sewebster

You need to determine if your jack is maxing out because something is holding the body down and you're "stretching" something while jacking, or if it's just because something is different at the front geometry wise and you need more lift. Can't you just put your jack on top of some wood or something?

Probably pretty easy to just get under your truck and take a look at the points? (detailed in the FSM)

To clarify, throwout bearing will only make noise when the clutch pedal is pushed down. Also, even a rebuilt transmission is likely to require "overfilling" because the part that needs to be replaced is the main outer case, which would be unlikely to change in a rebuild. 5523 seems to have good info to me!

Ah, ok.... I guess I'm just used to holding the belts up when I flip the seats back into position.

Ah, cool, thanks for filling me in. I don't have the tool stuff so I guess I don't need it. Not sure why you'd want to clip in the seatbelt parts, but good to know.

Wow, it's so clean in your bell housing! Mine was totally coated in black goo. I think my trans is leaking in there.

Got the welding done after a marathon session. Welding under the dash when you can't fit your helmet sucks, especially when you suck at welding like me. Anyway, here's my finished rear seat. Well, before i painted it. Hold down works and the seat belts fit and the rear seat back also fits etc. yeehaw! Now I just need to undercoat the bottom. I know it's ugly, but I suck and thin sheet metal with not perfectly matching edges is lame. IMGP7363.jpg by sewebster, on Flickr Can anyone identify this thing on my seat? It's the only thing I didn't reinstall under the rear seat... no idea what it is for. Also, what are the plastic clip things that are built right into the seatback itself (one is busted). Mystery attachment by sewebster, on Flickr

Unfortunately I have no idea. So few of those engines up here. Need to find someone down there...

I used some RTV but I doubt it matters much. I believe it is just to keep water out of your clutch if you are in something deep.

Headers?

You could try welding something to it. Try searching. I seem to recall a previous discussion or two on this.

Does it have a manual transmission? Looking for one...though maybe you are a bit far.

Slartibartfast: I had already cut it out, because it was totally rusted up underneath... there were several layers of sheet there, mostly rust. Anyway, I got rid of all those extra layers of rust and got the reinforcing plate all on it's own which was still in good shape. So I bolted that on to my flat sheet at the front two holes and then heated and formed my sheet to match the curve of the plate. Then I tacked the sheet into place in the truck. Hold down seems to basically work now, but it's only one with one bolt, because the other doesn't go into the reinforcing plate for some reason, so I need to find an M6 nut I'll post a pic once I get some more shielding gas and I finish the weld.

The 90 degree bend hose on the front near the thermostat? The coolant pipe that runs in the "valley" (under the intake manifold)? Edit: oops misread your post.. if it is coming from the exhaust manifold area, well, sounds lame, and not what I just suggested. Hope it's not the head gasket...

Welded in a bunch of floor panels. Ran out of shielding gas though so not quite done. Thought I busted something electrical with the welding... when I turned the truck back on, the first two times there was some strange beeping I've never heard before (5-10 beeps) from under the dash. But now it doesn't do it anymore...

Hmm. I wonder if that is my vibration issue. I noticed the balancer has balancing drill holes in the back... so they aren't individually balanced and you can just replace it with anything, or do you have to use the dealer specific one for that year or what?

Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea But... I'm halfways done already, and I want to finish it today... so I'll probably just install the sheet metal I already have. I guess if I don't like the result I can always cut it out again and get a panel from somewhere. I need to figure out where the pick a parts are around here too... probably not making a good use of the resource.

So I'm redoing the floor under my rear driver's side seat and had to cut out the lower seat hold-down point. Depending on how it goes tomorrow putting the new sheet metal in, I might want to not bother reinstalling it. Is it important (especially safety-wise) for some reason? Seems to me that the seatbelt does all the work here so having the hold-down doesn't really matter? I guess if I crash without someone sitting there the seat will flop around, but I don't know that I would care? The tricky part is getting the new sheet metal molded right to get the reinforcing bracket for the hold-down etc. installed in the right place. Still not sure how I will even try to do that. I have the location marked, but the new sheet is just flat at the moment... Hmm.

I don't know that there is really a consensus. You can try sliding the transmission back to see if that gives you enough room. Otherwise you're going to have to take it off entirely or remove the front crossmember or diff... But wait, you're swapping transmissions anyway, so just take the transmission off.

What are the symptoms of a bad balancer?

It's coming on and off because the wire is loose down there somewhere and it touching ground (light goes on) and then coming off again (light goes off). Or at least that is the most likely reason. If you are saying the the oil pressure wire "just ends" then yes, put a new connector on it and plug it back in...

Jack the front and grab the wheels. See if you can wiggle them. Side to side you might can feel the steering move, but top to bottom there shouldn't be any play. If there is then probably wheel bearings are dead or misadjusted. Or ball joints etc...

Did you try shifting quickly through N (on the tcase) to 4lo? I think you aren't supposed to dawdle in N. But sounds like it is something worse.

Hehe. Good luck!

Or I should just buy it if you don't and dump the engine in the river on the way back.