So let's try this again... I've got my freshly welded C6
back from the shop and I'm ready to stab it.
As you can see from the raindrops on
the case, mother
nature wasn't on my side. Oh well,
I'll let the car (and
my borrowed Bud Light E-Z Up) be my
umbrella.
After much less wrangling and numerous
soakings from
the periodic dumping of accumulated
rainwater coming
from pockets atop the wind-blown E-Z
Up, the tranny was
in (the torque converter was correct
this time).
Unfortunately the transmission cross
member was not
cooperating (i.e. the frame holes weren't
lining up),
so I decided to call it a day leaving
the transmission
tail shaft supported by a jack stand.
After a couple of days' rest, it was
time to show
that transmission cross member who
was boss...
Here was the problem: the bolts in the
rear transmission mount
slots were slid to their maximum and
this was as close as I
could get to lining up the bolt hole.
We tried ropes and brute
force without success. Help finally
came from a well known
and trusted ally: Channel lock pliers.
Finally, the tranny was in and the cross
member was
bolted in place. As an extra added
bonus, the
passenger side header threaded into
place effortlessly.
It was a good day.
With limited time, the next day was
light duty: finish bolting
up passenger side header and install
the seats...
It was nice to be able to do this. A
few days ago I was wondering
if I was ever going to be able to do
this: flashback to the seat
mounting stud debacle that took place
while the tranny was in the shop:
Yeah, that's a pipe wrench. When you
have to use a pipe
wrench to work on a car, you know something's
wrong.
In this case, it was rust (and lots
of it). After a good douching
with penetrating oil, only 2 studs
came out via conventional
means (i.e. 2 nuts and a crescent wrench);
as for the other
6 studs: 3 yielded to the gentle persuasion
of the pipe wrench
and 3 broke under the not-so-gentle
persuasion of the pipe
wrench. The last 3 needed to be drilled
out and re-tapped
(lots of cussing that day).
But it was worth it. After all the cussing, twisting and drilling,
I was back in the saddle again.
Kudos to Rob Hollar on the reupholster
job.