So I got to spend some time today under my car. I can sum it up in one word: Fuck.

While driving to the Shootout last year I started having some issues with the clutch. I thought that maybe it had some air in the line and didn't think too much about it on the ride there. I had just replaced the slave cylinder after it broke off the transmission. A bolt was missing or had vibrated out and the remaining ear could not deal with the stress of shifting and broke off. This happened less than a week before the Shootout. Jeff wanted to drive a DSM while he was up and I let him drive my car. He also thought there was something not right with how it felt. I drove home and pretty much forgot about the issue. I've done 22 miles since I got home in August. I don't have a place to work on the car at my apartment and I did not want to pull another transmission in dirt/gravel.

I finally got enough junk off of my grandmother's carport so I can deal with the car. I pull in, put it up on jack stands and bleed the clutch again. While bleeding the clutch I notice that the transmission and engine are moving. This is not good. I pull the cross member off and start looking around, but do not see anything. The movement is much more noticeable with the cross member off the car. Today I drop the down pipe and pull the transfer case. I see a bolt above the transfer case that is loose (Q). I cannot get it to tighten and fear that it is stripped. I manage to pull this bolt out with a screwdriver and see that it is broken. Fuck.



I move to the top of the transmission and start looking for other bolts. The two bolts on the front of the case are tight (V and U). I'm missing a bolt on the top of the transmission (U). I see the other bolt on the top (Y) has backed out. I try to find a suitable bolt for the top to replace the missing one and realize that this bolt has sheared off inside the block. FUCK.

I'm aggravated and decide that I am just going to pull the transmission and deal with these broken bolts. Three bolts are not going to be enough to hold this thing together. I get everything disconnected off the top of the transmission and move to the bottom to pull the half shafts and slave cylinder. Oh, what's this? A crack in the case half? Are you kidding me?! FUCK.







Transmission is out. I need to figure out what to do. Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm aggravated.