1st Gen pistons

Are the tops of stock 1st gen pistons perfectly smooth or are they somewhat grainy ? I just had a look and can't see any obvious pitting, and the lettering and numbers stand out looking clean without any carbon build up. Compression was excellent 145/150/150/150, so I'm starting to like what I see with this 95 GST for sale!!

Yes, the pistons are somewhat bumpy, not perfectly smooth like forged ones.

Right on!!!!!!! Just laid my deposit on her. The car drives in first and reverse (flipped through the other gears, but not while cruising) but chatters and clunks every quarter turn of the wheels. I'm kind of leaning towards the Quaiffe LSD. You think ?

As the problem for the chatter and clunk? I wouldnt suspect so. Those bitches are like a grand, I cant imagine one taking a shit and I would imagine if thats what went, it wouldnt move at all. As far as why it might be messing up every quarter turn, I am not sure, but I am pretty sure you are going to need a new/rebuilt tranny :p. It sounds like you might have a stripped gear or something and the shards are getting into the gears and making a bad time, but regardless its going to need a rebuild or a new one.

I hope you're right. The Quaiffe is more expensive than the tranny. Can the tranny be removed and replaced with the engine still in ? Or is it necessary to extract the whole engine ?

No sir, engine can (and should) be left in. I've never done it for a FWD, but I think it should be pretty close to the same. If you want more detailed directions, poke around a bit, PM someone, or get a Haynes manual, but all you should need to do is pull off the passenger side wheel, unbolt the strut from the spindle and take that big ass nut off the axle, work the axle out of the spindle hole and pop it out. Then do the same for the other side. Remove any cross members in the way and other things in the engine bay in the way of unbolting the tranny (i.e. IC pipes, vac hoses, speedo cable, etc, etc). Support the tranny from underneath and take off the motor mount. Unbolt it from the motor and carefully wedge it apart. Then, with someone steadying it, lower the bitch out the bottom.

You can do it without removing the engine. You just remove it from the passenger side, you just have to remove all that suspension and crap from the passenger side and you can slip it out there.

You don't have to take apart the drivers side like the passengers. You just need to be able to slip the axle out.