I just installed a rebuilt torque converter in my 66 289 C4 since my old one leaked badly around the seal. I was very careful to engage the two clicks as I've run into that problem before. When I reinstalled the tranny, it will barely move the wheels in all gears, but will only produce enough torque to barely move the car. It makes a loud whine in all gears except neutral and park. When I rebuilt my engine last year, I also changed the tranny seals and reinstalled my old converter just fine. I'm getting the converter replaced free on warranty, but I'm wondering if I fried my oil pump. Any suggestions on what to look for and how while I've got the sucker apart would be appreciated. I'm worried I'm fixing the wrong problem.

 

you did put more fluid in after the pump? and put it in reverse with the car running to fill the converter

 

yeah that would be my thought - you have to let that converter fill up with fluid. i always poured some in there before installing to help with the initial startup.

 

Yes, I put a quart in the converter and ran it in reverse extensively with the wheels off the ground and spining at idle. I'm taking the tranny back out now and when I drained the torque converter I got much more than a quart out. I'm pretty sure it was filling adequately. Like I said, this is a job I've done successfully before and I'm going on the assumption I got a bad rebuilt converter. I just have an awful thought in the back of my mind that it's not developing enough fluid pressure from the pump and that maybe I didn't engage it and damaged it. When I installed the tranny, I got the tranny bolts in and lightly tightened, and the torque converter still wasn't flush against the flex plate but the bolts were sticking partway through thre flexplate. I used the TC nuts to pull the it back onto the flexplate, maybe a quarter inch. I've heard that there are different torque converters and I was careful to check the rebuilt one against my old one. I've heard there were different flange lengths on some torque converters, but haven't been able to track that down.