Whelp, it'* in! It took some work though...transmission are heavy little beasties Right now, aside from the trans, I have reinstalled the subframe, all mounts are in place and tightened down, so the engine is no longer supported at the oil pan.

Next step is to change out the oil filter adapter and go back to the external cooler. Much easier to do with the axles out of the way. The Energy Suspension tierod caps that I got do not fit, so I will have to take them back and either try to find some that fit, or break down and get new tierods. Also in the plans are the outfreakinstanding swaybar bushings, since everything is all apart and easy enough to get to. Not to mention fabbing up the trans cooler lines to the new cooler.

It'* coming along at least

Did Sleepyopian help?

He helped in dropping the old trans out. Putting the new one in....that'* all me. How do you ask? It'* easy enough to do after you attach the dogbone mount FIRST, then jack the heavy end up

The end of the road is near!

Suspension is done. Temporary trans cooling lines are run (no point in fabbing up new hardlines until after full trans operation is verified), and front end assembly has begun. But the best news I have to date is this: the trans shifts through ALL gears as it sits on jackstands. Don came over for a while and helped with wrenching, and I got the idea of starting the car up and letting the trans warm up to get the fluid going and to flush all the translube out.

After about 5 mins of warmup, I decided to put it in reverse. Lo and behold, reverse happens! So I go to neutral, then drop all the way to first...and it'* there! I go to second, and it shifts. I go to drive, and it goes into third. Overdrive finds the car (theoretically, since it is on jackstands) moving along at 80 mph churning at 2200 rpm.

Tomorrow new brakes go on and general housekeeping, and hopefully Friday...on the road for shakedown

Congrats

Roadtest -

It was just a few laps around the neighborhood. First test revealed actual shifting, no slippage...but a very soft shift. Tightened up the shift modulator and Don said it DID firm it up, but could stand to be a bit firmer. I kept the accumulator springs from the '95, and I am wondering if they are a bit softer than the '93. If so, I'll be swapping springs.

But so far, so good