AFter all the work to get the motor rebuilt in my truck and get a 390 to replace the 360. I have had a terrible week with it. First of all I am using the old flywheel and torque converter with the C6 tranny that was there. I did the process of painting the torque converter through the flywheel hole to make sure it bolts up back like it was. Here is the hitch. When trying to bolt the motor in the truck it will not line up, nor will both sides of the bell housein bolt to the motor without being in a bind. If both sides are tightened, the motor locks up and can't turn. The torque converter bolts will not come through the flywheel as they should.... only a bit of an inch or or so. There should not be anything to keep it from fitting right in, so what could the problem be? I used the same flywheel bolts and spacer that came off the 360. But it is as though something is keeping the flywheel off the TC and not letting it bolt up. The straw that lost my cool was this week when tightening up the tranny, I popped a bolt ear off the bell housing! Now I am going to be looking at pulling the tranny and still not know why it would not bolt up. I had two other guys with me who did such a good bit but were puzzled, too. Has anyone had this problem when going from the 360 to 390? Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

No problem here. I had a friend who used to work at a tranny shop doing the dirty work so he had a little more experience than me. It is a pain but it will go. Since you have to pull the tranny anyways go ahead and bolt it up to the engine while it is on the cherry picker. It is much easier that way. If it weren't for a wrong motor mount on my neighbors 67 mustang it would have only taken about 30 minutes to have the engine/tranny in and completely secured this way. You need to make sure that the torque converter is completely seated back onto the input shaft. There is 2 stopping points when you are sliding it on. It should set fairly deep into the bellhousing. One more thing to check which might seem stupid but it has happenend. Which side of the flywheel is that ring on?

 

I did exactly the same thing that has happen to you,I was switching from a 360 TRUCK MOTOR to a 410 CAR MOTOR,there all suppose to be the same right? As it turned out,my tuck converter wouldn't line up with the crank, but as soon as I installed the car converter everything slipped into place

 

I wonder if there is a pilot bushing still on the crank from a previous st. drive. That will cause the action that you described. I had the same thing happen to me. I had to buy another case and start over.
http://www.clubfte.com/users/jowilker/USFlag.gif
John

jowilker email me
[link:www.ford-trucks.com/users/jowilker|My Club FTE Page] Member 0004 since 01 01

[link:www.ford-trucks.net/users/jowilker/NCFTE.html|NCFTO] North Carolina Ford Truck Owners Group

In the cool still quiet of night, you can hear chevies rusting away.

 

Those were all good replys, and I'd like to add that I seem to remember that there were 2 sizes of bore hole for the pilot bushing in the crankshaft, obliviously, one larger than the other. If the torque converter was all the way back, and engaged the pump gear with the hub flats, it should allow the bell housing to bolt up completely, with minimal to no clearance between the TC bolts and the flex plate. (Ja gotta get the TC bolts to come thru the flex plate B4 you tighten the bell housing bolts). You should spin the TC slowly while moving into the trans bushing. Hold the nose of the TC with one hand, gently pushing towards the trans, while turning the TC with the other hand. You'll feel it fall into place, and feel the pump gears gurgling as you turn the TC. If you can turn the TC without hearing some gurgling or feeling the gears turn, you have not got it in place.

So, 2 choices: 1)TC nose won't fit into crankshaft 'pilot bushing' hole
or 2) the TC was not all the way back into the trans.

gud luk.
tom

 

We are all aware that a 302/351M/460 C6 converters won't work on an FE right?

 

And the engine and tranny should come together without forcing it. What I do is get a couple of bell housing bolts in finger tight with the torque converter bolts lined up and wiggle the engine or tranny back and forth to get it to come together. Don't use the bolts to pull it together until you know for sure everything is lined up.
Just my $.02
Greg

'77 F-250 Camper Special 400ci driver
'76 F-250 Supercab 360ci current project
'71 Mach I 429CJ in storage
'79 F-150 for parts
huct on foniks wurkt fer me

 

there are 2 possible problems and both have been addressed here. Either the convertor isn't seated in the pump gears (the convertor should be about an inch inside the housing) or it is hitting on the crankshaft. Check to make sure it doesn't have a manual trans. pilot bushing in it. Automatics don't use them. Now, last summer a friend converted his 352/3 speed to a C6. I have never seen it happen before but his crankshaft hole was not large enough. He took his new convertor to a machine shop and had them turn the diameter of the snout down to fit. Still scratching our heads as to why the crankshaft had a different size hole.

 

 

Sounds like an early 352 crank. I've seen this in 2 cranks that were out of `60 and `59 cars with the 352's.

Not to say this is case, just an oddity that I've seen myself.

F.S.

"Ford Trucks; Eating Bow-ties for Breakfast"

`69 F100 390 4spd 300K+ miles and still rollin'!!

 

Do you have a FT crank? I thought these had a thicker flange for the flywheel.

Just a thought,

Reggie