Need help with my '66, flexplate hits starter plate

I'm almost done doing a tranny swap on my '66 Mustang (just swapped in another C4, 3rd went out in the other one), and I'm having a problem with that plate that goes between the block and the tranny. When turning the motor over by hand, I found that the weight/balancer on the flexplate is hitting the hole for the starter What do you guys think is causing this, and how do I fix it? I've tried bending the plate with a screwdriver, but it hasn't helped any. The only time the flexplate clears that starter plate, is when I have the starter off. TIA View attachment 331017

BarnStang said:

You won't like the answer. I would be willing to bet that you did not get the drain plug through the hole in the flex plate? If you tighten the nuts down without getting the drain plug through the hole, it will warp the plate and the weight will hit the starter. I changed a flex plate in a customer car for that very reason. THe flex plate was permenantly warped, but he actually ran the car that way. You get a gold start for checking before starting. Most people wouldn't.

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Yeah, you were exactly right! I posted around on a few other classic mustang forums, and another guy told me the same thing you just stated. I didn't dare try turning the car on in this condition, I only turned it over by hand and tried to "cure" the problem by bending the starter plate with a screwdriver (before I was informed about the drain plug problem), to no avail. But yeah, I took everthing all apart again (for like the 5th time! LoL ), realigned the tq converter and the problem was solved!

Now the bad news The reason I did the tranny swap was because the tranny it previously had (an old C4 from my old '65 sixer Stang), wasn't getting 3rd gear. I decided to swap the original C4 tranny that the car came with back in, so that I can have 3rd gear, and not rev soo high on the freeway and not blow the one that was on it. So now that I finished it up, I took it for a spin ealier today, and to my dissapointment, I'm not getting 3rd gear in this tranny either I checked the tranny fluid that was in the other tranny, and it looked good. It wasn't burnt, and it didn't have any "metalflake" look to it, it was a nice bright red! I hooked everything up the way it was, didn't make any changes, and for reasons beyond me, it's not getting 3rd gear. What do you guys think? Is it the tranny? Tq converter? Vacuum leak/problem?

Thanks!