checking into what I purchased, I found that the original 305 was gone, with a newer 350 vortec block engine with the casted over fuel pump housing, so I'm guesstimating about a '99 block, with a 700r4. if this hadn't been a t-top car, or console car, I probably would've overlooked it, and has probably what has kept me from getting rid of it (keep following along, dear reader. you will soon learn why the name came about).
a few normal maintenance issues (battery, starter,etc, ) and I was enjoying the car. a few months later, and the trans went out.... hmmm, well it
had been sitting for quite awhile, so I couldn't be upset... The regal had awhile to go before it would be road ready, so I figured that I'd snag the trans out of it, and get back on the road.... well, the regal
had been sitting for quite a while (can you see where this is going, dear reader?) and 2 days later
that 700r4 went out.....
years ago, I worked turning wrenches, but had never rebuilt an automatic trans before (been inside manuals before, and the automatic guys tell me that they're afraid to do manuals...), and with the power of a few youtube videos, I felt confident enough to try one on my own...
I won't bore you with all the pics, but it didn't really go well... I think I went back into this one again, and tried a few things and cleared up some thickness variances, and seemed to work, but not altogether right. 1 or 2 junkyard transmissions later, I was back on the road I'd gotten pretty good at the driveway trans swap thing, and before long, the trans took a dump again, this time coming home from work.... after a 12 hour day.... 25 miles from home (freeway driving).... I had reverse and 1st, and not much else. I was able to sneak it into second from time to time, but for the most part, backroads took me an extra 10 miles, and a 40 min drive turned into a 2 hour drive.
the car sat for awhile, and during that time, some friends of mine from the local SCCA club offer me a space in their club shop for a decent monthly rent, so now I had access to a lift, air, and some of the guys have specialty stuff that is open for use, so also have use of a trans jack.
this became a pretty regular place for the car...
about this time, I was getting frustrated, and ticked off that it spent more time off the road than on... it was about this time I decided to get around to naming the thing ( I do for just about all of my cars) and knew being a pontiac, it needed a native name. oddly enough I called it "sitting bull" one day, then decided that it was too good of a name for it, being that it had a horrible disposition towards me. Then the idea of "Chief Sh**ting Bull" came to me, and just seemed to fit. I've been toying with the idea of getting a sticker like this:
and having it modified without the slash across the image, and adding a feather headdress to the bull.
