Hot puppies! I got the damned thing started!  Even drove it!  Great big
thanks and hugs to all of you who provided help and advice.  

As of this afternoon as my previous post stated, I had gotten to the "engine
in and cranking" stage.  Thanks to advice recieved this PM, I got the vacuum
problem licked (thanks, John). Cranked it and with no further work it
started.  Guess it just needed to sit a bit 'till the fuel got through the
whole circuit. (???) anyway, the motor ran, which was great.  I installed
the half-shafts (Oh the joy of using a 2' non-ratcheing torque wrench under
a bus)and went to drive it away.  Alas, I had no gears.  I installed the
engine and tranny as a unit, and had had a problem with the shifter coupling
at that point, but got the rod connected as the engine went in.  Alas, it
now turned out the linkage was toadally (warts and all) SNAFU.  When set up
correctly the shifter-to-tranny rod was ~1" too long.  After much cursing
and wrenching and drilling, I got the shift to the point where I had 3rd and
4th functional and drove it to my favorite mechanic (Paul's VW Repair,
Annandale, VA{unabashed plug, they are great and fast, and they don't laugh
when I bring them my disasters}).  

Final round of get-on-the-road questions:

Was the '73  1" shorter than the '79?  (Can't imagine it)
Was the '73 Tranny 1" shorter than the '79 tranny? (much more likely)
Should I have swapped shift rods?  (Yeah, probably, in retrospect)

And finally:

Joel, can I take the ice out of my shorts now? (in-joke, sorry)

Next weeks adventure:  "Steve makes his bus legal" or "Right turn? No
officer, I signalled for a left turn."

                        Stay tuned,
                        Steve Dolan
                        Alexandria, VA