Hot Rods Tweaking my Torque Converter

Sometimes it's about being cheap - other times it's just about using what you got laying around.

So I picked up this converter for the digger a while back. It's for a TH400 and I run a PG with Turbo splines so I figured I was A-OK - except! I forgot I run the SMALLER TH350 pattern on the flexplate and no room to go bigger - so some tweakin' is in order.

First step was to machine some plugs to fill the old holes. The new pattern will be VERY close to the old one and for whatever reason they never double drilled this one so they put them smack dab in the middle - so some pluggin' is in order.

I machined the plugs for a light/medium press fit:



Next step will be to weld the plugs in place. I chamfered both the plug and the holes so I could machine off the weld and still have it hold good. There won't be any real load on it anyways - just a filler really.

I also noticed that the OD looks to be tad too large - I will cut that down last:



To be continued...

 

Interesting.

Thanks.

 

...

 

Looks like you should have been the one doing the welding on that peace when it was made.
Looks good.

 

Nice work so far, interested to see progress pics and final result.

 

I found a neat reference on line about rebuilding converters -http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEkQFjAH&url=http://www.atraonline.com/gears/2006/2006-03/2006-03_12.pdf&ei=oLs4VO3hJ5CkyASyt4DADA&usg=AFQjCNG20wiZo2wU4axeSnFbPHL6SMWDcg&sig2=yUFWG-B5Dv9hKHAYj98VjQ
has some neat info on it. The link takes you to a pdf - not sure how to put it in here directly

 

After reading all I could find and thinking on this some I finally felt like my setup was good enough to proceed.

I chucked it in a Superspacer and indicated it in to about as dead nuts as I could make it - within .001" of perfect - way closer than what I read indicated was acceptable.

And YES I meant for it to be off center like that - if I ever want to put this on a TH400 there's room enough to add the larger pattern back in - if the nitwits would have done that in the first place I wouldn't be doing this - ;-)

 

Well done.

 

Thanks. BTW here's the shot that shows where the new hole intersects the insert. It's difficult to see the repair which tells me that the fit was nice on the insert.