I purchaced one of these Torque Converters off ebay. (actually I saw it on ebay and bought one directly from the guy "performance converter and transmission")

Part # B-29S Lock-Up Converter

When I bolted it up to the flex plate, It pulled (bent) the flexplate toward the TC. I know that I installed the flexplate in the correct direction because I was on the phone with B&M tech support while I bolted it up to the crank.

When 2 of the 3 mounting bolts on the TC were tight, and the last one was out, there was a 1/4 inch gap between the tc and flexplate on that last bolt hole that had to be taken up by torqing the last bolt down. I haven't started the motor yet. I am wondering if I will have to use shims to set the TC back a little.

Is it a mismatch because the motor is a 1974 350 (auto trans) and the car it is in is a 1987 TransAm with the factory 700R4. The 350 is rebuilt, but I didn't grind the crank so the tolerences are the same as they were before, etc. But the 74 350 is a 2 piece crank and the 87 was a 1 piece crank, does this make a difference in TC sellection?

Let me know what you think.

 

The flex plate is a B&M 168 tooth to match the 74 block because I had the engine rebuilt and didn't know at that time that the starters for the 153 and 168 flex plates had different bolt patterns. So I didn't have the hole drilled in the block for the 153 tooth starter. I didn't learn all this till I had the motor hanging over the car ready to go in. Too late!

Had to stop and get a 168 tooth flex plate and new starter. It cranks over and doesn't hit the bell housing, so I am good there.

I don't think any of this has anything to do with my original problem but wanted to throw that in there.

 

OK, I got it!!

When I installed the TC, there was a 1/4 inch gap between the TC and flexplate. I relyed on the 3 TC bolts to draw the TC up to the flexplate, the button on the TC got hung up on somthing (ridge maybe) in the pilot hole. Thus causing the flexplate to draw toward the TC.

When I removed the 3 bolts this morning, I wanted to see how much gap there was between the TC and flexplate and I gently pried the TC toward the flexplate with a small prybar and it popped into place right up against the flexplate and that is when I realized the error I had made by not doing this in the first place.

Oops!