Need a Scorecard

Yesterday afternoon I was explaining to my eldest and her husband the tire and wheel swapping required since Mikhaila had her collision with the curb (more on that below). As I relayed how Glinda’s stock rear wheels needed to come off and be replaced with the Camaro wheels since I needed the tires off those wheels to replace Ringo’s destroyed ones since Scarlett needed her two wheels back that were current on Ringo, they just smiled at me and nodded.

So what precipitated all this swapping? Thursday afternoon I got THE call from Mikhaila. Through tears, “Daddy, a car cut me off, and I swerved to miss it, and Ringo hit the curb of the median, and both left tires are flat. I didn’t hit anything though.” After I made sure she was unhurt and Ringo was out of traffic, I grabbed my keys and left work to rescue the car. Mikhaila was able to walk home, so I told her to change to be ready to help me get the car home. After quickly changing into grungies, we headed out into the rain. First, we had to get a couple spare tires to replace the damaged one, so I jacked up the front end of Scarlett and put it on jackstands while Mikhaila held the umbrella over me. Off came the two front wheels and they were tossed into the bed of the pickup. Added to that were the jack and the wrench required to spin off the lug nuts. As the drops continued to fall, we drove out to Ringo’s resting spot and quickly swapped out the bad for the good so Mikhaila could drive him the final three blocks home.

Saturday afternoon I got some garage time, and used it to put Glinda back together. That started with testing the three threaded transmission mounting holes. I first took some photos to try and determine which hole I’d installed the helicoil in months ago. I determined the hole missing the bolt was not the hole with the helicoil. It's in the center hole, while the missing bolt hole is the right one as viewed from the front. To make sure all threads were good, I “bolted” a nut to each hole torqueing the fasteners to the 30 ft-lbs max. Each hole, thankfully, held the torque. Reassembly then commenced by bolting the crossmember first to the front of the trans and then, while lifting the drivetrain with the jack, to the two mounting studs sticking down from the body. With the drivetrain in place and the jack out of the way, I proceeded to reattach the linkages and such that I’d previously taken apart. Before hooking up the clutch cable, I shortened its length by a few turns of the swivel to move the take-up point to a point higher off the floor. I probably should’ve checked the splices I’d put in to fix the broken cable, but didn’t want to deal with removing all the tunnel screws. Since I was already under the car and it was basically level, I did check the transmission lube level and the oil on the tip of my pinkie finger indicated it was close to the check hole – good (see top photo).

I then threw a towel over the seat, slid behind the wheel and checked the clutch’s operation. With car running and the trans in first gear, I slowly let up on the clutch pedal until the rpm started dropping – an inch or so – good. Also, I could get the trans to shift into all gears without any grinding. With the car drivable again, I called it an evening.

Yesterday, I started the tire domino’s falling by pulling the Camaro wheels out of storage and swapping them for Glinda’s stock ones. I had Mikhaila load those and Ringo’s damaged ones into the back of the truck for me to haul to a tire store to get them swapped.