I did a good amount of preparation to ensure the transmission would fit by test-fitting the transmission and mount, so I knew it would actually work. I've got a shop crane and load leveler. Should be simple, right? Well, almost...
The only real difficulty was in the last little bit, where the crankshaft pulley rubbed against the front crossmember. My 'clearancing' of the heater box wasn't quite enough, but I was hesitant to do any more because I was at risk of distorting the box. A little finagling made it all work out. I even preinstalled the driveshaft so I wouldn't have to struggle later on. I installed the front motor mounts (loosely), and everything looked good for the moment.
The last item to install was the bottom half of the rear transmission mount. The instructions said to just 'install it'. That... didn't quite happen.
The mount comes in two parts so that there is enough room for the back half of the transmission to fit into the tunnel during installation. The bottom half is supposed to slip into place after jacking up the back of the transmission. I found that there was not enough clearance because the rubber mount wouldn't clear the transmission. I ended up having to carve a hunk out of the rubber portion of the mount, and about 1/8" of the metal portion of the mount. I moved the engine forward as far as I could (about 1/2"), and then was able to pry the mount into place. That only took two hours... but once there, the mount lined up exactly right and the bolts bolted up. Nice.
That was enough for the day. It was quite hot out and I ended up overheating a bit, so I took the rest of the day off after putting everything away.
Next time--I start bolting stuff back on, and hopefully get close to a (second) first start.
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