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Dave - You'll probably figure this out all by your self but bending the shift rod was one of the hardest things in the project. It's more than just taking a hand pipe bender and doing an offset. I go 225 and struggled to get it close. Once I got it in the car I had to take the torch and heat it up to make the clearances. If you have a powered bender it would be a lot easier. Mine works fine in the final configuration but to say the least, it doesn't look a whole lot like the template. I'm not sure what the prebent costs but for some, it might be a good investment.

Thanks Bill,

A friend has a power bender, so I am hoping for some luck. The issue is not the cost of the new shaft. I installed helicopter joints on my shifter a couple of years ago. The holes will not line up with a standard shaft, so it is easier to if I can make the bends works. Here is to crossing my fingers!

To hedge my bets, I am going the install the shifter with "soft pins" so I can easily remove them to make adjustments on the bends. Thanks for the continued advice!

DaveP

I bought the shifter shaft. I decided to upgrade the worn-out rear u-joint with an Apex helicopter joint. I could use some help in setting this up. The joints were originally "in phase", does this matter?

JD,

If you still need some help, email me at Pheteplace(at)aol.com.

DaveP

For the clutch pedal adjustment stop bolt, make sure your bolt is long enough to reduce the throw of the throw-out bearing sufficiently (and adjusted). If it is not, you can over-extend the hydraulic throw-out bearing during operation and cause it to leak hydraulic fluid inside the bell-housing (and probably damage the unit). Thanks to Ray La Rue for warning me.

DaveP

When building the Teflon lines for the clutch I figured out an easy way to pressure check. You do not want to find out they have a problem after you have assembled everything.
Once the three lines are built, connect them with the double male adapters that are installed on the slave cylinder. Then put the bleed fitting on one end of your now three piece long hose and connect the other end of this hose assembly to the clutch master cylinder. Put some fluid in, bleed the hose, and then apply pressure.

Installed the Gen3 engine this weekend. Just as a note, get the tranny and engine to line up and the tranny shaft to slide into the pilot bearing before attaching the back engine mount (under the alternator). I put the back engine mount in first and it would not line up, so I had to undo the back engine mount to get it to line up. BTW, the engine bushings into the tranny were tight, so don’t be surprised (but be gentle). That done, the rest went fine.

DaveP

Bill Parenteau wrote:Warning-Test fit plug for crank sensor and mark orientation on the crank sensor before engine install. Once you install the engine you can just barely see about 1/3 of the crank sensor and with fat hands it’s hard to connect the plug to the sensor. Once it snaps on it will be next to impossible to get it off again with the engine in the frame unless you know something I don’t. I had to tap it on with a screw driver blade because I could not get a good angle on it, so having it orientated properly the first time is important.

This was impossible! I ended up removing the sensor to plug in the connector, then re-installed, assuming the gap was pre-set. Someone please let me know if that was a bad idea....plans are to start engine this weekend.

The next time (assuming I don’t die of old age first) I will connect the crank sensor while the engine/transmission combo is hanging from the lift and before any engine mounts are bolted in.

The sensor just sits in place. push in till it bottoms out.