I installed the flywheel (after getting some loc-tite for flywheel and pressure plate bolts) then dug out my clutch kit and lined up the clutch and installed the pressure plate.  I don't have a pilot bearing removal tool so I just used a large bolt and force threaded it into the brass bearing. 

Also I noticed my timing indicator tab was wedged at an angle so I pulled it back off and added washers behind both nuts to shim it out.  Then I started prepping some more pats to go back on the car.  I had a box of parts gets splashed with brake fluid at some point and it ruined the paint so I am having to sand and re-prime as well.

 

 

Joel is sending me his dial indicator so I can check concentricity on my bell-housing and while I am waiting for it to arrive I go ahead and bolt on the housing and the z-bar.  The bolt on the transmission cross-member to isolator bracket.  Finally I start cleaning up the intake so I can begin polishing it.  It would have been better had I the foresight to buy a polished intake back in 2004 before I started this project but I didn't and now I don't want to throw away money buying another one.

 

 

January 2-4th 2009

I got Joel's dial gauge on the 2nd and tried to check concentricity and parallelism.  Neither one was very good.  In fact they were so horrible I didn't even write down the readings.  I remember parallel was off by about .010" and centering was off by about .015".  Neither of these was acceptable to me as the tolerance on these measurements is .002" and .005" respectively.  So I pulled everything apart and cleaned the surfaces better.  I removed some overspray on the mating surfaces of engine and bell-housing and removed the paint from the transmission to bell-housing surfaces. I don't know what I was thinking painting them in the first place.  I tested centering and it was still way out, so I looked and the gauge was sitting on a burr and therefore the reading was bogus.  I moved it about 1/4" clockwise and this got the centering within tolerance (see chart below) and but parallel was still .003".  I think took the housing off again and sanded the face on the high side down .001" using 220 grit and got it in spec.  I also smoothed out a few burrs on the centering surface with some 400 grit.

 

Here are the test results.  All were verified by triple rotation.

Position	Parallel after cleaning	Parallel after sanding	Centering after cleaning	Centering off the burr
3 o'clock	.000	.000	.004	.002
6 o'clock	.000	.000	-.002	-.002
9 o'clock	-.003 (.003 total Horiz)	-.002 (.002 total Horiz)	.000 (.004 total Horiz)	-.003 (.005 total Horiz)
12 o'clock	.-003 (.003 total Vert)	-.002 (.002 total Vert)	.005 (.007 total Vert)	.000 (.002 total Vert)

I then pulled the bell-housing off one more time, installed the clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and clutch fork.  Then I pulled my new transmission out of the box it has been sitting for 3 years and started getting it ready to mount.  I have a strap type slip yoke that came with it but it needs some paint first.  I replaced the stock z-bar to clutch fork link with a spherical ball joint adjustable rod.  Then I attached a poly mount.  I'm going to try to get some help over here tomorrow to see if I can get this transmission bolted up.