[73LeMans]

My biggest concern with the core support coming off the car was knowing the support bushings would just crumble once the weight was off. I wasn't wrong. I had one bolt break and as you can see, every part of them was in pretty rough shape.

I knew measuring was pointless after so many years of being deliberately forgotten about but I needed a measurement for reference to any part that might be close to fitting. When I disassembled this, I knew of no one that made these for a 73, so I was thinking I needed to get something close and modify it.

(Hey! my notes on getting air out of a power steering system after rack replacement! Cool... I've been looking for those!)



Check out the bolt -


Here at the top, you can see some of the new bushing. These were purchased from The Parts Place. Check out the difference in radius vs the originals in the previous pictures. I wasn't convinced they would work, but no one else was offering anything in this space and the Parts Place listed these out for specifically 73-77 BOPs. I decided to take a chance.



As mentioned earlier, this whole rebuild story would have been slightly cooler if I had been thinking I'd document it all from the get go. If that were the case, I'd have a ton of pictures of the new bushings. As with many of my new parts, I would have taken them on vacation and taken pictures of them on the beach next to my neighbors gnome I stole. I would have enjoyed the sunset with them and read them a bed time story. Since I didn't do any of that, the catalog pic from eBay will have to suffice.



They aren't factory correct, but they work. Lets see if they hold up. I know some folks had some quality issues with items from The Parts Place, but for these, my "core" is telling me they should be fine. (I'm radiating with laughter on that one!). OK, I'll "cool" it.

Now....how do these go back in exactly? Damned if I know. Where is that service manual.....



Seem to fit OK to me -



Debut of new trans cooler in this shot -



and one more because no one will ever get down low enough at a car show to ever see it (with lines attached)((Correction: Didn't mean to imply they'd see it without lines attached. Of course lines will be attached.)) (((Just to be clear, they (whoever they are) will definitely see it with the lines attached. If they get down low enough. But they wont. Ever.)))