Well... didn't make much progress today. All in all I'd say I opened a can of worms. I have more questions today than I did yesterday!
Before I got to pulling the pan today, I decided to try hooking up the clutch pedal and pulling it around the yard. Just to see if I could get the engine to turn over even a bit. The problem is, all I have on the Tranny are the 2nd/3rd gear post and the 1st/rev post, with no idea which way they go. I put vice grips on each post and tried different combinations, but in every instance it would just drag the back wheels. I can't find what post configuration means what in my manual so it's just guess and check right now. Google yielded nothing. Two posts with positions that look like: " \ | / ", for both. That is 9 12 and 3 o'clock positions on each respectively.
Oddly enough, some of the combinations would drag the engine even WITH the clutch pedal held down, so I'm not sure what that was all about. Might have some gears off in the tranny.
When I got it back under the car port, I actually tried engaging the starter with a 50 amp battery charger hooked to it. It just grinds on the fly wheel and won't slide in at all, so I'm thinking I was sent the wrong starter rebuild kit or something.
Tried hooking a pipe wrench to the harmonic while my father spun a back wheel that was jacked up and got absolutely nothing.
So, all in all I'd say I've screwed quite a few things up. Timing cover plate is leaking, engine won't turn over even with an incredible amount of torque, and the starter doesn't seem to fit the flywheel.
The parts to finish the engine will be here in two days, so I've decided to pull the engine, mount it securely on a stand / hoist, and get it started and running on there before I ever mount it to the frame. Probably should have done that from the beginning for sake of ease. From there I can try all the good suggestions you guys have given.
Sound like the right thing to do?
