Continuing on....

Pressing in new bearings and seals in the rear axle hubs.

The seal surface on pinion gear hub was badly pitted. On the left is a speedy seal and the insertion tool, which worked great at putting a smooth seal race for the oil seal.

Same story for the seals on the axle, which were also pitted. Here, I am midway in knocking-in a Speedy-seal on the axle.

New brake shoes (New Old Stock in this case), brake cylinder seals and cups get assembled

Emptying, cleaning and refilling the rear shock absorbers. The oil that came was rather dirty, as seen on the left.

Fitting the shock absorbers, and anti-sway bar, back on the frame.

The rear axle assembly ready for fitting back on the car.

Connecting the shock absorbers.


In the end, the original transmission (on the right) was not salvageable, everything was seized up. After much searching, I found a transmission, from an 1983 Chevette, that will probably work as a replacement, as it's physically about the same dimensions. Unfortunately, there is no shift lever for it yet.

Opening up the transmission for inspection (btw, don't follow the disassembly instructions in the Chilton manual for this, it was totally wrong). Also, the input shaft has to be removed for special machining in order to couple it with the electric motor (a detail for later).

Compressing the front spring to reassemble the front suspension. With the motor gone, these are now fully extended and the parts dont fit up.

Most of the front suspension now assembled.

Cleaning up the turn signal and horn switches.