[EDIT]Reading this through, I notice that it contains copious amounts of rambling. Be warned...[/EDIT]
The starter is going in tomorrow. It's for the spare engine -- after spending about two hours trying to pull the starter from the 'SD, I gave up and rang up MagicBus and got a great deal on a used starter! I'll bolt it on to my spare engine tomorrow so that I can pull compression numbers and put it up for sale... then it is back to the 'SD
. I'm estimating ~3 hours of work to get it drivable -- very exciting!
Ironically, it was last Thanksgiving break that I was planning on getting a lot of work done on the 300D that the tranny for this 'SD came out of... however, my sister & I were hit the night after Thanksgiving by someone running a stop sign at about 20-25 MPH and I was not able to work on any car for the next several months due to back & neck injuries and a concussion.
I still remember the accident. I see a late-model Honda Civic coming up to the stop sign not yet braking (he is coming from a side street), but I assume he is just going to do his braking at the end. Only when I am too close to stop does it become clear that he is running the sign... I floor it, swerve into the oncoming lane (no one is coming), and blare the horn. I still experience the scene, the headlights cutting a path ahead of me, the engine running hard as I am flooring it to get away... a sense of relief when I think I have avoided him... and then a deadening bang... and it is over.
We are sitting in the lane we were traveling in, facing a Civic with a now-busted front bumper.
Ugh.