Project Greta – Engine’s back in!!!

So we’ve hit a big milestone here. The motor is back in the car! When we last left off I was scratching my head trying to figure out what I was going to do about the clutch. The 10” kit I bought did not seem like it was going to work with my little 3 speed. I had ordered a diaphragm style and after talking to some people it seemed like the answer might be to try a 10” 3 finger style. So I ordered clutch #2. Once it arrived I pulled the bellhousing and clutch #1 off and re-installed with clutch #2. This 3 finger clutch (Borg and Beck) came with yet another type of throwout bearing. This one is a square style with clips. I have a Jeep motor on a stand (for the track Gremlin) that was setup for a 5 speed and has a fork that is designed for the clip on throwout bearings. I’ve been comparing the new clutch to it and even considered pirating some parts from it but I couldn’t get any combo of clutch forks or throwout bearings to work with the 10” clutch and my skinny 3 speed input shaft. So I realized the answer was I needed to find a stock 9” clutch. Called Dave (Dave’s Auto Parts, Santa Rosa) who’s a member of the AMC club and asked him about it. He was able to get me a part # for the stock clutch and with that I was able to find the right clutch on Amazon. Done deal.

So, with the stock clutch kit everything went great. Got it all installed (didn’t take pics because it looks the same as the 10” clutch pics basically). And finally I was able to bolt the trans to the bellhousing. I could not get the trans to seat just by pushing. Finally resorted to using some long bolts to pull it together. I was very careful to not use a lot of force so as not to damage any threads in the bellhousing. I could tell immediately that it was working and I wasn’t having to use much force to get it to seat.

After getting the T150 bolted up I went to re-install the shifter rod assembly. That’s when it was finally time to deal with something that happened during the cleaning process. I had let the trans slip off the jack stands I had it on and it broke the plastic rod bushing. I had looked online for a replacement and couldn’t find one. I needed to come up with something. So I took two washers and ground one side of each straight. Then I welded them to the rod mount. I think it’s going to work great!

The moment had finally come where it was time to put the motor/trans back in the car. I was lucky and got some help from Matt. He came over and we pushed the race Javelin out of the shop and pushed Greta in. Then we put the motor/trans back in, rolled Greta back out of the shop and the Javelin back in. Really, it was basically that simple… took maybe 30 minutes total (including all the pushing cars around).

And what would a Greta update be without painting? Yep, there was more crap to paint. Be warned once you paint one piece it’s hard not to paint them all… Next step, get all the crap put back on the motor so I can fire it up!