Well, I finished up swapping in a new torque converter today and I went to go start the engine up. At first it did nothing, so I figured dead battery. Jumped it and then cranked her over. She didn't want to go too well, but she turned over and started then stalled because I didn't give her enough gas(damn carbs). SO I give it 10 to charge some more, turn her over again and then I notice that the rear wheels are moving. To my dismay, I had forgotten to adjust the shifter cable and even though the car was in park, I believe that it was in reverse. I corrected the cable out, went to start it again, and I get nothing. I connect a charger to the battery and charge it to full, and go to try one more time. I get a clunk when I turn the key and thats all other than an electric hum. My guess is that I toasted the starter some how when I started it in gear but I'm not totally positive and I wanted to make sure before I go out and buy a new starter or drop the transmission again and swap the stock converter back in to make sure it wasn't a problem with that. Anyway, I'm not too experienced with starters so I figured I'd ask before doing anything. So what do you guys think, is the starter fried or could it be something else. All cables have been reconnected and properly adjusted now, and everything is nice and snug together. Thanks, sorry for the long post.

 

was there any shims on the starter between it and the block that you left off?, if you did there will be a huge load on the starter when you try to use it.

 

Never actually took off the starter, just separated the tranny and engine from each other.

 

Did you mess with the shifter? Like the neutral safety switch?

Oh, how about the wires goin to the starter are they all tight?

 

Hmm, should have read up more about this ... um, what exactly is the neutral safety switch? When I started it in reverse because the shifter was in park, all i did was disconnect the linkage, push the part on the transmission into park, and reconnect the linkage so that gear and shifter were paired up with each other again.

 

Anyone else, some help please?

 

Starting an automatic transmission equipped car in reverse won't burn up a starter, the converter doesn't engage the trans at starting rpms. However if somethings not right with your converter installation that could bind up the starter somehow. Did you have the flexplate off?

 

Left the flex plate on, I think next weekend when I get back home I'm going to pull the transmission back from the engine and unbolt the converter, then check to make sure the engine is still turning over on its own. I've though it through the whole day and thats about the best solution I can come up with. Still a bit angry that I believe everything is right, yet it seems its not. Guess I get to spend a little more time under there than I wanted to.

 

From what I can gather, you disconnected the trans/driveshaft, moved the tranny back, removed the torque converter, put in a new one, then reassembled. It soulds like you did not put the torque converter in far enough. You have to spin while pushing to engage the converter to the tranny pump and it takes many revolutions to line things up. you may be binding inside the tranny. Question: when you reassembled the tranny to the engine, did it seem to be a lot of pressure where the torque converter connects to the the flexplate? If so, then the converter is binding.