Converter going in on saturday. Any install tips?
- Thread starter 1hot5.0
- Start date
mystang94gt
New Member
Hey make sure and let me know how much of a PITA it is to install yourself. Buying one will be a lot cheaper if I can install myself. Thanks! Good luck!
FastmanGT
Founding Member
The main PITA for a converter install is yanking the heavy trans...and putting it back in...make sure you drain the fluid...and when you yank out the old converter, watch out for some fluid that is still in the converter...put some fluid on the input of the new converter and slide it in...oh, one other fun part is aligning the driveplate and converter bolt holes.
gcomfx.com
Founding Member
I had never done this before and as of this summer have done it 3 times.
I had to do it on the ground in my garage... no car lift.
It's not near as bad to just change the converter as it is to take the tranny out and transport it to a shop for rebuild.
Sounds crazy, but basically all you are doing is lowering it with your jack and swapping the converter and raising it back up. Getting that heavy ****** off the jack and out from under the car then back again is a PITA.
Suggestions... figure how much fluid you think you'll need, then buy 2 more quarts. On a fresh rebuild with new converter mine held 14 quarts.... plus the modifier.
When we just swapped converters, we didn't drain the tranny. If you can keep the tranny fairly level you can save a lot of fluid. Of course this was because the car only had 1,000 miles on the fluid we were losing. So it depends on how long it's been in your car, but you might consider just changing it all while you are at it.
For us the exhaust was the roughest part. Broke a collector bolt. Also watch the tranny lines that go to your radiator. After doing it 3 times, it put pressure on the radiator joint and it now has a slow leak. (Putting a summit in it this winter).
Try to put half to 3/4 of a quart in the converter before you put it in the tranny. If you roll it around enough it'll hold it. Just makes it that much heavier to put in though.
OH, and #1 thing to remember... when you get the converter out.... measure the bolt pattern and compare it to the new one. I got a 4.6 converter (bolt pattern if off like 1/4 inch) and we wasted fluid in the new converter, and a lot of time and effort trying to bolt that SOB up only to take it back out and put the stock one back in it.
#2 thing to remember.... make TRIPLE sure your tranmission harness is out of the way. When I first bought the car, the guys who put the shift kit in tried to use the factory holes and grommets for the harness. They were wore some and the harness came out after driving it for 6 months. I started popping fuses for no apparent reason. Didn't even know it was tranny related til I tracked down every possible problem. Found out the harness had fallen onto the exhaust under the car where you couldn't really see it, and the O/D wire had shorted out.
The harness is plenty long, so route it somewhere out of the way.
I had to do it on the ground in my garage... no car lift.
It's not near as bad to just change the converter as it is to take the tranny out and transport it to a shop for rebuild.
Sounds crazy, but basically all you are doing is lowering it with your jack and swapping the converter and raising it back up. Getting that heavy ****** off the jack and out from under the car then back again is a PITA.
Suggestions... figure how much fluid you think you'll need, then buy 2 more quarts. On a fresh rebuild with new converter mine held 14 quarts.... plus the modifier.
When we just swapped converters, we didn't drain the tranny. If you can keep the tranny fairly level you can save a lot of fluid. Of course this was because the car only had 1,000 miles on the fluid we were losing. So it depends on how long it's been in your car, but you might consider just changing it all while you are at it.
For us the exhaust was the roughest part. Broke a collector bolt. Also watch the tranny lines that go to your radiator. After doing it 3 times, it put pressure on the radiator joint and it now has a slow leak. (Putting a summit in it this winter).
Try to put half to 3/4 of a quart in the converter before you put it in the tranny. If you roll it around enough it'll hold it. Just makes it that much heavier to put in though.
OH, and #1 thing to remember... when you get the converter out.... measure the bolt pattern and compare it to the new one. I got a 4.6 converter (bolt pattern if off like 1/4 inch) and we wasted fluid in the new converter, and a lot of time and effort trying to bolt that SOB up only to take it back out and put the stock one back in it.
#2 thing to remember.... make TRIPLE sure your tranmission harness is out of the way. When I first bought the car, the guys who put the shift kit in tried to use the factory holes and grommets for the harness. They were wore some and the harness came out after driving it for 6 months. I started popping fuses for no apparent reason. Didn't even know it was tranny related til I tracked down every possible problem. Found out the harness had fallen onto the exhaust under the car where you couldn't really see it, and the O/D wire had shorted out.
The harness is plenty long, so route it somewhere out of the way.
I can change out converters in just under 2 hours, everything is straight forward like gcomfx said. The tranny is heavy as hell.
Make sure you hear 3 clicks when you install the new converter. The last on is for the pump,very important.
Lower the trans down a bit to make it easier to reach the cooler lines.
As for the harness, just unplug it from the main harness under the hood rather than pulling all of them on the trans.
When it comes time to re-allign the converter bolts its very easy. The converter should spin so put one bolt in and turn the motor over to the next hole.
I think thats it and good luck.
Make sure you hear 3 clicks when you install the new converter. The last on is for the pump,very important.
Lower the trans down a bit to make it easier to reach the cooler lines.
As for the harness, just unplug it from the main harness under the hood rather than pulling all of them on the trans.
When it comes time to re-allign the converter bolts its very easy. The converter should spin so put one bolt in and turn the motor over to the next hole.
I think thats it and good luck.
gcomfx.com
Founding Member
1hot5.0 said:Thank you all very much for the replies.
Gcomfx.com. when you saved the fluid, did fluid still leak after you got the converter out? I only have 3k miles on my fluid, and would like to save the fluid. Would cut the swap time down.
The first time we did it... no, but the next two... yes.
One thing you can do to keep that from happening is to turn the converter and drain it out the plug before you start. It'll make the converter lighter and give you a chance to inspect the fluid to see if you want to save it or not.
I don't have a tail plug... so when we had to tilt the tranny back to get the jack out... that is where MOST of the fluid runs out. But if you are doing a straight drop and replace then back up again. It shouldn't be too much of a problem.
With two of us on the task, one mans the front and one the rear. Usually the guy with the tail controls how level the tranny is while the other guy is lining stuff up.
Good luck! Can't wait to hear how yours turns out. My stall should be here Monday and hopefully my buddy can help me the following Friday night... I've got a car show on Saturday.
The best tip I had when I did mine was be nice to the installer (wait...I paid someone to do mine.....Nevermind)
RC
RC
KingDiamond
New Member
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