Finally, some actual progress. Started in on getting the transmission cooling lines plumbed for the radiator-side, and ran into a major snag that had us chasing fittings late Wednesday, yesterday, and early this morning. After no joy actually taking the radiator to O’Reilly’s for some help, Dave noticed something about the fittings just before we left, and wound up going a whole different direction, and put an end of the ATF cooling line slog. Once we got the ATF cooling lines plumbed, jumped over to the oil pump and oil pressure sending unit. As I was getting ready to start in on the shifter cable, I noticed it’s for a GM 700R4/TH400… which is not an AMC TF999, so I ordered a new shifter cable kit from Summit and it’ll be here [hopefully] Monday. Hit some more tomorrow (probably top-end: intake manifold, fuel injection, and roller rockers).
Pic from the other day when Dave got the power steering pump installed… just gotta plumb it back up now.Here’s the first attempt at adapting the radiator’s cooling line flare fitting using the adapters they sent with the radiator. No Go – this comes up too close to the top of the sway bar.Here’s the solution to the sway bar interference issue. Little did we know that one of those fittings was correct in its size, but didn’t fit, and the other was ‘smaller’ but did fit. Took us WAY too long to figure that out. Regardless, a 90 degree fitting is needed here to keep the lines off the sway bar.After 2 days of chasing fittings, we came up with a completely different set of fittings that worked. Dave’s ‘Mark-1 Eyeball’ saw that the ATF Cooler inlets also had female threads, so rather than using the adapters that came with the radiator, we went that route, and now it’s all good.Dave got the oil pump installed while I worked on coming up with a solution for the oil pressure sensor. The previous owners had a redneck-engineered solution that had both electrical and mechanical oil pressure sending units, but the oil pump line had broken off a LONG time ago (which is likely why the engine and transmission were caked in oil when I got it). Dave’s ‘Mark-1 Eyeball’ saved the day again when he noticed one of the oil pump drive gears had popped out and landed on top of the front axle housing.Got some new power steering pump hoses at O’Reilly’s, but the pressure line didn’t work. Turns out, the pump has a bolt-on stinger for the old hose that wouldn’t work with the new hose. But, I can remove the stinger if needed, so I’ll keep the new hose as a spare and hope the old hose hangs in there.“Dave was here – 2022.” Something of a tradition started by my old friend Jim Eimer.
