91RS

iTrader: (7)

If I got a new adjustable torque arm, how would I know if I'm adjusting it right and not making the pinion angle worse?

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Ok , the last thing I needed to do was install the clutch and bellhousing before dropping in the motor . I chose the Textralia OZ700 . Everything you see in this pic came with it except the ARP flywheel to crank bolts. You do need to buy new bolts and not reuse the old ones if you're changing your clutch. Pressure plate to flywheel bolts were included in the kit.



Also you need to use this . Don't overdo it because you might need to remove the bolts sometime but I have heard horror stories of what happens if you don't loctite the bolts. It's cheap and it's good insurance as replacing the old bolts is.



Another important step is clean the flywheel and pressure plate surfaces with brakeclean or lacquer thinner to remove the coating from the manufacturer to prevent rust while being shipped. Some guys don't do this step but I do. Here's what just one wipe of the flywheel took off and the pressure plate was even worse.


Here , I've installed the pilot bearing & flywheel and torqued the bolts to 75ft/lbs as recommended by ARP , slipped on the clutch plate using the provided alignment tool .

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Next , I installed the pressure plate and torqued the bolts to 52ft/lbs



And finally , I installed the bellhousing before dropping in the engine. My friend Paul has removed the engine & trans in his '92 (he's done the same swap as I'm doing) and says this is the easiest route. Being that he only lives a few miles from me , he knows I will hunt him down and kill him if he's lied to me!

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

I bought the Spohn torque arm and they thoughtfully included a pinion angle guage with it. I would just go with the factory spec. If you lower (or raise it if you're feeling weird) your car , you will change the pinion angle so the guage and tq arm will put it back to where it needs to be..

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

I just realized I have very hairy arms, lol.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

Hey juju, what did you do to prep your rear end for paint? I just bought a junk yard rear end (disk brakes) and one of the things I'd like to do before I put it in is re-paint it (along with the "new" sway bar I took with it). I took it to a car wash and blasted it with the pressure washer and it got a large portion of the crap off but there's still some on the bottom I didn't get. Should I just use a wire brush on a drill and go at it until it looks clean enough to paint? I guess I should paint it using engine enamel paint too?

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

I used the POR-15 paint , it's made for rusty surfaces. You do need to remove loose rust and scale before painting. The paint does not like direct sunlight so bear that in mind when painting a component.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

So you used the POR and then the body color paint on top of it? Was the paint smooth after the POR? I may do that then depending on how much it costs.

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Yup , you can buy a "Super Starter " kit from them for about 14.00 , you'll get enough to paint the rear axle plus all the prep stuff.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

Wow, that's a lot less than I thought!

EDIT: Oh, do you think regular ol Krylon spray paint will be durable enough for the sway bar? I'd like to paint that red and I'm going to paint the front sway bar red to match when I eventually buy a TDS wonder bar (it'll be red too). I'm going to get any upgrade part I install underneath the car in red if it's available that way.

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

I recommend using an epoxy type spray paint to counter the flex in the swaybars.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

Oh yeah, I forgot about that flexing part!

Any tips on how to put the sway bar back on in the correct position?

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Behold the glory! I dropped it in last night but ran into a prob. The holes in the K-member were too small for the LS1 engine bolts. I also discovered that drilling the holes out were a *&%$^&*! I suspect the Kmember is chromemoly instead of mild steel. Anyways , I had to pull it back up , run down several batteries in the cordless , then drop it back in . I'll be doing touch up on some areas I scratched tonight. First attempt:



Then it's in as of a few minutes ago and bolted!:

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Leave it loose and will pretty much self align after you have all your bolts in. Then tighten all of it.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

Ok, that's what I figured I needed to do but I wanted to ask. One last quick question: when you did the POR, did you have the rear end all put together?

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

I left off the disc brake caliper brackets and had the old cruddy diff cover on it instead of the TR girdle.

Vendetta

VERY nice.

91RS

iTrader: (7)

My diff cover will have to be on when I paint mine, but I'll get the brake lines out of the way since I'll probably have one caliper and rotor off (I don't want to take both off at the same time since I've never done it before, I want to have a reference piece!). I'm opening the diff up and doing a fluid swap tomarrow and making sure all the gears really are ok before I go spending money on paint, bushings, getting rotors refinished, etc.

That engine really looks beautiful in there!

CamTom12

iTrader: (1)

'Bout damn time, killer!

badjuju342

iTrader: (3)

Time for some tranny prep , obviously this crappy stock shifter had to go:



And I replaced it with this Pro 5.0 billet one:




Probably won't get the trans in until next weekend as I don't have a tranny jack or enough muscle mass to do this by myself.