Transmission Swap Success!

I attempted, and completed, the transmission swap I'd been dreading these past months. It only took about 7 hours, and I did it solo. Luckily the clutch, flywheel and pressure plate were all interchangeable, so there were no issues there. I got to pick and choose from the best of the lot, and since the clutch and PP from the maroon car were newer, I used those with the original flywheel (less scoring/stress cracks).

I didn't get around to wiring up the speedo before the swap however, so I drove around for a couple of days without any kind of speed indicator. When I finally got around to putting the new cluster in, nothing worked. AT ALL. I tracked down a couple of wiring diagrams and after tracing out every pin on each cluster, I found that they were the same. So why wasn't I getting power? Well, turns out the +12 on the electric (86+) speedometer supplies power to the cluster, and the original +12 from the other connectors only provide illumination. Fabulous. But I got that all sorted out and now all that is left is to hook up the wires to the rear end speed sensor and it'll be done.

I did notice last night that the car is spewing oil onto the exhaust, however. I replaced the RMS while I was in there, so I don't think that's where it's coming from. I'm really hoping it's just the oil pan gasket, because I've got one of those and I was planning on doing that anyway when I replaced the engine mounts. Crossing fingers!

Good things, bad things

For the most part, the rear end swap went well.  A few minor issues happened prior to starting the brake bleeding (the very last step), but nothing that wasn't fixable with appropriate levels of force. The rear brakes wouldn't bleed, and I remembered that I had the same problem when I bled them about a year ago as well. I fixed that and started on the front brakes, when the bleed screw broke clean off. Multiple attempts to extract the leftover screw ended in failure. I should have just picked up an easy-out to begin with but I thought I could get it out. Silly me. Now I need another caliper and I'm sure none of the auto parts stores around here carry them.

Long Update

So I haven't updated in a while, mainly because of a LOT of life changes that I may or may not get around to posting over on Drunken Ramblings, but regardless I'm here updating now so be happy and stuff.

My last posts were about the 850 and the maroon project car (hereafter referred to as 'moomoo'), and possibly about Beige Betty. Well the 850 is gone, the project car is being torn apart, and Betty is pretty much the same as before, albeit now with an AW71 and a new rear main seal (and leak-free as a result!) My current DD is the Yellow Yeti, which has been referenced before as a Yellow Box. It has some fairly significant upgrades, one of which is a full 3" exhaust made by yours truly. However, at the moment it's got some issues, the biggest of which is the lack of reverse.

The transmission itself works fine - as in, it shifts in and out of gears without catching and going forward is fine. However, put it in reverse and it just sits there and spins. If you're on a FLAT (and I do mean _flat_) area, it'll start to think about going backwards, after a while. So I researched it and it turns out there's a cone clutch in the overdrive, and this is the cuprit in this situation. Oddly enough this same overdrive clutch completely failed in my first Volvo, a 1981 242, which necessitated replacing the transmission as well. So this weekend (well, my weekend, from wednesday to saturday) will be spent pulling the running gear from moomoo and transplanting it into Yeti.

This will include the transmission, flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing, pressure plate, driveline, rear end, and speedometer. Why the rear and and speedometer, you ask? Well because the '83 has a cable-driven speedo, and the '86 does not. I could swap out the tailshaft, but Yeti's rear end has a rumble that I think is bearing related, so I'll just do the whole thing. Plus I want to tap into the signal for the speedo for a HUD project, and having all of that in the car for testing will make it easier to actually do it.

And then there's the flywheel and clutch. When I bought moomoo I had to do the clutch, so it should still be in fairly good condition. We'll see though, and I'm hoping and praying (though research seems to suggest that they'll interchange) that the B230 flywheel will fit the B23, because the B230 flywheel is different and the clutch won't swap without it.

What else? Oh yeah, while I'm in there I'll replace the rear main. And probably pick then engine up a bit and pull the oil pan to replace that gasket as well, because it's leaking badly from *somewhere*, and while the pan is off I should probably drill the boss for a turbo oil return... And do the front seals too, maybe even drop in the B cam from the '86. And do the timing belt. You know, basic stuff. While completely replacing the majority of the drivetrain.

Yep, totally doable in a few days, right?