I am helping my friend change a front pump seal on his 94 f150(4.9-e40d)and when we tried to re-install the trans the dust shield is pressed hard against the flexplate.All of the bolts went in and the dowells are lined up, but as we tighten the bellhousing bolts the dust shield presses against the flexplate and will not let me turn it to replace the torque converter nuts. We have the trans pulled away now and are scratching our heads. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

Assuming you got the seal properly seated...

A wild guess since I do not know what the flex plate looks like on your tranny...

Some flex plates are one way. They sometimes are stamped or machined out so that one side sticks out more than the other. Maybe yours is installed backwards?

Or maybe yours is not centered on the crank. Some crankshafts have a lip on them that the flex plate has to sit over. Not too likely since the bolts shouldn't line up if this happens but maybe worth a try?

Did you get a new flex plate? Maybe you have the wrong one, this has happened to me a it took half a day to figure out that I had the wrong flex plate.

As I am thinking thru things, I am starting to wonder if you have the torque converter fully seated in the pump drive. This is a common problem and will keep the TC out maybe 1/4 inch which will let you get things almost buttoned up but not quite. This also happened to me.

Check to make sure that your pump drive gear is centered inside the bore, some of them can move around quite a bit, think circle in a circle. Then slide the TC over the input shaft gently and it should seat with a short clunk when you get the two square notches in the TC shaft to match up with the square teeth of the pump drive gear. Took me another day to learn that one, I'm not the sharpest tool in the toolbox.

I bet this is your problem.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Thanks for the advise, I will ckeck all of those things.

 

My 92 w/4.9l and E4od had a dust plate that floats behind the flexplate( between engine and flexplate), It doesn't come away or off the engine, unless you remove the flexplate. There is also a neoprene gasket that fits between the dust plate and engine, I think that gasket helps keep dirt out of the rear main seal area.

If your flexplate is rubbing against the dust shield, I worry that maybe you put the flexplate on backwards, ( if it was off)

 

Thanks for all the advice. We pulled back the trans, reset the dust sheild(I think it was right to begin with), and re-stabbed the transmission. This time everything came together fine. I don't know what was wrong, but luckily it all ended fine. Another Ford back on the road. I really appreciate all the help.