dash all put back together and found that my steering wheel wouldn't turn. Turned out when I pulled the auto shift cylinder off the top of the column I put the bolts back in so I wouldn't lose them and one of those was now hitting the steering shaft. Dash came back apart and it's fixed.



I've gotten really good and getting the dash apart and dropping the column now though. Can have the entire column out in a matter of minutes...

Got it all buttoned up and seats in today.


Tried to bleed the clutch but it wasn't working for us. I'm gonna pull the master/slave out tomorrow and bench bleed it.

Since I had pulled the grill out to get the auto trans cooler out my buddy insisted that we paint it. I think it turned out pretty sweet.

 

Grill looks great Rick!

 

that grill does look great, rick! definitely a benefit of having a white or black truck - easy to find paint to exactly match!

where's your winch in that bumper, though? :-)

 

Lookin good Rick. I see one problem though. No beer cans?

 

I was thinking the same thing! for a second, I thought that was a keg on the right, but its a propane cylinder on a forklift, right?

 

Haha. We actually cleaned the bumper off about an hour earlier because I was standing on it. There was no standing room because of all the emtpies...

My winch is still at the store. I haven't gone to pick it up yet. Havent even gone to purchase it yet

 

Why is there a throw out bearing laying on the bumper in that last pic? You know that needs to be in the transmission, right? LOL!!!

 

^^^^^ "Throw out bearing" is not a set of instructions.....

('Course, I would expect bottles of beer, but....)

 

Haha. No... That one is a "throw out" bearing now. That's the one that came with the trans. Has a brand new throw-out bearing in it.

She's home finally! I've been doing all of this at a buddies shop about an hour away. I stopped at the shop to try and finish it up before heading to my grandpas for the weekend.

Bled the clutch as quickly as we could and went for a drive around town. So I threw all of our crap out of my moms truck and into mine and we took the 7.3!

So, 300 miles later I'm in love. There's a few little quirks to deal with but I like the 5 speed so much more than the auto. I'll get you guys some finished product pictures tomorrow.

 

man, i'm jealous. I can only imagine how awesome it is. I just got my little kit car (52 MG on a 1970 VW chassis) back on the road and I love driving the manual trans in that thing - its been about 2 years since i'd driven manual and I forgot how much I missed it. ...and that's just a 1.7L VW engine! I can only imagine the fun of 'manually' controlling 7.3 L of turbocharged diesel!

 

Glad you got it going and like it Rick!

 

Glad you like it Rick! Good job!