I decided that, after working with the same company for more than five years, I’d finally attend a company christmas party. I never went before because, well, I’m antisocial. We drove up Thursday evening and spent the night at Jaysen’s–that way I could be at work early the next morning without having to wake up 2½ hours beforehand. The party started around 6:00 last night, and it was a good time. We went on a hayride, ate dinner, and saw T Minus 5 perform (they were surprisingly good). I’m normally not into a cappella, even though I was in choir all throughout high school and college (my first year of college was paid for by a music scholarship). Anyhow, after the party, we were going to spend the night at Jaysen’s again in order to avoid driving home so late, but I really wanted to sleep in my own bed. I talked Traci into heading home, and we didn’t leave until 11:00 p.m., which meant we got home well after midnight.
This morning, I started working on my car again. My bearing puller had arrived yesterday, and when I tried to use it today, the damn thing didn’t work. The part of the jaws that are supposed to fit behind the bearing to grab it and pull it out were too thick to fit behind my pilot bearing. That piece of shit is going back to the place I ordered it from, and I’m sure they’re going to give me a lot of hassle about returning it, but if it doesn’t work on all cars, there should be a fucking disclaimer on their website. I feel stupid now, though, because all it took to remove the pilot bearing was to remove the entire flywheel, then pound the bearing out with a hammer and a piece of 1″ bar stock. A week ago, I really didn’t want to remove the flywheel at all, but it wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it would be. After removing the old pilot bearing, I reinstalled the flywheel, pounded the new pilot bearing in, installed the new clutch and pressure plate, and mostly installed the transmission. It’s about an inch away from mating back up to the engine, but I think the transmission shaft is hanging up on the pilot bearing or something, because it just won’t go in all the way. I played around with it for about an hour before giving up for the day, because it was dark outside, and I was tired and hungry. I worked on it for about 6 hours today without a break, and I’ll probably do the same tomorrow. If I get the transmission bolted up, the rest should go a lot more quickly, since the transmission is the hardest part.