I am so glad I soaked that clutch cable flynut in penetrating oil.
For something that was a major pain in the ass before, it came right off today.
It is incredibly easy to remove a Type 1 transaxle once all the starter wires are disconnected, as well as the clutch cable and the nosecone to chassis ground.
That said… it was a dirty greasy mess.
I’m not sure if this is an original Bosch starter or not.
I’m surprised her back up lights even worked given how bad this is and covered in filth. I’m also shocked that there’s no boot on this. I mean, even the brake light switches at the master cylinder have a boot over the connections. Perhaps I can make something.
The grounding strap has oil and grime in every bit of the woven metal fabric. I am pretty sure I have a new one in a bin. Will need to look.
I’m completely surprised at the condition of the rubber mounts. I have new ones to put on, but there aren’t bad at all.
I expected the front one to have degraded a lot more than it has.
I mean, it obviously has rubber degradation, but is in no way ready to fall apart.
And the nosecone to body seal is in amazing condition. Not degraded at all for being 41 years old and made of rubber.
Now I am not sure if this bowden tube for the clutch cable is original or not, but damn is the quality there. This thing is so solid and you can feel the inner springs just super strong. I haven’t found a part # on it yet so I assume it may have been a replacement. It is in much better shape than expected and is nicer than the aftermarket one I bought.
While the tube itself is in great shape, the tip where the cable exists really isn’t much of anything. In fact, it has changed into a glue like substance from the basic rubber boot it started life as.
Now I didn’t even know this was a part, but as the clutch cable exits the chassis there’s a boot, or there was one, that is before the bowden tube.
It is toast.
So by the serial # above, this was the transaxle she was more than likley born with as AT is the code for 1303 transaxles from 1973 to 1979. They all have the desirable 3.875 fine drive ratio with the 3.88 ring and pinion gear.
To say this gearbox is a filthy thing is an understatement. It has so much caked up oil and dirt that it will take me 2 passes to clean it up enough that I’ll want to pick up up by hand.
I used the last of my Simply Green on it, scrubbing it up with 2 types of bristle brushes to get the bulk of the oils off.
I will do another pass tomorrow once I get some other degreaser from the store.
Then into the back of the Forester to be taken to the rebuilder!