Maintenance prior to dropping everything back in the car

Tadams said
One thing is to check the freeze plugs. It's a great time with the engine out of the car

How would tell if the freeze plugs need to be changed? They are blue now since I painted over them but they were gold prior and looked fine to me.

halifaxhops said
Rear engine seal and front trans seals on the manual? Also get the flywheel resurfaced if you have not done so yet. and a new pilot bearing also.

I will check out how to replace these seals. Flywheel has not been resurfaced yet.

Backally said
Small things, but it's easier to get at the bulkhead connector and check/clean the connections while there's no engine in there. And since the steering column is out test fit the coupler to the steering box. That always seems to be a pita to reinstall for me.

I picked up a new coupler from Mancini so I will check it out. Good reminder.

AJ/FormS said
Don't forget to align the BH to the crank centerline!
Make sure the transmission levers are tight on the shafts, and that they will STAY tight long into the future. I do this by pulling the cover, and applying RED-loctite in the space between the flats on the pin. Then re-install the special nuts just snug and set the cover down nuts on the bench. Come back about every 10 minutes and shift them to make sure the loctite has not wicked up into the pin-bores. After the loctite has set, remove the special nuts and BLUE-loctite those and torque them up. Reinstall the cover and never loosen those special nuts. You know about those special nuts,right? The ones with the load spreader bases that are serrated, and about grade one-zillion? Do not install regular grade 5 nuts here with spring-type loc washers. That's just asking for trouble. They will work loose. Then the constant shifting will crumble the RED loctite. Then it will become increasingly hard to find the neutral gate. Then you may find yourself stuck in one gear ,in traffic, in a foreign city, wearing your Sunday-going-to-meeting best white-shirt suit, with no ramps, no tools, and no loctite, and a whining PMSing B-wife. So get the right nuts.
I like to change the hard-to-get-to freeze plugs on the sides too,unless they are reasonably new, as in you know when they were last changed. You can't go by looks on those.

I feel like this is something akin to muffler bearings but way more elaborate and hard to follow.

nm9stheham said
Do you know anything about the age and wear on the clutch? This would be a good time investigate that; if you haven't pulled the pressure plate off, there is no way to know.

If you pull the clutch off then you need to perfectly re-center the clutch when bolting down the pressure plate. If you are real good at this, it can be eyeball centered, but most folks use a clutch alignment tool. (A replica of the trans input shaft.) A super thin coat of grease on the trans input splines is OK, but I am talking just enough to make it shiney; if you can see the grease thickness, it is too thick. Any excess can get into the clutch and ruin it. DItto for a bit of grease in the pilot bushing which is probaly due to be replaced.

But if you don't service the clutch and flywheel and pilot busing now, it is not a disaster; the manual trans and clutch and flywheel can be pulled from underneath later; it is all designed to be serviced that way. It's done all the time. Now things like freeze plugs as noted above ARE a b**** from under the car later!

Supposedly the clutch is a Ram High Performance Clutch. I'm not sure what that means but you can see pics below. Would have been updated with the motor around 4 years ago. I don't know how many miles that would be. I haven't had any complaints in the transmission area of the car when I was driving it.

I picked up an alignment tool from Mancini.

I will check out the pilot bearing/bushing and post pics. The engine is still on the stand right now so that might be a few days.