I have a 95 Aerostar with a leaky pump seal. I pulled the tranny(I know very little about automatics), put in a new seal and filter. I dont know if I did this the right way or not, but.......
Slid the t/c on the input shaft until I thought it fully seated. Put the tranny up to the flexplate, wiggled and pushed, and it just about slid all the way on , maybe a 1/4" from touching the block. I used the bolts to pull it the rest of the way on, it did not take hardly any force on an open end wrench to do it. Then I used a pry bar through the starter opening to move the flex plate so I could get access to the t/s bolts. All the bolts were through the flex plate. Probem it, when I tighten the bell housing bolts all the way down, I can no way turn the flex plate. I have to loosen the b/h bolts about a turn or two, then I can pry on the ring gear to move it. I remember when I pulled it, I moved fairly easy, not too much effort.

So, what did I do wrong. Could the t/c not be fully engaged? There was the small shaft that ran into the tranny inside the larger shaft, and the small shaft pulled out with the t/c and fell off. I did not get a chance to notice which way it went in. I gave it a quick look, it appeared to be the same spline on each end. Anyway, I have never installed a AT before, I am sure I screwed something up.........Thanks in advance !!!!!!!!!

 

When the torque converter is properly seated, the flexplate alignment shaft on the engine side of the torque converter should be just about flush with the mounting surface of the bell housing, maybe even recessed inside the bell housing by 1/4".

Assuming you have seated the torque converter properly and the torque converter mounting bolts line up with the mounting holes on the flex plate, the transmission should slip in to the alignment shafts on the block rather easily with minimal need to use the bolts.

Once this is completed, the bell housing bolts can be tightened.

The only access to the torque converter mounting bolts is through the starter mounting hole. The bolts can be brought into accessibility by rotating the engine by "tightening" the harmonic balancer mounting bolt. You don't actually tighten the bolt, because it is torqued so high, it will rotate the engine before it begins to tighten any further, just be gentle, you will only need to rotate the engine about 2 revolutions in total.

When you go to tighten the torque converter mounting bolts they should bring the torque converter "in" slightly to mate with the flexplate. In other words, once the transmission is fully in place there should be a small gap (about 1/4") between the torque converter and the flex plate before the mounting bolts are tightened. Check the book but, I think the torque converter mounting nuts should be tightened to about 25-30 ft/lb, it's my experience that this is about the same amount of torque it will take to start turning the engine with the mounting bolts. Also, don't fully tighten the torque converter mounting nuts until all of them have been installed, otherwise it is possible to get the torque converter in a bind, that's why it takes about 2 revolutions of the engine.

I'm sure some Ford tech is swallowing his tonque after reading my engine turning technique, however, it gets the job done without doing any damage to the engine or the transmission.

Good Luck.

 

I could not turn the motor over with the harmonic balancer bolt, I was way to hard and I was afraid that I would break the bolt. That is why I used a small prybar on the ring gear. I did not go to revs with the t/c, I tightened them down in one rev. But, I had the bell housing completely tight to the block when the problem happened. The tranny was just starting to go over the alignment dowls when I put the bolts in to bring it up to the block.

Could the t/c still not be fully seated when the alignment dowls are contacting the bell housing. Cuz, there is now way I can turn the motor over when it is tight.

I backed the tranny bolts off a couple of turns, then moved the ring gear to tighten the t/c bolts, then retightened the tranny bolts. It still would not turn over. I am afraid that I may screw up the pump if I keep going at it........

 

Well, it appears that the flat spots on the t/c that engage the pump are not going into the pump. I cant get it to drop all the way in, I am frustrated now.......

 

A4LD torque converters will actually drag inside the bell housing when fully installed. When the transmission is bolted to the engine the torque converter will move freely in the bolt holes. Some times the torque converter will just refuse to go in all the way. Take a break, pull the torque converter back out and try again. I've probably had 200-300 a4ld trannys out for overhaul and some are a real bear to get the converter back in but keep trying, it will finally go.

 

I just noticed in your original post that the inner shaft came out and you aren't sure whether you put it back the way it was.

According to the manual, the inner shaft goes in one way only. If you have the wrong end going into the converter, I would suspect this would keep the t/c from seating properly.

When the t/c is fully seated you'll know it because, when the t/c is properly seated, the flexplate alignment shaft on the engine side of the t/c should be just about flush with the mounting surface of the bell housing, maybe even recessed inside the bell housing by 1/4". If the t/c is seated properly it won't freely spin on the input shaft, it will spin only grudgingly. Until you're sure the t/c is seated properly, you're wasting your time trying to install the transmission.

For me, it took an 18" cheater bar on the end of my 3/8" drive ratchet (my 1/2" was too big to fit in the small space) to get the engine to spin. Remember, the teeth of the flexplate are about 8" from the centerline of the crank and your hand on your ratchet is only about 4" from the center line, that's why it's much easier to turn the flexplate. Regardless, whichever way you choose to spin the engine, I wouldn't back the bell housing off the mounting surface in order to tighten the t/c, you could unseat it.

 

Well, I got it in. What happened was I screwed up the dogs on the pump drive when I tightend down the tranny the first time without the t/c being fully seated. It took me a couple of hours to get the t/c to line up, then a lot of force to seat it. I was not sure the pump was ok, but it is working fine. Problem is now, it does not want to idle, and sends a CEL. When I first started it, I would rev high, then die right away. Then it made a loud puff sound and blew out some vapor looking stuff from the left side of the engine. I checked the vacuum line for the modulator, it is still connected. I need to get a scanner to read the code.