torque converter swap

[Mercury Mike]

What's the best way to swap the converter without completely pulling the motor out of the car (I don't have a hoist here, nearest one that's useable to me is 50 miles away). I was thinking of doing it this way:

1. Measuring distance from oil pan to ground, and making a perfectly sized cart to roll the engine back and forth.

2. Lift the car, set the engine down as perfect as possible on this cart, undo the motor mounts.

3. Put a small jack under the bellhousing with a block of wood, undo the bellhousing bolts, and torque converter bolts. (should I get a new set of converter bolts? Mine look stripppppped.)

4. Remove the radiator, and the fan, slide the engine forward, pull the converter out, clean out the bellhousing from the small metal shavings, put the new converter in.

5. Line it up and put it back together!

Sounds like it might be weird to swap the converter without pulling the tranny out, but I simply do not want to unbolt the transmission from the crossmember as I've never pulled a tranny on the ground before. Is there a better method or does mine sound pretty good?

 

[pedal2themetal45]

What's the best way to swap the converter without completely pulling the motor out of the car (I don't have a hoist here, nearest one that's useable to me is 50 miles away). I was thinking of doing it this way:

1. Measuring distance from oil pan to ground, and making a perfectly sized cart to roll the engine back and forth.

2. Lift the car, set the engine down as perfect as possible on this cart, undo the motor mounts. This won't work the only way you can move the motor is if you take the weight off the frame and when you do this the car well come up in the air to about 1' or so

3. Put a small jack under the bellhousing with a block of wood, undo the bellhousing bolts, and torque converter bolts. (should I get a new set of converter bolts? Mine look stripppppped.)

4. Remove the radiator, and the fan, slide the engine forward, pull the converter out, clean out the bellhousing from the small metal shavings, put the new converter in.

5. Line it up and put it back together!

Sounds like it might be weird to swap the converter without pulling the tranny out, but I simply do not want to unbolt the transmission from the crossmember as I've never pulled a tranny on the ground before. Is there a better method or does mine sound pretty good?

 

[MustangSix]

It's easier to drop a transmission that to drop an engine and slide it forward. Fuel lines, trans coolant lines, radiator, exhaust, carb linkage, wiring......lot of things to undo.

Dropping the trans alone is a lot easier.

 

[Bort62]

The Transmission comes out of these cars in like 20 minutes.

Its really simple. I would just do it that way and save yourself a lot of headache.

 

[Mercury Mike]

Yeah, you all might be right. I will have to get some jack stands from somewhere. =)

 

[mach1 mark]

65 STANG, Where did you get the converter, is it performance, did you rebuild the stock, do you have the big bell, and use a v8 torqueconverter?

I need a performance converter and I can't just find one off the shelf.

 

[Mercury Mike]

I pulled it out of a motor/tranny combo I bought for my buddy's mercedes benz. =) It's a 200 out of a 70 maverick, stock. It's my for-now converter. =)

 

[mach1 mark]

I did about the same, bought a 74 Mavrick trans & converter, rebuilt the trans stuck the old converter back in. Has been running for about 2 years now, no problem. (stock engine). I am rebuilding a performance Six, the only thing I havn't located is a performance torque-converter.

By the way I had to take the trans out twice to fix leaks on the rebuild. Taking out the trans instead of the engine is Easy.

 

[Mercury Mike]

I've just never pulled a tranny without a lift and tranny jack. I learned tranny R&R in a shop, and got spoiled with fun tools. =)

 

[mach1 mark]

65 stang, I put the car on jacks, all four corners, you're going to need the room. Then stuck a cheapee wallyworld jack under the trans-pan w/ a cutoff 2x4 between the pan and the jack. Undid the the bell housing bolts, trans mount and the cooling tubes. Don't forget the linkage and the speed-ometer. Thats it, just pull the tany (on the jack) out from from the front of the car. Takes about 30 mins.

I put it back 3 times, jack up the tranny, move it forward a little, it pops in place w/ the pins.

 

[Mercury Mike]

That's what I was gonna do. Perfect. =)

 

[Anonymous]

I just bench-press my transmissions into place.

 

[mach1 mark]

Well Linc, everything is bigger in Texas