I was not terribly impressed with the clutch / transmission in the car after driving it some more. At speed, it would upshift and downshift just like it should. In the driveway at temp......not so much. I had a similar experience with my Dad's 67 442. That car only had 27k miles on it.
So, I pulled the transmission to have a little lookie. First of all, the original clutch had lived a full life. Furthermore, a tang was broke off the clutch fork allowing the TO bearing to wander around (and it was a bit noisy).
What I was surprised to find, was when I pulled the side cover off of the trans. If you look at a previous post, you'd see in the notes Pete (original owner) had a leaking transmission on his punch list for the dealer. Pete had gotten so irritated with Felix Chevrolet, he never took the car back in. When I got the car, it had the same trans leak. It seemed as though the leak was from the side cover. But, the shift shaft seals were not the culprit. When I got the trans out, the top of the trans was CAKED in heavy baked on grease. I didn't think a ton of it, so I went about cleaning the transmission today, before I install some new gaskets.
I pulled the side cover to reveal what must be some of the UAW's handywork
That added to the fact the front bearing retainer was NOT torqued properly. I think I found my leaks
On a side note, the suffix is still visible on the back of the right side cylinder head.
The new pressure plate and flywheel are at the machine shop getting resurfaced and balanced. The trans gaskets should be here Monday and the flywheel should be ready Tuesday.