ok so the clutch is changed. i wish i would have known that was going to be the easier job to do so i would have done it first. at the end of all this i hope to write all the steps i took along with pics but for now i'm still trying to get all my stuff situated at my nana's from the move and still work on the car.
the clutch was from a napa kit, got the flywheel resurfaced and had the gear flipped all for $38. i still need to double check the torque on all the bolts and put new fluid in the tranny and put the shifter back in but otherwise i'm pretty much done with the clutch.
the rear axle was a nightmare beyond belief and it's still not over. first i found the TC rear i needed at the JY for about 220. i'll try and give the short version and leave the long story for last.
basically i found the first TC rear on last sunday, had someone pull it and when i came back he forgot some of the parts i told him so he said i'd have to come back to get it. well to save myself the core charge i worked on getting my rear axle off so i could give them that one when i went to get the TC one. anyway i eventually was ready to pick it up on wed. but when i called they told me that it was broken. apparently some idiot broke it with a forklift. so there went 3 long days with only about 7hrs sleep down the drain. then i "find" another one at some auto shop. the guy tells me it's from a "genuine thunderbird turbo coupe." he sounds like some old white guy and he was talking about fixing up old mustangs and camaros which was a step in the right direction for me instead of the crappy customer service and broken english at the junk yard. so i payed him his price of 250 for the axle and that's delivered to my door the next day. unfortunately it's the wrong one. who would have thought that in his 40 years of business that he would make such a rookie mistake as to not have someone he trusts to visually verify that it was the right car. well what it was was a 5.0 turbo engine in the tbird. so at this point i've decided that i just need to get my old axle put back together and my car which is what i start working on. then i got a call and it's the old white guy who tells me he tracked down the right one so i told him to drop it off if it's in good condition which he says it is.
so end of story is i have the TC rear but it's not on the car. i'm going to have it looked at on monday to make sure the differential is good and the rotors are good. if that all checks out then i will get it cleaned up and figure out how to mount it to my car and swap it in sometime this week probably. to be honest i don't really want to get into the nightmare any more at the moment but i will post the full experience.
and yes i've learned my lesson again about biting off more than i can chew. thankfully i had a good friend who helped out quite a bit. most of my time though was spent trying to break bolts free on my axle and if i do put in the new rear i will have to replace my passenger rear lower control arm because the lower bolt is rusted in there too good.