moespeeds

After months of a ground up rebuild, I'm finally starting to put this thing back together. Tomorrow night I'm going to put the new motor/driveline back in the car. Any advice or anything I should watch out for? I notice the bolt holes in the cradles are egged out so you can yaw the whole driveline right to left. Should I leave the motor and trans mounting bolts a little loose as I put it in so I can shift the driveline on the cradles as I go?

RapidC84B

The bolt holes in the cradles may be a bit oval, but those locating pins don't have any real play. Some guys have loosened the bolts and used a BF prybar to pry on the cradle to get the rear camber equalized side to side, but it's not like you can install the driveline at an angle. Don't use any impact on the front/rear cradle nuts.

Might consider extending the trans vent tube and running it to a small catch can.



Don't forget to put oil in it

moespeeds

Sorry I should have elaborated, I've got Hinson Urethane motor/trans mounts. There is no locating pin, so it allows play in the mount.

Dig the trans vent, wish I had seen it a week ago. I'm on a 2 week time frame to get this car running and still got lots to do. Bushings, ball joints, etc...

Why not the diff vent too? Seems like I had a lot of crap around mine.

RapidC84B

My diff vent was clean... my trans vent makes a mess. The OEM plastic tube just pulls off and you can rotate the 90 degree metal piece 180 degrees so it points toward the back of the engine. Then some 5/16" rubber hose and you're good. Easy to do.

RX-Ben

drop plumb bobs from the mounting studs to line up the cradles and then lower the car.
It is like cheating.

sperkins

Nah. Having that nice 2-post lift is cheating.

moespeeds

I don't mind cheating at all...

moespeeds

Here's a big tip for the archives: make sure your shifter linkage is on the left side of the shifter mounting blocks as you drop the body onto the drivetrain. Yep, that's my linkage on the wrong side of the blocks, and yep, the entire drivetrain is in the car, wires and hoses all buttoned up.

Tomorrow I'm going to try just unbolting the rear cradle and dropping it a few inches to see if it gets me the clearance I need to flip it to the other side. If that doesn't work I'll set the whole thing on the drivetrain stand, unbolt both cradles, and lift the body the 2 inches I need.



Long night...

trackboss

If it's a race car I would just cut out a good portion of the tunnel to allow access to things like that and then make it a bolt on part.

RapidC84B

Should have re-installed she shifter box first. Then you couldn't have done that.

drivinhard

lots more fuel/brake line clearance in/out with the shifter box off

RapidC84B

Good call... I took it all out with the shifter box bolted up. Service manual tells you to put a plastic putty knife in between the shifter box and those lines when removing the rear driveline.

moespeeds

Could have told me that yesterday! I had a kid in the cockpit with a screwdriver holding the fuel lines out of the way as we lowered the body, but he had no idea what he was looking at, that was all my fault.

How far can I lower the rear cradle before the engine "contacts the composite blah blah blah"? I'm going to try that first, should be quick and easy. I really did consider cutting up the tunnel but it's not that serious.

mindvexed

I dropped mine far enough to pull the trans off the torque tube. I don't remember the exact distance down (pretty sure it's over 6in), but the diff had to drop just below the dip in the floor at the rear of the car. Just keep an eye on the intake and brake lines/trans wiring.

moespeeds

Cool, thanks. Do I have to disco the steering linkage?

Thanks again guys

redtopz

I did the same thing with my shift linkage when re-installing my engine. I also just lowered the rear cradle a couple inches and popped it back over to the driver's side. It was easy. Don't forget to double check that every ground wire is properly re-connected or you will be chasing gremlins for a while.

VGLNTE1

Clutch speed bleeder...bleeding a clutch without one is horrible

moespeeds

To add a couple more:

-Make sure you hook up the starter to battery harness BEFORE you put the headers on

-Make sure you don't lump the front ABS harness in with the engine harness on top of the motor. Once the motor is installed, you'll have a hell of a time fishing that harness back behind it and underneath where it should be.