Now That a 4-Speed is Close, How Does a Stick Actually Work?

From Chevrolet, this video explains how a manual shift actually works:

How a Manual Transmission Works

Timing Cover is On

In a quest that seemed to take months, and did, the timing cover, harmonic balancer, and fuel pump is mounted to the engine.  Next step, pick up a water pump (now that we think we know what we need).   After that, install the pedal assembly for the 4-speed, cut the hole in the tunnel for the shifter, get the engine in the air to attach the bell housing, clutch, and transmission then get it in the car.

Almost Got It

I've been working it seems for ever to get the original engine accessories to line up on the built-up 389 (that came with an 11 bolt water pump timing cover), shown below:

The problem was that there is no pulley available that fits on the 11 bolt pump hub that will work.  After going through the exercise of trying to find a pulley that didn't exist for months, it was time to try something new.  I had an original '63 timing cover with a 4 bolt water pump from a sludge engine.  In previous posts I described how I cleaned that up.  To get it on, the 11 bolt had to come off.  It looked nice under there:

I dry fit the new cover:



And then fit the old four bolt water pump, using the sludge motor one.  They're all the same, right? Wrong.  Turns our the sludge motors water pump had been fixed with a Tempest four bolt water pump (which has shallower fins internally, and has a different dimensional depth).  Of course, I knew none of this.  The belts still didn't line up as they should.  For grins, I took the four bolt water pump off of the 421.  It needed to be replaced as the bearing was going, but it would help with the dry fit.  Fortunately, it was the right one.  (Good discussions on Pontiac 4 bolt water pumps can be found here HAMB 4 Bolt Discussion and here Performance Years 4 Bolt Discussion & Links; thanks mechanickeith for the help). Accessories lined up as they should!

So, now I just need to find a correct four bolt water pump.  Should be easy right?  Wrong. The discussion links above address some of the problems finding a correct one.  Even still, I think I found a guy on EBay that knows what he's doing and may have a new or rebuilt one.  I purchased the Fel-Pro seal kit from RockAuto (Part No. TCS-12681-2)  The timing cover can go on permanently now (using the spec'd 20-35 lbs. of torque).