Hi John

I went by the build DOT tag on the drivers door that said 8-83, it would be for the 84 model year. This one honestly had a 3-sp automatic in it, no OD button on the shifter and was correct from what I could tell of the console. Went P-R-N-D-2-1 with no buttons on it. Was this an odd duck car or someone not do a good job on the production manifests? Who knows... It "feels" about like that of a 3.21 ratio or maybe less, the diesel tach was driven off the stator diodes in a convoluted manner with pulley ratio games, not what I would consider accurate.

Getting up the hill was going alright until the time I suspect the tooth broke off and got jammed between the gears, I could be wrong on this as the end result was a BIG mess of busted parts. When it did happen all I had was wheels and no means of driving them and had to back coast into the runaway truck area and hoping no one was coming in the other direction, needless to say I was very tense at that moment. If the car had drum brakes Im sure the wheels would have just slipped out and jammed inside the wells, the discs held them in place and allowed a moderate coast speed given the drag plus weight and grade I was on, hwy 52.

Anyway went shopping this afternoon and found the correct 3.70 axle that is not only clean it also sports new calipers and parking brake linings, only cost me a pint of blood and $75.00 plus I got the driveshaft with a new center bearing. The donor car had a trunk fire thanks to the owner whom I suspect was a kid and didnt use fuses with his boom-thumper amp and sub that turned to a crisp in the trunk. Some people are born stupid and others try real hard at it!

Chowtime here but I will be back later

Brandon 988