When it rain it pours.
I got laid off on Thanksgiving and have not found a job yet. I towed my Pathfinder home to my mom's place to work on it this Christmas break. The plan was to drop my new motor in and fire it up to see how it runs. Well I couldn't get the damn thing to close up with the bell housing. I find out that the torque converter isn't seated all the way for some reason. So I yank out the TC to see if something is in the way and out comes the input shaft attached to the torque converter. I tried everything I could to separate the shaft but couldn't. Attempted to see if I can still set the input shaft and TC back into the transmission. No-Go. Something is stopping it from aligning up with the oil pump drive for the transmission. So I drop the transmission and pull it out.
I look inside the transmission shaft tunnel and see something inside. I get my magnetic pick-up tool and attempt to pull the thing out. It's far inside the transmission and it doesn't help that the tunnel is narrow and steel. My luck, the damn magnetic end unscrews and is stuck inside the shaft. Luckily, I had another magnetic pick-up and managed to pull the out magnetic end out. When I pulled it out, I managed to get the thing I had seen. Pull it up and it's a piece of one of the clutches.
Since the transmission is out now, I figure I go ahead and install the new motor. I get the frame side brackets in and lower the motor attaching the passenger side first. I go to the driver side and it's roughly an inch off from the mounting hole.
I had an accident back in about 2003 clipping a Cadillac on the passenger side to avoid getting hit from someone swerving into me. I only had liability and the guy who swerved into me didn't have insurance and his license suspended. Paid out of pocket and fixed the Pathfinder myself.
So depressing