With our mostly sealed transmission and thoughts of getting the car truly road-worthy, we started taking little jaunts around town.  On December 2, 2021, we took Janet’s high school buddy, Gina Ensalaco, on a ride that was revealing of a weakness in the drive-train.

Gina and Craig at Tamarack and Pacific Coast Highway. Note the Carlsbad Encina power plant with no smoke stack thru the windshield.

What became very clear as we got closer to home was that it was becoming more and more difficult to shift the car in ANY gear. I thought we were not going to make it, so I left it in first gear for the last mile or so and rolled a couple of stop signs where there was no traffic. This was a problem I’d experienced earlier.  The hex head bolts I had replaced with socket head bolts & lock washers for the throw out bearing pressure plate were UNSCREWING themselves again – damnit. (See original problem explained at: https://michiganmotorcar.com/so-many-things-to-adjust/ )  So here we go again.

I’ve had the throw-out bearing and front universal joint out so many times that I welded up a jig or cradle to hold the piece in place on my hydraulic floor jack. Let me tell you how unpleasant it is to stand on your head to while trying to get 12 bolts removed or installed while holding 18-20 pounds of universal joint in one hand and a wrench in the other. Try aligning twelve little holes with a greasy floppy U-joint trying to slip out of your grasp. The new tool support changed it from a hateful exercise to a merely tiresome one.

U-joint support tool helps make alignment less onerous.

With the addition of Locktite® red thread locker goop, we will see if the fix is at least MOSTLY permanent.  ( Cue the bright uplifting happy soundtrack – Zippity Do Dah or similar.)