sometimes a guy can get his tranny together and put it on the motor, and the torque converter can look like it is in all the way, if you can get your fingers behind the torque converter , it is not in all the way. This might be off but hey double check that the torque converter is in all the way . Your fingers should not be able to get behind it. Advice from the old man to me .Take care ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Vander Werf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 8:57 PM Subject: [Chevelle-List] I'm stumped
> I posted about finally starting my car up several months ago. At that > time I was pumped. Well, since that time I have been wrestling with a > gremlin that I can't figure out and I'm about to take a motor I've spent > over $4000 in building and dump it into the ocean. > > I built myself a 454 and spent more time on the details of this motor > than any motor I have ever built. It immediately chewed up the thrust > face of the rear main. I pulled the motor and looked for reasons. I > didn't find anything wrong. I put in a new bearing and ran it again. It > seemed that every time I would use the trans it would grind the thrust > bearing some more. At this point it has chewed up the thrust face of two > rear main bearings. I really don't want to put another bearing in it > until I find the source of the problem. > > I was told that it was my torque converter. I changed it. I found I had > a major problem with the transmission. I had it built again by someone > else. I changed the torque converter again. This time I put a custom ATI > unit in it. Everything looks good. I had plenty of clearance between the > flex plate and the converter with all three......odds of three in a row > being bad are pretty slim. > > The guy who built the trans the first time put a sprag in backwards. The > trans guy who built it the second time said that probably caused the > converter to load up enough hydraulically to cause the problem by trying > to be in second and third at the same time. Ok, now the trans works > great. Everything should be good now, right?...........Wrong. > > After driving the car for about five miles I pulled the oil filter off > the car only to find very very finely ground bearing material in it > again. It's so fine it looks like pearl in clear but there is a bunch of > it. I checked the end play of my crank and it had grown about 2 > thousandths. Now it's at 13 thousandths from the original 7 thousandths. > > My drive shaft has 3/4 of an inch of free play with the suspension > loaded so that can't be causing a forward push on the motor. Every time > I cut open another oil filter I change the oil to get as much of the > debris out of the motor before I tried another fix. The motor has had > about 8 oil changes and hasn't travelled 25 miles yet. > > I'm completely stumped. I've been doing this stuff a long time and I've > never dealt with an engine problem this evasive. This has been a problem > for almost 4 months now and it's really pissing me off. I'm sure when I > find the problem I'm going to feel like a real dumb a** because it's > probably staring me in the face. So far it has cost me the whole summer > not being able to drive or race it because I won't drive something that > I know there is a problem with. > > Everybody I talk to says the thrust face of the main bearing can only > be chewed up by an external source. I've pretty much used up all my > sources and my finances. I don't mind spending money to fix something > but I don't like to spend money to still be in the same place 4 months > later. > > Any Ideas??? > > Thanks > Bill Vander Werf > > > ----------------------------------------------------- > To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html > To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
