I've had my share of issues during this build, and here is the latest thing to go wrong.

I installed the new B&M torque converter to the original flex plate, using the original 4 Flex Plate to TC bolts, not having removed the flex plate from 440.

Now the bolts are hanging up on the bottom edge of block.

I have no idea why this is now happening.

The clearance should not have changed.

Any ideas as to what is going on... or how to fix this?

 

2 Things..... Maybe you missed the last step when you installed the converter.
Or the bolts are not tight because there bottoming out in the new converter...
Just my 2 cents...

 

i bought a B&M flex plate for a 360 engine in front of a 318 trans. it had a balance wieght on the plate that hit the dust cover. they was NO help. i do NOT recomend B&M for ANYTHING. go to a good local trans shop. i like using local shops, cause you have some one to talk to face to face. your converter may not be setting back far enough. the factory book shows measuring the set back from the front face of the trans to the converter, lugs 1/2 in late 60s. BEFORE the trans is put in. sometimes you have to rotate converter to get the internal lugs to in gauge into the front pump.

 

If I missed the last step, what would that be?

After being certain, the TC was pushed all the way back onto the shaft,
there was approx 1/2 " clearance between the 4 TC mounts and flex plate
mounting holes after tranny was aligned & bolted tight against the block.

I noted that the TC pulled forward upon the shaft tight against the flex plate
during bolt assembly, with minimal effort. As it turns out, the TC only bolts on
to the flex plate in one position allowing all 4 bolts to line up correctly.

I have just snugged them down. They are not fully torqued yet because of my having discovered this clearance issue during slow hand rotation of the crank.

Can't proceed any further until I get this figured out.

Hopefully I don't have to pull the tranny again. That would be a bummer.

I will check tomorrow afternoon, to see if the bolts have bottomed out in the new B&M mounts. Lets hope, that's all it is.

 

Sounds ok ? Did you use the special thin head bolts

 

As above, did you use the correct bolts?

 

Should be these...

http://www.jegs.com/i/Mopar+Performa...Fcg1QgodBRsAAA

 

I was pretty sure I was using the correct bolts. I had re-used the same 4 bolts that held my old TC in place. There were no clearance issues with the old TC and I certainly didn't expect any new ISSUES when using them to mount the new converter.

Thanx. Your link and photos of the TC bolts - confirms I am using the correct bolts.

I just got in the door after taking a small road trip into a neighbouring community and talking about this issue with the head mechanic at his Transmission Shop. He reports never having seen such a problem when installing B&M TCs on the stock flex plate. He also asked, if I was using the correct bolts & showed me a couple which also confirmed that I was in fact using the correct bolts. So, I'm about to crawl under the beast again and back out the 4 TC mounting bolts and recheck both the motor rotation and the TC rotation when separated and go from there. I was hoping to work on -electrical- today, but this kind of threw a wrench into my plans. lol. Wish me luck.

 

Well....It was ONE bolt, I had somehow missed, during my initial snug down,that found it's way up and over the lower rear horizontal edge of the block, but was hanging up upon the block when rotated downward, either closewise or counter clockwise. I had to sacrifice an open end wrench, grinding it's width down to about 3/16" to fit up between the edge of the block and the flex pate to target the offending bolt and snug it down enough to enable the further rotation of the crank. Once done, I was able to re-target all four bolts and torque em down to 270 inch pounds. Now moving on...tyvm for all your comments and help on this one!