Well it's been a long time since the last update. There have been a couple of snags in getting the car going. First is finding the correct starter. The pocket in the V-6 bell housing is offset for a gear reduction starter. The starter that matches the bellhousing has a gear that will work well for an automatic or later model flywheel where the ring gear is on the clutch side of the flywheel. The ring gear on a '73 flywheel is on the engine side which causes the starter gear to be in constant mesh, not good for the starter. An old style bendix starter will not fit the bellhousing. The answer is a specialty gear reduction starter for the early manual transmission. I'll find out this weekend how it works. Second is the driveshaft. I sold the C-6 driveshaft to a member who needed it since it was too short anyway. The driveshaft needs to be 49" with my combination. I picked up a Fox body driveshaft from a local car club member (freebie, my favorite price). The issue is the fox shavt uses a 1330 u-joint and the rear yoke uses a 1310 joint. Heres the rub the 9" also uses 1-1/8" diameter caps instead of conventional 1-1/16" caps. I found a u-joint kit by Ford racing @ Summit which is a 1310/1330 combination joint with extra 1-1/8" caps. So all that stands between me and shifting my own gears is installing the starter, bypassing the wiring connector for the neutral safety switch, bypassing the seat belt warning connection to the NSS and having the d-shaft lengthened (install new tube). It's close!!! I hope to have the car running this weekend and hopefully the d-shaft built and installed next week (3-5 days for the shop). I hope to get a video of the first drive.
