bumping this, as hopefully today, i'll get a bunch of things out of the way and with fabbed "feeler" wires and mirrors, i may be able to see if there are any cracks or holes into the converter area. also, i'll take down the filter pan to see how many chunks made it into that section. in any case, i'll be that much closer to removal if it comes to that. i still need to find out the electrical differences between a 95 [which i have] and the 99, which is the subject of this discussion. many pics have been taken already, with more to follow, but i haven't dumped them from my camera yet. they will be at the appropriate time and posted then. as this is a learning experience for me, i hope it can be a teaching one for others. to be continued.......