Hey all. I know it's been; like, forever ago, but it has officially begun. Jeff drove his wagon over on Saturday and a couple of us proceeded to begin excising the old to make room for the new.
The motor is being built... with a few minor hiccups along the way. I mean try finding a rear main seal, anywhere, for a 200 c.i. six. These are nowhere to be found. In-fact, the gasket set Jeff bought off eBay had a 289 rear-mail seal "thrown into the package" to "look complete." Being Roger, as I am, I said "Fine, I'll use the 289 seal" and made a set myself. With the promise, "if it ever fails, I'll put in a new seal." I figure, maybe by then the seal will be in production again.
So we had Jeff, Gene, Brian, and yours truly out there by 10 AM and pretty much playing around and joking by 2 PM. Brian, in his cool vintage 1983 Diesel Ford Ranger... hauled the block and transmission to Jeff's house. He was apparently hijacked and now some guy named Johnny Plaid has it and is trying to give it away on Facebook Marketplace. Everything he says, though, is true about it.
Anyway, Jeff and I worked a few more hours to pull the steering bits out so I can get the box to RedHead Steering Gears on Monday morning. Then we started pulling the rear-end out when we decided, Mmm, maybe we'll wait until Jeff comes back next. We were tired. We're changing the leaf springs and I need to devise a means to soak the leaf perch mount screws to get them out. Hopefully. One mount at least needs a slight massage.
It was obvious... Jeff is excited. And no, we helped Gene. He didn't do it all himself, despite how it may appear in the pictures.
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