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It was the reverse switch. The new one came without the copper washer and I hadn't noticed, so it was screwed in too far. Thanfully I still had the old part (and hence the washer). I got the washer on with a minimal amount of oil loss, and it seems to be fine now.

As a followup, I took the tranny off and one of the anti-chatter springs had popped loose and wedged itself. I put in a new clutch, and with the totally rebuild clutch hydraulics the clutch feels great, and very very smooth.

Now my big problem is I have no reverse. I can get the stick over to the ...

Yes, the clutch shares a reservoir with the brakes. Regarding the original poster, and not pippagrrrl, if you are getting junk in your fluid, you should bleed the clutch and all of the brake lines. You are probably getting junk pumped back in from the brakes.

Be careful with running out of fluid ...

It sounds like your clutch doesn't fully disengage when also slamming on the brakes. It might also be that something is twisting from all the torque from slamming on the brakes, but I don't think you would get the same symptoms if the shifter linkage was binding. Perhaps something in the clutch ...

I did a BP engine swap 4 years ago. Bad idle was a common topic back then too. While doing my swap, I cleaned all of the ground lugs, some with sandpaper, and I added a few strategic ground wires while I was at it. My idle was rock solid up until recently. It's still pretty good.

I'm pulling out ...

I have a 93 MX-3 with a stock F-series tranny, and a 91 Escort engine. The engine swap was done 4 years ago. Thanks again to everyone on this forum that helped.

The brake reservoir ran down to the point where the clutch master cylinder took in air. This happened while my wife was driving. I couldn ...

I agree with the frequent oil change idea. I've decided I like high-flow filters more than better-filtration filters. A high-flow filter will still catch all that crap you see. High flow also means the filter drops less pressure which means your hydrolic lifters have better oil pressure and flow ...

AtlantaMX3 did the auto to manual tranny swap. He posted a lot of stuff regarding what to do, and he has a cardomain site somewhere too. Search around for some of his info.

When I was installing my BP, I was getting what I think was a code 3 along with many other codes. The Chilton manual (I forget if it was the one for the MX-3 or for the Escort) had a section on testing the sensors in the distributor.

Basically, you can pull the distributor off the engine. Then ...

Did you uncork the radiator cap and fill the radiator, or did you just fill the overflow? You need to pull off the radiator cap and fill the radiator to the top. Make sure you squeeze the water lines to push out the air bubbles.

Then cap it and warm the car up, let it cool down, take the cap off ...

Another one bites the dust...

The clutch is how I got started on this whole thing. Mine started making a bad racket when the pedal was depressed, and the engine was stalling. I took it to a mechanic and $1100 later it was still making noise and still not right. I took it back and he put in yet ...

Yes, good luck.

For a point of reference, I'm using the stock MX-3 VAF (they aren't really MAFs per se).

When I first fired it up, it idled very smoothly, but it didn't have enough power to make it up the driveway. The timing was hugely retarded.

With the timing set fairly well (timing light ...

Hey, Atlanta's post wasn't there until I hit the submit key. His ideas are good ones. As far as the fuel lines go, make sure the source line (the one from the fuel filter) goes straight to the fuel rail, and the return one goes to the pressure regulator.

Look for my post several months ago called "BP Gotchas" for some possible wiring problems. My car is a 93 and yours is a 92 so you probably don't have the same problems. We need to know:

1. Where did the BP come from (Protege or Escort and the year). There are wiring differences (mostly in the fuel ...

When you have the HLA off, try pressing the plunger (the part that sits on top of the valve stem). If you can depress it, then the HLA is bad. Someone posted a "how to take apart and fix a bad HLA" somewhere, but it didn't really look possible to do, and I didn't want to risk trying to take the dang ...