It runs! Friday night, I went out in the garage and got busy. I replaced the GM factory flexplate wiith one of my new $10 expired-SFI flexplates from Summit. Used a set of new ARP flexplate bolts, torqued to 65 lb-ft. I was able to get Jerry's transmission jack again, and with the help of my friend Jered's son Charlie, we lifted the trans up on it. They held it secure while I installed the torque converter. Jerry's transmission jack really makes this job easy.
After that, it was just bolting it all together. Everything went back together very well. It was one of those satisfying times where the first time I started it, everything was right. I put it in gear, sorta ciringing/waiting to hear a noise, but there was none! I put it in reverse, gave it a little throttle, no noise. Put in in Drive. Throttle. No noise! woo hoo! It was 11:30pm, it was wet/drizzly out and such, so there would be no test drive, but I did move it up to the front garage. If you look at the front garage pic, you can see test results.. haha
So while putting it all together, I had an audience of Jered, Charlie, and Mike Steigerwald. Jered had asked me a few weeks back about bringing his oldest-son Charlie's Jeep in town for some suspension repair and other maintenance. I told him Sure, no problem once my Chevelle was back together. Jered recruited Mike to help him and Charlie. We pulled the Jeep inside and pulled the wheels off and WD40'd the fasteners that were to be removed.
Saturday was spent in the garage working Charlie's Jeep. Mike and Charlie did the bulk of the laboring, while Jered and I, and later Chris too, helped with tools and guidance and such.
At the end of the day, the Jeep had new rear shocks, new front shocks + springs, new sway bar bushings + end links, new tie rod, oil change, 6 new spark plugs, plug wires, and an air filter. Between the broken front spring, bad tie rod and crappy shocks, it had been a disaster to drive, so we made a substantial improvement. He had parts to do the front axle u-joints, but that looked a little more involved. They didnt seem terrible and would provide questionable improvement.
-Dave