dirtydave289

I know i know its probably a 20 min job for you guys but for me i can only get it up to about 1/4-1/2" away from the block..ive been trying to turn the driveshaft and wiggle her up some more, turn a little more, wiggle some more, but i'm not really making any progress. Shall i just keep doing this or is there an easier way to do it? o.O

edit - is on a 66 with a 289, 6bolt bellhousing

Flash70

When I did mine I put on the drive shaft after the transmission was completely mounted.
Here is the steps I followed from what I remember: (it helps to have an extra hand)

1. Jack up the car and put jack stands underneath. Make sure the height is enough that you can be on your back and still have room to move around a bit.
2. Put the jack under the car from the rear of the car. This will enable the shaft to have room in the tranny tunnel.
3. Lift the transmission onto the jack. You might want to put a towel or wood pieces and towels in between to cushion it.
4. Eyeball align the bolts on the torque converter with the holes on the flexplate. Do this by maneuvering the jack until it lines up in height and spinning either the torque converter or the flexplate.
5. Push the jack and transmission forward as one making sure that torque bolts all go through the holes in the flexplate.
6. Bolt the bell-housing onto the engine. Not completely tightening every bolt but getting each one on till there is still some leeway. Then go around and tighten it nice and snug.
7. Attach vacuum mod line, cooler lines, diptube.
8. Lower the jack while holding the transmission steady with one hand. Once the jack is removed out of the way use your other hand to attach the crossmember.
9. Now time to put in the driveshaft.
10. Double check all the bolts etc.

Okay there is that. Do not know if that will help but that is pretty much how I usually do it. Works fine for me.

JMD

The TQ needs to be on the tranny, and NOT bolted to the flexplate until the tranny is bolted to the engine.

I am thinking you might be trying to "stab" the tranny input shaft into the TQ, don't do this!

Make sure the tq is all the way back onto the input shaft of the tranny when you bring the tranny to the engine. The tq will need to be "spun" while pushed back on the input shaft in order to make sure the splines AND the pump drive are engaged properly and fully.

If this is "forced" you stand a good chance of breaking the pump in your tranny.

Never "draw" a tranny into place, you may well break something expensive.

kalli

bang on. i spent 4 days trying to get one in (my first one). i was wiggling and turning and I couldn't only get it in so far.
the important bit here is the first sentence. you have to have the Torque converter fully in the transmission _before_ mounting the thing to the engine.

there is the following parts that will possibly block you:
there's the input shaft which is the 10 spline at the very front of transmission. directly behind it there's the oilpump gear. when you have it over that you need to get the circle from the torque converter into the seal and behind that there's 2 straight edges that have to match up with the cuts in the 'circle' of the torque converter.

The problem I had (and I bet you do as well since it's your first), is that in my case the input shaft slipped out of the transmission a bit. behind that a plate fell down which hindered me in pushing the input shaft back. the input shaft was so much forward that I couldn't possibly get it on. when it was fully engaged on the input shaft it still needed to go in like 2 inch ...

So when you check on the front of your transmission, the input shaft splines should just start where the oilpump splines end. if the input shaft is sticking out you might have 2" between the oilpump splines and input shaft splines. that's what I guess your problem is ...

CAD

Sounds like your torque converter isn't all the way on the input shaft. Just wiggle, turn, and push. You'll feel it when you seat it.

groho

I recall my C4 TQ dropping three times. Slide it on the shaft, turn, it'll drop, turn some more, drop again, and turn some more, and it should drop one more time. That last one caught me off gaurd cuz my TH350 TQ only dropped twice.

groho

You should have a good 1/4" of space at the TQ bolt holes, between the TQ and flex plate if the TQ is fully seated in the tranny. The bell housing should easily bolt up to the back of the motor. You shouldn't have to fight it, other than the weight. Suggestion, use two 8" bolts to line up the tranny to the motor.

67t5ponycoupe

I habe a couple of suggestions for you. Take some long 7/16 bolts and cut the heads off and screw them into the back of the block to use to guide the trans up to the motor. Make sure the drain plug on the torque converter is aligned with the hole in the flex plate. Us a trans jack so you can change the angle of the trans as you are trying to mate them up. Take your time. Also if you are changing from and standard make sure you don't have the pilot bearing in the back of the crank.

hiboostwoody

When the torque converter is completely seated in the pump, you will NOT be able to get your fingers behind it between it and the bell housing. If you don't get it all the way in, you do what is called stacking the pump and it tends to break the pump gears.