Baby's First Engine Swap (Page 10/16)
BadNewsBrendan JUN 20, 06:53 PM
Thanks! It ended up just being a wiring issue. One of the belts rubbed through the crank position sensor wiring so i spliced in a longer wire with the connector from a spare harness i have and routed it around and it fired right up!!
BadNewsBrendan JUN 21, 05:08 PM
The plot thickens and can explain why the wire started rubbing on the belt. I hit a bump in the road a while back and it wasn't anything to crazy so i made sure i wasn't leaking oil and figured something hit the sub frame and didn't drive it since except last week cause the trans seal started leaking and took me a while to get that replaced. Not sure how I didn't notice this while replacing that but....

Guess i can count myself lucky it didn't dump the oil and destroy the engine.





[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 06-21-2020).]

pmbrunelle JUN 21, 08:26 PM
Just a bump in the road, or the mother of all craters

I suggest Rodney Dickman polyurethane mounts, especially for the two transmission mounts.

The rubber transmission mounts I've tried tore apart even with a stock 2.8 L (and no big bumps that I can recall).
BadNewsBrendan JUN 22, 08:50 AM
Yeah mother of all bumps i guess, just confused how it missed the subframe and hit the oil pan and confused how it didn't pierce the oil pan but broke the engine mount.

Thanks for the tip, will probably go that route with the poly mounts for the trans. Surprisingly the rubber on the stock fiero engine mount didn't break but the steel on the mount for the 3800 conversion did. Must be using a pretty low grade steel but I guess its not like it should be seeing that high of a force especially in that direction.
BadNewsBrendan JUL 29, 11:40 AM
Replaced the trans mounts with the poly ones from Rodney and they seem to be very well made and easy to install. Always happy with his products. It looks like the trans mounts had been broken for a while and were putting all of the force into bending the engine mount which cause it to eventually yield and snap. Welded it back together and added some bracing with my crappy harbor freight welder.

Passenger side axle seal on the trans started leaking and replaced the seal and still leaking. Where the axle rides on the seal it was pretty pitted and had some wear lines so I replaced that hoping it would fix the issue. Had to cut the ABS ring off because it was interfering with the knuckle.







After replacing the axle its still leaking and the bearing in the trans has a lot of play so I guess i will start sourcing another trans to swap in. I have seen the quick fix of using the support bearing and seal kit that presses in where the seal is but have seen mixed reviews and not sure i want to bandaid it.
pmbrunelle JUL 29, 12:59 PM
Unless you have a brand-new transmission to replace yours, used is used, and is not necessarily better than what you have now.

Crack open your own transmission and replace its diff bearings. It will be less expensive and less trouble.
BadNewsBrendan JUL 29, 01:45 PM
Yeah good point, am a little scared to do that and haven't done any research on how difficult it is but will have to look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.
kendell JUL 29, 10:25 PM

quote
Originally posted by pmbrunelle:

Unless you have a brand-new transmission to replace yours, used is used, and is not necessarily better than what you have now.

Crack open your own transmission and replace its diff bearings. It will be less expensive and less trouble.



This should be a better route than getting a used one.
pmbrunelle JUL 31, 02:22 PM
You've already taken apart an engine and put it back together, so a Muncie box shouldn't be any harder than that.

If you stick to servicing the differential bearings, the bearing replacement job is pretty simple.

You can knock out the old bearings from case halves with a drift punch from the outside. You can reinstall new bearing cups into the case with a drift punch as well. You'll need the J-26935 shim selector tool to check if your shim is still good with the new bearings; if not you'll have to address that.

For the bearings on the diff carrier, I couldn't get a good grip on them with a gear puller, so I welded bolts and used a steering wheel puller, like so:
https://www.fieromontreal.c...25.msg32733#msg32733

A hydraulic press and a socket as a driver work to reinstall new bearings on the diff carrier.

I'd strongly suggest removing and inspecting the spider gears, and cross-pin. You are likely to discover some horrors there.

[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 07-31-2020).]

BadNewsBrendan JAN 03, 01:45 PM
Thanks for the advice as always PMbrunelle. Pulled the engine out this week and started taking it apart. When I pulled the super charger off the inside of the lower intake manifold was very wet and smelled like gas and a little oily as shown below. Its been a few weeks since its ran. Does anyone know if this normal or is there something messed up? Can't think how gas would get in there since i don't have any EGR or vapor canister or anything.

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 01-03-2021).]