Its been two weeks since I put a post on here. For the most part I haven’t really done much up until today. I was out of town visiting my parents last weekend, which used up that weekend for any work on the car. As the weather is getting better, its definitely getting to be time to think about starting the car. There’s still some loose ends to wrap up before I can do that, and there are lots of odds and ends I need to take care of before I can go-kart with the car, but I’m making good progress every time I steal away a few hours in the garage.

Today’s list was: get the transmission filled, get the clutch properly bled, find the speedometer pigtail for the transmission, and mount a sidepipe so it can be fitted with a bung for an oxygen sensor. In a rare bit of productivity, I made it entirely through that list and then some.

I’ve held off filling the transmission because I didn’t have a speedometer sensor in the casing. The opening would let a lot of the transmission fluid leak out. Typically there is a mechanical sensor in the opening which the speedometer cable attaches to. Some units also have an electronic output for electronic speedometers. The Tremec transmission, though, already has a electronic output on the other side of the transmission.

To plug the opening, I bought a small aluminum plug that fit into it and got screwed into the transmission. It uses an O-ring to seal it and prevent leaks.

Ahead of the speedometer port is the reverse switch. Its unclear why Fortes sold me this transmission with this switch in it — apparently there aren’t the proper connectors available for it. Why sell it that way then? Anyway, add a replacement reverse switch to the long list of parts I had to pay too much for because I wasn’t sold the right thing in the first place. This switch detects when the transmission is in reverse to turn on the backup lights.

I bought a replacement switch with a standard Weather-Pak style connector on it, along with the matching connector for the wiring harness.

Installing was a simple matter of removing the old one, using some thread sealant on the new one and installing the replacement switch. While doing this I also found the missing pigtail for the electronic speedometer output. I had bought it last year and have been looking for it for a couple weeks. Turns out I put it in with all the other random dash-related electronic parts. I never thought to look “away” for it. Oh well.

At this point, Jen came over and gave me some help with the car. We bled the clutch, something I couldn’t do effectively on my own a few weeks ago. She also helped me track down a couple more small leaks in the brakes because she could apply pressure to the lines while I looked for leaks.

Having someone else around means I ended up with photos actually doing stuff, as opposed to after the fact. I crawled under the car and started filling the transmission. I managed to make quite a mess doing it, as I dripped transmission fluid all over the place.

I had thought about pulling off a top plate from the transmission and filling it from above, but decided to do it the way I’d have to in the future — using the fill plug on the side of the transmission. I used a small hand pump to get the fluid into it. The pump leaked, making a mess. Changing bottles dripped and made a mess. Eventually I filled the transmission and the fluid started dripping out making a mess. I basically made a giant mess.

I really need to get the bung for the oxygen sensor welded onto the pipes and get the pipes out to get chromed. I’m still trying to find a shop to chrome them for me, but I need to get crackin’ with it. I had to pull out the pipes and get one fitted to the car so I could position the oxygen sensor appropriately. I decided to install it in the passenger side.

I got under the car and positioned the pipe on the headers. I can’t find all the hanger parts, so I couldn’t mount it for real. Using a sharpie, I marked a spot for the sensor that was out of the way and wouldn’t hang too low under the car. Typically oxygen sensors are on either side of the catalytic converter, up near the engine. Because I’ve got four-into-four headers, there is no place before the collector on the sidepipe that I can put an oxygen sensor and actually read the exhaust from all four exhaust ports on a given side of the engine.

Using a 7/8″ Uni-bit, I drilled a hole in the pipe. I’m not sure how big it ended up being, but its the right side. The bung is visible in the picture sitting where the four pipes come together. I’ll get one of my coworkers to weld it up — he’s got a TIG welder and can do a proper job with it. Once its done, I’ll get the pipes, the pipe hangers, the door hinges and I believe the hood hinge parts sent out to be chromed. I’m guessing its going to cost a small fortune, but it’ll help the looks of all the parts. The pipes from Factory Five are just mild steel and need to be coated in some way.

I also mounted a shift knob today. I bought this one to use temporarily a few weeks ago and the package was missing the set screws. I didn’t feel like returning it, as I’d tossed the packaging, but today I hit an Ace Hardware and picked up three set screws for it so I could mount it.

With all of that, plus a good bit of cleaning, I got a lot done today. I’m fairly confident within a couple of weeks I can start the engine. I’ll definitely have video of that, and I expect at that point or shortly after I’ll be able to go-kart. I don’t think I can successfully get it registered in time for the Factory Five Open House in June at this point, but I’m going to try to. Its starting to get warmer and that makes it more practical to work on the car for an hour or two after work during the week. So much of what remains is a long list of small tasks, an hour or two is time to knock a few off each time I can do that.
Its coming along!