derf

It works well enough. Very small bits are hard to line up right. But it does give life to worn out bits.

I've had JKS on several Jeeps. Happy with all of them. I would shoot some grease in them when greasing steering joints every oil change. That seemed to be enough.

Thing about red is that it holds better but the people who recommend it aren't the ones who have to maintain the brakes. Anything I will want to take apart, I seriously question whether to use red or not.

I would think it's difficult to find a 60° GM bellhousing adapter for the TDI but a SBC pattern is much easier. So I would just do the basic rebuild on the one you have and run it while you save up for the TDI swap. Change transmissions then, whether it's a 4L60 or AX15. And if you stick with the automatic, you may even be able to get a 700R4 and skip the electronics altogether.

Ready for bikini season... Trouble is, the steering is all over the place. I have replaced all tie rod ends and ball joints. But not the steering gear. So I have one on order. The spring bushings are not in good shape either but I'm swapping out the Rough Country suspension with new Skyjacker.

The family 77 Caprice has the same engine. It was crap. Eventually, with fuel injection, it got better. But the 70s was a bad time for engine performance.

Yeah. A lot of these high school cars weren't out until well after I was through college.

The 4L60e is probably the most common swap transmission in the off road community. And they put it in eleventy bazillion GM cars. Rebuild parts are plentiful, and even upgrade kits are an easy find. The guts are basically the same no matter the bellhousing. If it were me, I'd just pull it, take it to the transmission shop, have them do a rebuild with common inexpensive upgrades, and stab it back in. When you do the TDI swap, that's when swapping a different transmission in would make sense.

First car I bought for myself was a 2 year old 1991 Chevy Beretta.

I used one of two family cars back then. First drive was in the light blue 1978 Olds Ninety Eight Regency. It had the 5.7 diesel. The car was fine. The engine was a huge POS. The other car was a faded orange 1977 Chevy Caprice Estate wagon. It had an emissions crippled 305 V8 that hadn't seen a tune-up in maybe 100K miles. At best, it had 125 HP but realistically, it was probably 75 or less when I drove it. Ours didn't have the woodgrain but you get the idea.

Side pipes were an option on both big and small blocks. And, of course, they get swapped out. People put them on because they're cool. Others remove them because they are loud and tend to drone.

That, to me, is reason enough. You will want to pull it apart for brake maintenance eventually. Honestly, properly torqued nuts should be enough. The locktite is really just belt and suspenders. And if the studs are short, it's a good safety addition.

Seeing a comment in a wanted post for tow mirrors got me thinking. I'm going to be installing a set in one of my projects. But I don't have the plates for the inside of the door. I will need to fabricate some replacement pieces. Are those plates anything more than just some flat steel plate that are drilled and tapped for the screws? And how thick are they? Can I just use some 3/16" or so plate that I have lying around and just drill and tap it? Anyone have a picture of them they can post? Thanks.