Progress!
Last weekend I got the drivetrain bolted into the car, and spent the rest of the time removing the remains of a snapped bolt in one of the drive-shaft flanges. I wished that I had remembered to do that when it was on the bench! After breaking off an EZ-out, I ended up using a few drill bits and drilled the snapped bolt (and EZ-out tip) out of the hole. After that I installed a helicoil which fixed the hole up great. Needless to say there was much cursing and gnashing of teeth during that job.
Today I finally finished up torquing the half-shafts, and then reconnecting all of the engine connections. Just around dark I pushed it out of the garage and tried cranking it over on the battary that hasn't been touched or charged since the fall. After cranking it over a number of times to build up some oil pressure, I gave it a shot and and starting right up. The hand throttle didn't work, but the oil pressure looked good and the car wasn't smoking or leaking. The idle is still a little fast at 1200. I've got to double-check the timing (which I haven't touched) as well as the throttle linkage to make sure that the throttles are fully closing. That and there were no brakes except for the parking break since Damon had taken the calipers off.
I did get the car turned around on it's own power and back into the garage. The idle sounds a lot smoother with the refurbed throttle bodies. There are no pops or misses.
Finally I put a dry pan under the engine to see if any oil collects.
Hopefully next week I'll be able to bleed the brakes and set-up the suspension.
PS: I just remembered that getting the car into 1st gear with the new syncho in place was so easy I neglected to even mention it. It's like the car has lost it's need for the various secret techniques like shifting into 2nd before 1st. Shifting into first gear from a stop was as easy as any "normal" car. Now that I've gone and fixed the car's various foibles my wife is most likely going to want to start driving it!