Dagnabbit! Two tranny things that I should have attended to while the tranny was in my basement on my workbench many months ago are biting me in the ass.
Opels use an approximately 3/4" threaded end speedo gear, but the standard American size is about 7/8". My electronic dash has a digital sender unit that screws onto the speedo gear. Just like with my other car I should have bought the larger size. I thought I already did this, but apparently I didn't. So I had to search Ebay for the larger threaded "bullet". They're a bit longer than oem Opel ones, so you have to also buy the longer blue 20-tooth gear. Luckily I found both in one purchase with new seals for only $13.50:
Oem:
American size:
I also should have cut the braided flexible tranny hose and installed the AN fittings. I sort of felt that the coil of hose I had looked a little short. I bought my tranny cooler and fittings as a kit and assumed that it came with plenty of hose. I have the tranny cooler mounted to the horn mount cross bar, which is about 18" away from the pulleys on the front of the engine. Guess how much hose I have extending past the engine pulleys? 18 inches. That's too short, the hoses have to bend upwards to the tranny cooler and you really should have even more extra hose length to make install easier. The kit came with 10 feet of hose, which is fine if I put the cooler right in front of the radiator, but it's NOT fine with the cooler mounted 14" or so farther in front of the radiator.:
On my other car I have this much extra, plus quick disconnects, approximately 14 feet of hose:
I've had to pull my GTX car's engine several times and it is VERY convenient to have plenty of extra hose to work with to attach to the tranny cooler. I have to wait for the speedo gear to come, so, since I have to wait until the end of the week for that, I might as well blow some more money and get the correct length of braided tranny hose I want. The 10 foot length they sent me was part of a kit, so it was included with the one shipping price for all the stuff and I was charged $35 for it. I just placed the order for 15 feet of hose at $55, plus $15 shipping and tax for a total of $75. Dagnabbit! @#$%&!
Maybe it's a good thing that I'm held up until next weekend to do the install. I have all of the wiring for the front of the car lighting and stuff terminating at butt connectors just below the master cylinder, I need to sort through the aftermarket fuse box wires and attach the appropriate color coded wires to those butt connectors. Now, without the engine and radiator in the car, I can easily reach them with the car up on the lift and me standing in the engine compartment at eye level and reaching through the radiator opening to do the hook ups. If I put the engine in I'll have to lay on top of the fenders and reach down into the nose area to do the hook ups. Better to do it now and put the wasted days waiting for parts to good use.
