Howdy Jeff and all...
Transmission is in, everything runs, no noises, no leaks, mechanical success. I took much more from the donor transmission than I expected; many of the blocker (synchro friction) rings and the 2nd, 5th, and 6th individual gears are "new." I suspect there will be a little wear-in going on, but nothing is tighter or worse than before. Saturday is Lime Rock, so I'll being tow<u>ing</u> a trailer and running laps all day for the real test.
Most bolts are 15mm, so buy a socket. The differential ladder bar bolts have the heads pointing down, 7/8" nuts are on top. Don't forget to put a wrench on them, they'll spin, but be hard to turn, and you think you stripped threads in the aluminum diff case. (Momentary panic.)
A floor jack is adequate to use; the tunnel is narrow enough that the transmission can't wobble far either way.
Now is the time to get that aftermarket shifter and adjust the stops - before it goes back in the car.
Fill the transmission with oil first; stick a rag in the end. You won't have to tip it enough to worry about oil pouring out the back.
The parts guy told me the transmission mount I needed came out of a Jeep.
The early transmissions have a separate piece for the skipshift feature under the shifter. It has the 1 to 4 groove cut in it and is what path the solenoid forces the shifter to follow (so it not only forces you to skip 2nd, but wouldn't allow 3rd either.) I did not re-install this piece, and would allow me to plug in the skip shift solenoid again, but not activate the feature. On the newer '96 transmission I had for parts it was integral to the shift mechanism, so it cannot be removed. Too bad for you Gen 2 guys
Install went fine, once again the 1 and 2 o'clock position bolts are the hardest to reach. I borrowed a 36" 1/2" drive extension, that's the way to go. You can then torque the bolts from back at the driveshaft location. And the rear of the transmission needs to be dropped on the crossmember without the transmission mount (i.e. about 1.5" lower than fully installed) to be able to get the extension to clear the tunnel wall - if you have the rear of the transmission any higher than that, the 1"x1" stiffening braces in the tunnel will block you from reaching all the bellhousing bolts.
There is a rubber shifter boot riveted to the tunnel to keep road water from reaching the inside of the leather boot. Mine was torn up, so I used a 4"x6" aftermarket shifter boot. That's a little smaller than the hole size, but I covered up the rest of the hole. For some reason, the tunnel hole is 4"x8"...
I must not have had the reverse solenoid plugged in all the way so I couldn't get reverse unless I turned the engine off. Pushed the plug and now it's fine.
The hydraulic clutch is a little odd; I bled it with a hose into a half-full jar so it wouldn't **** air, but that made it worse. I think the bleeder screw is much larger than that on a brake caliper bleeder and ***** in air too easily. And it's messy, since the bleeder screw head doesn't have a ****** to stick a hose on, so you have to loosen it, stick the hose on, bleed, take hose off, then tighten. Luckily someone posted about a low clutch pedal after a transmission rebuild and Viper Wizard recommended vigorous flailing on the pedal to fix it. It did, so I suspect that (like brake pistons) the hydraulic piston was mostly retracted and bleeding it did not push it forward to the release bearing. Vigorous pumping got the release bearing out to the pressure plate fingers so there's no more "take-up."
Except for the hydraulic clutch issue, everything went fine. My transmission "experience" is only rebuilding an A-833 twice (first to put 3.09 first gear in it, second time to replace input shaft bearing because I dropped a non-caged needle bearing from the mainshaft into it and didn't know it.) I didn't do the preload or clearance measurements because I used the same roller bearings and shafts; all the things I changed don't affect the shaft positions. The adjustment shims aren't part of the rebuild "kits" anyway.
I do have lots of the little pieces left, so if anyone needs a synchro key or snap ring, (or the aluminum case) let me know. You're welcome to the bigger parts, too, but I've already picked the best of them. Any questions, let me know.
