In the meantime, I had to pull the motor because it had locked up while running on the jackstands. It turns out, the socket that I had dropped and thought was lost forever was the culprit. It jammed between the fan and the fan housing. That was kinda good, because the motor leaked oil like crazy when my dad owned it, mostly through the flywheel seal. So We went through and resealed the engine from the case up, and fixed some major mistakes that the P.O. had made while building the engine (I.E. two head gaskets per cylinder on one side).
When we got it back in the car it ran RICH.... REALLY RICH. It wouldn't even idle. If we could get it to start we had to constantly wrap it up to keep it cleaned out. I did diagnostic test after diagnostic test to find the problem. I replaced the ECU because the loom was in such bad shape. I replace the MPS because the old one leaked down. I replace the injector points because they were all cruddy.... I did all that without making sure I had the damn thing HOOKED UP RIGHT... The CHT was plugged into the ignition loom.
So I got that straightened out (after probably 4 months of trying to figure it out), and that's when I discovered the condition of the tranny. Since then it's been driven to the bank or just around the block every week or so just to keep the engine from getting crapped up, but no long trips, and NNOOO downshifting. On top of that, I had used up all the money I'd saved for that car, and decided to go back to school. So with my bills taking priority, it's sat around for most of the last three or so months, until I saved enough to get a tranny from Slits. This one I know was pulled out of a running car, and shifted well. It was money well spent. It went in last weekend, but unfortunately I didn't think to buy a new rear bushing for the linkage, so I've been waiting for that the first half of this week. In the meantime, I fixed a dead spot in the power band on tuesday.
So FINALLY (you're probably getting tired of reading this) today, I just took it out by myself and drove. I went down this section of canyon road that I know really well (Hwy 138) and kicked it around a bit. It handles awsome, stops good, and the heal-toe action is perfect! Then I took 138 further than I have before and turned off onto a road that I've never been on(Lone Pine Canyon Road) and just cruised up the mountain. I wanted to see what was at the top. I got to the top and there was a little mountain village and this awsome view of the desert below. I was wondering what village that was, so when I got home I looked on a map and saw that it was a place I used to go camping as a kid. I went in the opposite way my family used to go, so I didn't recognize it. I thought that was kinda cool. It was and awsome day too. 72 degrees. Mountain roads... can't get any better.
I'm gonna love this car, I can tell. Thanks to all who helped out this past year. This has been a giant learning experience. Special thanks to Slits, and HUGE thanks to my brother who's helped me a ton with this project.... He got his own key.
Mark D.