Small Parts

Spent a little time out in the garage today. I did not have the parts for the trans yet so I took the emergency brake apart and cleaned and de-rusted the parts. Then I painted  them with the .... wait for it .... Rust Reformer! LOL I like the look of it and it dries fast! It also gives me a bit more confidence that the rust will stay away longer. Maybe the next caretaker will have fewer rust issues.
     I also did the gear shift lever. The gear shift lever has a chrome ball on it and the brake lever chrome was pretty much shot other than the tip, so I taped off the tip so it would match the gear shift lever. I think it looks pretty cool.

E-Brake assembly minus the last 2 links

End of the before pictures ....

Beginning of the after pictures ....

I taped off the threads.

Old Skool

There are still 2 pieces I have to do on the e-brake set up, but they wont take too long. By the time I finished with the above, it was getting late so I went and checked the mailbox ..... the parts arrived!

The guy I ordered the parts from assured me I would not have any trouble pressing the new throw out bearing onto the collar. Um, right! ... I set the curved end of the collar on a pipe and laid a small block of wood on top and whacked it pretty good with a small sledge hammer .... nope. After trying this a few different ways, I turned to the vice. Same thing pipe on one side , board on the other. It took a lot of pressure but it finally went on. I was afraid the collar was gonna break!

All set to go in.

On to the pilot bearing .... just enough time before I had to quit for the day .... um no, the outside diameter is a fraction larger on this new one. It's almost as if it were mad for a hole that had to be bored out. The inside diameter is a match. I am thinking it's not going to go in. Well, for now I have the bearing in the freezer hoping it will shrink and I will heat the hole a bit to expand that and maybe I will get lucky ... I'm thinking NO but we will see. I will measure the difference tonight and see what I can find out online. I may have to take a trip to NAPA in the AM.

New on bottom - Old on top. A little difference in a BIG way!

I have a feeling I wont have the trans back in tomorrow because of the pilot bearing issue :O( But I will work on it!


A note for future iPhone 4  owners ..... all of these pictures where taken with my iPhone 4 with the flash turned on ... well the ones that look like they have a spot light on them had the flash on. The flash works a lot better in a further out picture with a little more light.