Finally got time to pull the trans and found some horrible information out about my donor. The Carfax was clean when I ran it before purchase car drove and seemed like it only had a slipping clutch. No biggy I thought. Well, pulled the trans and found this mess...
Again, carfax is clean on it, but this looks like the car was a flood vehicle. Would make sense why the carpet had a mildew smell to it. My guess is the car wasn’t claimed under insurance when it happened and instead the car was traded in to a dealer and then sent to auction. I won’t know the full extent of the damage until I pull the drain plug on the trans to see if water was in there as well. What came out when I pulled the axles looked fine, but we’ll see. The engine oil hasn’t been drained yet so I don’t know if water got in there either.
I thought something was up when I found only 5 bolts holding the trans on ( top 2 were missing) and the one closest to the thermostat housing was only finger tight.
I might be in the market for another donor...