First Car -- 1968 Barracuda Notchback
Well, it's been a month and I do apologize for being absent for so long, Life really does just take off sometimes. I'm back in Indy now but I have some time off work this week, so here begins the debacle of my transmission:
Ever since I've owned this car, it has had an oil leak at the back of the motor and an ATF leak at the front of the transmission. I had always planned on either pulling the trans or engine and fixing both at the same time but quite frankly, I was a lazy teenager that didn't want to do either until I HAD to. That day finally came while I was home. The car would occasionally puke about a pint of ATF on the passenger side header collector at highway speeds and then stop leaking, ala James Bond smoke screen style! I still don't understand why it leaked in this manner, but when it proceeded to lubricate the entire underside of the car on a sunny Friday afternoon I understood it was finally time to fix it.
My boss at work very graciously allowed me to put it up on stands outside the shop at work and get the job done after hours; this saved me HOURS of time as we have every tool imaginable, making the job much easier. However, I was still under the delusion that it would take me 8-10 hours to drop the trans, reseal it, and slam it back in... never having done it before.
Up on the stands she goes!
And I found quite the treat when I dropped the trans pan... lots of shiny metal. I know this transmission probably doesn't have a whole lot left in her, but I'm hoping she'll hold together until I can get the 4-speed in.
The exhaust came out easy, driveshaft too:
And then came the hard part. I decided the easiest way to drop the trans would be to unbolt the transmission crossmember and lower the back end of it so I could get to the bellhousing bolts. This plan worked, but was still EXTREMELY difficult :BangHead:. In order to get the engine and trans to tilt back far enough, I had to disconnect the driver's side header. Then, I couldn't get to the forward transmission cooler line, so I had to pull the ENTIRE shifter linkage assembly out of the car. The torque converter bolts came out alright, but the last piece(s) de resistance were the bellhousing bolts themselves. My hands were too big to get between the firewall and the bellhousing, and the trans wouldn't tilt low enough to get behind the engine like I wanted to. The result was this setup and about two hours of cursing:
And finally, after I think about two or three days of wanting to take a hammer to it all, voila!
Out and ready for some repairs. Oh yeah, did I mentioned it decided to rain on too?
Well, it's been a month and I do apologize for being absent for so long, Life really does just take off sometimes. I'm back in Indy now but I have some time off work this week, so here begins the debacle of my transmission:
Ever since I've owned this car, it has had an oil leak at the back of the motor and an ATF leak at the front of the transmission. I had always planned on either pulling the trans or engine and fixing both at the same time but quite frankly, I was a lazy teenager that didn't want to do either until I HAD to. That day finally came while I was home. The car would occasionally puke about a pint of ATF on the passenger side header collector at highway speeds and then stop leaking, ala James Bond smoke screen style! I still don't understand why it leaked in this manner, but when it proceeded to lubricate the entire underside of the car on a sunny Friday afternoon I understood it was finally time to fix it.
My boss at work very graciously allowed me to put it up on stands outside the shop at work and get the job done after hours; this saved me HOURS of time as we have every tool imaginable, making the job much easier. However, I was still under the delusion that it would take me 8-10 hours to drop the trans, reseal it, and slam it back in... never having done it before.
Up on the stands she goes!
And I found quite the treat when I dropped the trans pan... lots of shiny metal. I know this transmission probably doesn't have a whole lot left in her, but I'm hoping she'll hold together until I can get the 4-speed in.
The exhaust came out easy, driveshaft too:
And then came the hard part. I decided the easiest way to drop the trans would be to unbolt the transmission crossmember and lower the back end of it so I could get to the bellhousing bolts. This plan worked, but was still EXTREMELY difficult :BangHead:. In order to get the engine and trans to tilt back far enough, I had to disconnect the driver's side header. Then, I couldn't get to the forward transmission cooler line, so I had to pull the ENTIRE shifter linkage assembly out of the car. The torque converter bolts came out alright, but the last piece(s) de resistance were the bellhousing bolts themselves. My hands were too big to get between the firewall and the bellhousing, and the trans wouldn't tilt low enough to get behind the engine like I wanted to. The result was this setup and about two hours of cursing:
And finally, after I think about two or three days of wanting to take a hammer to it all, voila!
Out and ready for some repairs. Oh yeah, did I mentioned it decided to rain on too?
