Hi again everyone,
Hopefully this question will have a painless answer. I'm installing a 7.3 into my 87 dually. It's a C-6. If I were to bolt the transmission to the engine, would there still be room to rotate the converter to align it with the flex plate ? Or would the converter studs have to be aligned at the same time as the bell housing bolts ?

Peter

 

First off, what was the original engine in that truck? The bell housing might be different.

as for your question, when I install my c6 to the block, I use some 6" grade eight 1/2" bolts to get the tranny lined up. Then I push the tranny closer to the block until the torque converter is closeto the fly wheel studs. Then I turn the tc until they match the larger holes (not the little holes).

once it's lined up, I push the tranny to the block. Then one by one, I replace the long grade eight bolts with the right tranny bolts.

this might be easier for me cuz I have a van though.

 

It was a 6.9. Bolt pattern is the same. I didn't pull the transmission back when I pulled the 6.9. I just jacked up the front a little, and the motor popped out. I'm essentially bolting the motor up to the trans mission, rather than bolting the transmission to the motor. Between the floor jack and the engine hoist, there is not much room to crawl under to align. I figured that I could get the bell housing to engine bolts started, lower the engine onto the crossmember, and the once the hoist is out of the way, I would be able to deal with the converter studs and remaining bolts. That's why I was wondering if the converter studs need to be aligned before I lower the engine the last 2 inches.

Peter

 

Hmm. I'll defer to a truck guy on that. On the van, there is a lot of room to align the tranny and engine. I'd recommend trying to loosen the tranny mounts, because its a lot lighter adjusting the tranny than trying to maneuver the engine into place.

If you have a buddy helping you on this, you could lay underneath and rotate the TC to almost match up with the flexplate holes, then try to mate the tranny and engine with the shop crane. There are pegs that help align the tranny and engine, but they are really short. I doubt they are long enough to begin to mate the tranny and engine and have room to turn the TC. So, if you have a friend control the shop crane and you are underneath, you could align the TC studs and mate the pegs to the holes on the block and tranny. That's going to be tough, and that's why I like the mate the tranny to the engine, instead of vis versa. The tranny isn't that heavy and can be manipulated if you are a strong boy and ate all your spinach.

A 6.9 to 7.3 swap won't have any impact on the bellhousing. I was asking just in case you were swapping a gasser engine.

 

I like your idea of using longer bolts to pull the transmission and the engine together. Although this leads me back to my original question. Years ago, on some cars, you could go ahead and bolt the engine and transmission together, then go underneath and rotate the converter to install the nuts. Can this be done with these monsters ? Or will the converter studs seize against the flex plate ?

Peter

 

Maybe the existing stock tranny mounting bolts are long enough, but I would be VERY tight. That's why I elected to use the 6" bolts when I mounted mine. I did this twice and it worked great. It gave me about a half inch between the TC studs and the flexplate to turn the TC and align it.

But who knows if those 6" bolts will work on a truck. I'd have to expect the clearance is tight. On the van, the doghouse can be removed and 4 of the 6 bolts are VERY easy to access. The other two aren't too bad from underneath.

Yes, you can do that. It would be a lot easier with a friend. Maybe if you get a few threads on the tranny mounting bolts, then you will have enough clearance to turn the TC without the TC studs hitting the plate. IDK. Something tells me the reason why I bought the longer 1/2" bolts was we tried to turn the TC like you described with the stock bolts, and it didn't work. So we bought the longer bolts and did that. It's kind of coming back to me now. Senior moment.

Wait, I was talking more about turning the TC to align the studs with the flexplate holes. Are you talking about turning the TC to thread on the bolts... then you are talking about turning the crankshaft to put the flexplate holes accessible to a 9/16" deepwell. That's pretty easy. After you lined up the TC and tightened down the stock tranny mounting bolts, just put a 15/16" socket on a prybar and turn the crankshaft bolt on the front of the engine. Once the TC studs are exposed under the engine, thread the nut on. I was just going to post a video on how to do that, but I'm procrastinating. The shooting is down, I'm just lazy with the editing.

 

I'm going to try out the longer bolt method.
Thanks for all the info
Peter

 

Im not going to read all the posts, no you cannot rotate the convertor with the trans bolted up. On any ford. The studs go thru the matching holes , the big holes are for the drain plug clearance on units that have them.