In our usual hit-or-miss random way, after doing a little cleaning in the garage, Jeff and I dragged out the transaxle and continued the job we had started earlier, cleaning it up for painting. Step one was mounting it on an engine stand where we could work on it. Step two was draining the fluid out of it. If anyone is still reading this, I need to get in touch with the type of oil I should use to refill the diff and transmission. The type has been discussed on the list recently, but I can't recall what it is called off the top of my head.

Here's a couple of transaxle shots:

I also cleaned up the hold-down nut on the differential dipstick tube, and reassembled that to the tube, which was recently powdercoated black. I put a little axle grease on the tube so that the nut would not rip the paint up and it made it o.k.

Here's a picture of that little assembly:

I made the mistake of giving the camera to Jeff, who still hasn't gotten over the toucan nose shot in Part 1, so he fabricated for me what he called a Prussian Field Marshall Helmet:

Another interesting development is that in Michigan historical plates are now valid as long as you own the vehicle. Michigan has permitted the use of authentic plates from the year of the vehicle's manufacture, so when I renewed this time I got to peel the expiration stickers off the corners of my plate.

I read Rick Norris's post today. He obviously is a much more efficient worker than I am, considering how much he gets done in one e-mail. Of course, he doesn't have a Field Marshall Helmet, either!

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Back to Part 6.

On to Part 8.

All images and text copyright Norman C. Witte 2002.