Hey all!
So it's been awhile since my last update, and since I just spent the last 9 hours in the garage, I thought I'd share my latest progress report with you. About three weeks ago I dropped the motor and M41 tranny in the 544, only to find out that the transmission mount wouldn't quite line up with the new transmission. It was off by about a quarter inch. As near as I could figure the problem was that the modified tunnel was not quite tall enough. I was pretty much resigned to pulling the motor and having the tunnel redone, so I took a couple weeks off to ponder my next move.
Looking at the problem this morning with a fresh pair of eyes, it occured to me that it would be simpler to lower the transmission mount. So I went to Lowe's, bought some new bolts and some 3/8" steel, and made a couple of shims. It seems to have done the trick. Everything appears to have plenty of clearance. We'll see how well it works here in a couple of months, once I get the outside of the car painted and all the glass back in.
The remainder of the day was spent getting the new door seals in, installing the alternator and electronic iginition, hanging the doors, and getting the headlight buckets back into the front fenders. You know, I'm starting to really get an appreciation for how much work goes into restoring cars and building hot rods. I mean, if you make one minor modification to a car it seems to always require a few other changes before everything works smoothly. Everything I've been doing has been relatively straightforward.
I was at the Greenwood Car Show in Seattle yesterday and saw a Corvair that some guy had dropped a 440 in the back of. They were hairy enough with the little VW designed flat sixes. You want to talk about some serious engineering....
Anyway, keep 'em rolling and I'll keep you posted!
--Ethan
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'64 PVMoneypit, '93 945 Turbo