Hello, I installed the motor, as soon as I tighten up the bell housing bolts, the engine wont turn over. I made sure the torque converter was seated correctly.

Question, if the crankshaft torque thrust bearing wasnt adjusted properly (i.e. supposed to pry the crankshaft towards the front of the engine, then torque the thrust bearing main cap down) is it possible that small amount of distance the crank is sitting back, is pushing the flywheel too tight on the torque converter ????

It seems like this is the only possibility, the engine turns over with the bell housing bolts loose, but as soon as I tighten them down, presto, no turn over.. Any help is appreciated.

the thrust just seats in and then torqued down to the correct specs. thats it, no force involved only when checking the clearence you move it with the crank in place. is the flywheel in correctly? it could be in backwards. wheel looks the same but there is a difference. also the torque converter slides in and while turning should slide in; then once slid in, turn again to make sure it is in all the way. over all the fly wheel or the converter is not in correctly.

i was thinking i might have the flywheel on backwards. are the welds supposed to face the engine side ? thats how it is now. that would be great news if i don't have to pull the motor and mess with the thrust bearing and crank. thanks for the help.

btw, i did notice the teeth on the flywheel, one side appear to all be shaved a bit. at first i thought that was the side that is supposed to face the engine (and starter) but they looked so uniform i thought it was a manufacturing thing, so i put them facing the transmission. are those possibly the wear marks from the starter gear ? if so, then i think i have it backwards. that would probably get me the extra few milliinches of clearance i probably need (reversing the flywheel). thanks again.

Did you leave the transmission in when installing the engine?

After cinching up the bellhousing bolts, you should be able to turn the torque convertor independently of the flexplate before you bolt the TC to the flexplate. If not you've found your problem: the TC wasn't fully inserted into the front pump. You should have about 1/4" clearance between the TC and the flexplate.

If you have tightened the bolts and have been turning the engine there is a possibility that you have damaged the front pump on the transmission.

You should be able to tell which way to install the flexplate by looking at it. The crank side should have a faint circle from the crank flange and the other should show marks where the bolts smeared the metal as they were tightened.

When I installed my motor in my car the trans torque converter was real close to the flywheel. I spun the converter several times to see if it would seat any further with no luck. It is a turbo350 BOP tranny. There was less than an 1/8 space between the flywheel and torque con. so if you have same problem I'd be leaning toward the flywheel being backwards. Like tohcan said if you haven't cleaned and painted the flywheel you'll see marks on mounting flange that tells you how it was mounted. The wear you speak of is a good sign of what way it was on before too.

yep, i really was looking for witness marks on the flywheel but wasn't able to determine which side was which from it, it was sitting in the garage for 15 years. but the wear marks, on second thought, should be towards the engine and starter gear. i'm going to reverse the flywheel today and see what happens.

I had the 350 and the 326 out both have flwxiplates that I have left in place the beveled or slightly angled edge on the teeth goes towards the transmission.

As has been said you should be able to spin the TC and it should have about a 1/8" gap between it and the flexplate.

i'm stumped. the flywheel is on correctly as you verified above, beveled edge towards tranmission. i also pulled the torque conv out about 2" and it did seem to engage back and spin correctly, but as soon as i tighten the bell housing bolts tight, there is no clearance between the flywheel and torque converter and the engine won't rotate (or very very difficult). the crankshaft end play looks ok as far as i can tell, it doesnt seem to be pushed back. i'm thinking about hoisting the engine back up and take the torque conv out all the way and inspect again any comments appreciated.

update, here are a few photos of the torque conv shaft, i assume the ring about 3/4 the way up the shaft towards the conv (after the blotchy rust area) is where the seal makes its mark. that is where the torque conv was when it was installed. it would seem the converter is also installed correctly, then that only leaves the crankshaft position, could it need to travel forward 1/8" ? i didn't set the thrust bearing clearance like the book said ? i'm stumped.

The only way you could move the crank that far would be to remove the thrust bearings. I don't recommend that.

The converter wasn't all the way in. I see another shiny mark behind the one you're referring to, indicating that the converter was still not fully engaged on the front pump and input shaft.

Get a ruler and measure the distance between the TC mounting surface on the flexplate and the engine's bellhousing mating surface. Put a straight edge across the transmission bellhousing surface and make sure the converter has the same clearance plus at least 1/8", then reinstall the engine. It may take a fair bit of wiggling and turning to get that final bit of engagement but you have to have it.

Before you put the converter back in, clean the rust off with Scotchbrite or 600 sandpaper, otherwise you'll soon be pulling it apart again to replace the front pump seal (I'd do that now just to be sure). Lube the seal surface with tranny fluid as well.

You should feel TWO clunks when mating the converter. The first will be quite noticeable, the second more subtle. But the second is essential to engage the pump. You may need to rotate the converter quite a way around to hit that second engagement.

Houston, we have a problem. I measured like you said and found the torque converter needed to seat into the trans housing atleast 0.200" more plus the 1/8" gap. i took the torque conv out and looked into the shaft/seal area on the trans. what i found is not good. can you see the broken pieces in there ? i guess somehow i tore that up installing the engine looks like it is probably the bushing - oil pump body. see #2 in photo below. i wonder if i can replace that by just taking out the seal and clean that bushing out, or do i need to pull the pump body with the slide hammers.

You are going to have to pull the trans. pump out and replace the gears. The bushing and seal are easy to replace when the pump bodies are apart.

Leo

You won't be the first person who's made this mistake! I had the same problem a few years back when I installed a hi stall TC in my 99 Z28 Camaro with a 4L60E transmission. I found out after you have to rotate the TC and seat it in looking for 3 clunks on an 4L60E.

I bolted them up and broke the transmission pump in the 4L60E. I had to buy a new pump inards and take the transmission out and replace all the broken parts. I had to get my brother to help with the transmission repair as he worked in an auto transmission workshop for a while and knows how to rebuild them!

I should have realised something was wrong as the TC was tight to the flexiplate before I bolted them together and would not spin freely! When I put the hi stall TC in my Firebird last week I rotated it about 4 times pushing it in to make sure I didn't make the same mistake again!

You should NEVER use the bolts to "pull" the bellhousing up to the engine. They should slide together and the bolts hold it in place. Have seen many guys mess up trannys and/or break off the ears on the bell housing.

A good example of why it might be better to pull both engine and tranny as one and put in as one (if your not 100% sure of what your doing).

Unfortunately we have to learn the hard way. I had to break my input shaft on my 4sp saginaw to learn what a pilot bearing was.

I also learned that down shifting to 2nd at 55mph and letting out the clutch broke my bell housing!

Ouch hate to hear that. Hopefully things will get straightened out shortly.

thanks for the continued help, i couldn't have done it without you. this photo sums it up. i'll stop at our local trans parts guy tomorrow and bite the bullet for a new gear, bushing, and seal. i was going to just replace the one gear that is cracked, the other one looks ok, but i'll take it into him to see what he sais, or if you think i should replace them both, i will. i'll chalk this one up as learning experience. the thing that really bites is i think i had it installed correctly until we were pushing back the car to get the cherry picker in line, the jack that was holding up the trans slipped out, and the trans nose fell down, then the torque conv wasn't seated all the way and as we can see, it never got there

I feel your pain. Similar experience when I re-installed mine.

Consider the additional expense tuition.

A quick way to check if your Torq conv is in all the way, try sticking your fingers between the Torq conv and the trans pump. Your fingers should not be able to slide in.

I would replace both gears (matching set)

Hello, i stopped at the local trans parts shop, that guy is great, it is a small place you wouldn't even recognize from the street, this guy has every part in stock, and knows everything about those trans. I bought the gear set and bushing/gasket and seal for $27 total. got home installed them. put the tc in and it went in normal this time. dropped in the engine the spacing between the tc and flywheel was good this time, a little more than 1/8". tightened all the bolts everything looks good (crosses fingers). turns over good cranking. can't wait until next week to get plug wires and start it up !! thanks alot for all the help !!!

Glad to help!