My old TC was not locking up any more and has been slowly acting up for the last while so I finally decided to upgrade. Having 275k on my truck and not sure about the age of my tranny, I decided to buy a lightly used TC instead of a new one.
I've been searching many different posts over the last few months trying to find any pictures and info I could find on this upgrade. I received a lot of very helpful information from John Wood which made this possible.
I took a few pics during the install showing what I did.


My old 7.3 converter (actually a reman)




My 6.0 5r110 converter back view


My 6.0 converter front side



After I had the tranny backed off, I had to take the flexplate off and the crank spacer behind that off. This picture is with the spacer already removed. ( yeah I know I have a oil leak somewhere)




Up close with the crank spacer removed. It was a little had pulling the spacer off because it has a .003 press fit.


Here is the crank spacer. (there is probably a different name for it)
from a 7.3, its around .980 thick on the face. The ridge in the center is another .150 on top of that.



In order for the TC upgrade to work, I have to take .100 off the face and the ridge in the center on the lathe.


I put the spacer in the lathe. Its VERY important that this is put in the chuck very squarely. This was probably a laser cut piece and a few thousandths off will cause problems with your flexplate not spinning smoothly.


With the lathe running, I touched the cutting tip to the spacer to check my squareness which I got within .001 or .002 (factory thickness may have been off by that much)



Taking this down in the lathe. We made it .884 thick and took the ridge down .100 making it .150 again and stopped there. I wouldn't try doing this unless you've got good lathe experience. when facing this its very important not to touch the center because you don't want to change the diameter that the flexflate sits on.



Here's the old seal in the bell housing that I replaced. Not a bad idea for $10



Putting things back together with a homeade tranny jack.
taking the crank spacer down .100 is required for the 6.0 converter. I also could have bought a spacer kit for around $50 but I decided to make my own. If I ever get a built tranny with a 7.3 converter I'll have to get another spacer. Since this makes the tc and flexplate closer to the motor, I did have to shim my starter .060 to make it disingage. Overall, I'm VERY pleased with my new converter because now it actually locks up and puts the power to the road. It really seems to be more efficient and keeps my rpms in the right spot allowing me to capture the torque in the sweet spot


overall it took around 8-10 hours of actual work.
parts cost:
$125 for the 6.0 TC
$10 for the bell housing seal

 

Pics not working.

 

how do I make pics work? I uploaded them to adrive and used the add image button on fte with the image address.

 

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type what is the image location and i'll see if i can get it to work

 

If those are the same pics in your album, then copy and paste. Or load them to your garage then C&P.

 

http://www.adrive.com/home/downloadfile/235861508
I can also get the address if I right click on the pic.
The pics load on my page.
Maybe I need to upload them to another host.

 

ya i would do that go to webshots or photobucket. both are free i believe.

 

I have just started to check out doing this.What are the advantages?You said that the correct spacer can be bought for about $50 ?Where ?Also does the starter always have to be shimmed ?If so what did you use for shims and where did you find them?I will be watching this thread closely.I would also like to get your impressions on this mod.Thanks for anything and everything you add.

 

Thanks for the write up. Great job!

 

John wood explained to me the advantages. He used to sell the 6.0's or 6.4 TC's with his trannies i believe. He told me the 6.0 TC is one of the most efficient he's found. He now makes his own thats even better. another thing to remember is that a stock 6l TC can handle way more hp than a 7.3 TC.
I love mine. It probably seems extra good to me because I was driving a truck all over the place that had a slipping TC and till finally it stopped locking up altogether. So having a locking TC is awesome.
Google John Wood for his web site and you can buy a adapter kit he sells which has a crank spacer and also has a bellhousing spacer or something. For me, I didn't want to wait 3-4 days for an adapter kit so I made my own spacer on the lathe. If you don't have a lathe, just buy the kit for around $50.

I don't think the starter would have to be shimmed on every one. I bought a High Torque a year ago that fits a 6.0 which might have been the issue with not disingaging with the flexplate.
I first shimmed the starter with .060 thick regular washers to try it. after a few days decided to make one a little more permanent out of aluminum that came off some old car bellhousing gasket.

 

John's a great guy and helps a lot of people on the phone every day, you just don't hear about it very often. Thanks for posting!

Stewart

 

looks like a very detailed install...great job.

 

Great Job!!! And the pics work for me?

 

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