Break it Back Down

After getting the new engine and transmission into the truck and verifying that it all fit together, I had to take them back out of the truck for some finishing touches.  The engine needs to be painted, the flywheel needs to be installed, and I need to manually set the timing since the distributor was removed by the previous owner.  The transmission got some TLC today, but I still need to install the new slave cylinder and output shaft seal.

Beyond the mechanical stuff, I painted the weld repair on the front end of the frame and put a coat of primer on the transmission cross member.  Pics:

Back of the engine in its current state.  I need to paint this side first because it will be obstructed once I put the engine up on the stand to paint the rest of it.

 Degreased, scuffed up, degreased again, and masked off for paint.  I put paper towel "plugs" in the threaded holes so they would not need to be tapped out later due to paint buildup.

 BLAM!

 Red primer on the weld repair:

 KAPOW!

 Transmission cross member before paint:

 Primer applied.  Painting this is slower because it is a two-step process to coat both sides.  If I had a paint booth, this would be hanging up from a coat hanger, but instead its on a flattened Amazon box in my yard.

The internet tells me that the M5OD-R2 transmission has a design issue with the rear shift rail end caps.  They had rubber plugs from the factory that shrunk over time and would begin to ooze transmission fluid when operating at highway speeds.  These things were in poor shape and probably explain the condition of the exterior case.  Here are the plugs after I removed one:

 The fix is to replace the shriveled and brittle rubber plugs with 5/8" automotive engine freeze plugs.  I think this will go down in history as the cheapest modification to this vehicle ever at ~$1.40.

 One down:

 Here is a shot of what the factory plugs look like.

 This looks better!

 Transmission top plate installed:

 While the transmission is out, I took the opportunity to install a shifter rebuild kit, which consists of new bushings and seals.  New on the left, old on the right:

 The kit contained new pins that press into the body of the transmission, but they were too loose in the case, so I had to reuse the old ones.  I put them in the vice and cleaned them up a little with the wire wheel to remove some minor edges.

 All done.  The transmission would shift easily into all of the gears and the shafts would turn by hand as they should.