Clean the bell housing

Here's the clutch fork cable attachment.

 More blue paint on crud.  There's clearly a leak somewhere that needs to be addressed.  I'm not sure if it's the V8's rear main seal, but I'll find out once it's running.  As they say, Jeeps don't leak; they mark their territory.

 This is the underside of the clutch fork.  That wire is a spring which clips the fork to the bellhousing.

A blurry picture of the uncleaned fork.  Note the extender that's been welded on, giving the fork two inches more in length.

I went after it with a wire brush cup attachment on the grinder.  I'm satisfied the welds on the extension piece will hold.

 Primer, as usual.

 VHT black rollbar/bumper paint.  I figured this thing didn't need to be Old Ford Blue.  I'll use the rest of the paint to clean up the rear bumper sometime in January.

 Since the bell-housing is aluminum, I'm not going to paint it.  But it does need a good scrubbing to avoid exposing the clutch disc to unwanted contaminants.

The underside.  Crusty and cruddy.

Another casting number for my collection.  This is the early to mid-sixties five-bolt bell-housing rather than the six-bolt that was more common in the mid-to-late sixties behind the 289s and the 302s once the 260 was phased out.

Too much grease and grime.

Another blurry pic.  (My camera is irritating me.)  This is a much friendlier wire brush for the aluminum.  I don't want to do anything too aggressive, which the wire cup on the grinder would certainly be.

After the initial scrubbing, you can see where I'm headed.

Once I got the bulk off the outside of the bell-housing, I headed off to the shower stall again to go at it with some degreaser, a wire scrubbing brush, and some hot water.  Towards the end, I had to turn to brake cleaner and an old toothbrush.  Took about twenty minutes or so.  Here are the results.  I'm pleased.