Ok, I picked it up from the shop today and it shifts beautifully! Terry, I can't thank you enough for all your help and guidance through this project, it was invaluable to me.
The shop fixed a lot of "small" things that my car needed in lue of the mishap explained earlier. All in all, things are great. The car shifts awesome between all gears, but when you get on it, it spits out a good 2nd gear chirp and there's a good thump into drive.
The car also bakes the tires off the line now, which it never did before either.
All in all, it took approx. 1 month to do in my spare time. A couple of days I worked 8+ hours on it (over x-mas break) but I also took a week off waiting for the parts to be delivered, so it's a wash in my book. What an
AWESOME experience this has been.
I can't say how happy I am that things worked out and my beast is back up and running. Now I can take my daughter for a ride in it again!
T, what kind of Pizza do you guys like? I'll get some delivered to your place tomorrow, on me! Let me know what kind and the time and I'll get 'em there!