Today, like many days to follow im sure, I set out witht he goal of getting the trans and t-case in "Fat Bitch", but alas, No Joy!!!
After calling everyone in town to find a pilot bearing, and no one having one, I just so happened to find one. A new one, but IDK who made it. I wanted Timken, but the nearest one around is an hour away....so I settled. This trans isnt as hard to get out as the trans in my B2, so the compromise was drawn, and I installed it into my flywheel.
Next came time to cut the carpet out of the way, and remove the solid floor plate so I can instal the trans and shifters. The carpet is a pain to cut, but I managed to get it done, and floor plate removed.
Next came time to remove the mock-up trans and tcase and auto flywheel, and trans block off plate. 15 mins later, this is what I had.
Now just for reference purposes for anyone who wants to do this, or cares, heres a pic of the differences between the auto and manual block off plates.
The auto one is on the left, and manual on the right. You can notice different cut outs...namely the square on the mid-lower right side of the manual one, and the open dowel pin holes, whereas the auto has enclosed dowel holes, as well as the "drip" hole in the auto one whereas the manual one has none. Also, 2 things that dont show in this pic are the words "Auto" and "Man" stamped across the bottom of the plates. The manual plate is also a tad bit thicker than the auto plate.
Now, again, just for reference and fun, the auto plate basically fell out from behind the flexplate when I flexed it off the dowel pins. Thsi sint the case with the manual on. Having the open dowel holes, one woudl think it woud slide out from behind the flywheel in the same fashion. Nope. And I learned this cause I installed the flywheel, and then tried to install the block off plate. It will slide behind the flywheel, but I had to clearance 2 small sections at the dowel holes. Maybe 1/16" on either side.
Lucky for me, on a recent pull a part visit, I gathered some actual flywheel bolts. As you can see, they are quite different than the flexplate bolts.
Flexplate on the left, flywheel on the right.
I also gathered some pressure plate bolts on the trip, but apparently I only gathered 5, and 6 are required.
So I figured I'd go ahead and mount my slave on the trans. Not a big deal, but one thing less to do later. No dice, the slave bolts that came from the earlier "FM146" style slave are too short for the newer slave.
Thats where I had to call it a day.