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Since I don't race the Chevelle much any more (last time I raced it was about two and a half years ago), I worked out a trade with my buddy to make it more streetable. Part of this trade was to give him my $900 Coan 8" torque convertor...
I hate working on the Chevelle in my garage... it's too small to move around the car without walking sideways... and finding tools... yeesh. I probably spent an hour looking for tools. I usually work my junk at his house, in his garage, but he's got too many projects in the way at his house, so I tackled it today; here.
-I only have one set of jack stands... but I have concrete blocks. Ok, car's up in the air, nice and sturdy.
-Pull the drive shaft...after I find my friggin 5/16 wrench.
-Take the bolts out of the cross member
-Remove the coverter bolts. Since I don't own a flywheel/flexplate turning tool, I use vise grips to rotate it to access all three bolts.
-Disconnect the speedo and shifter cables; unplug the trans brake solenoid wire.
-Remove bolts from bell housing of tranny... ugh. The bottom two were easy, the other four were a royal pain. I have a CSR composite tranny shield, and used some 12 point 3/8 wrench size bolts to secure it. These four bolts took about an hour. The top two were only accesable from above, so I crawled up there under the hood and stood on the frame rails. After dropping the wrench three times (and having to climb back out from under the hood to retrieve it), I finally tied the wrench to my wrist, so the next four times I "dropped it", I could keep going.
-Last (yeah, right) disconnect the cooler lines so I can pull the tranny back and swap converters.
Oops, the dipstick tube is hanging me up; pulled it out.
The cross member wouldn't slide back far enough, I had to remove it from the car. To do so required dropping one side of the exhaust from the header.
The transmission still wouldn't slide back far enough. I thought it did, but I didn't realize the input shafts were sticking out of the front of the tranny about four and a half inches. After dumping about a quart of tranny fluid on my arm and my garage floor, I slid the converter back in place and crawled out from under the car to loosen one of the headers... then the other.
Finally, I got the tranny back far enough, and the coverter came out... nice and easy. When I went to put the new one in, I expected to have to struggle with it; they never just go right in... this one did.
After mating the tranny back to the engine, I put the bottom two bolts in and put the cross member back in and loosely put the bolts in it... then called it a day.
New 10" custom convertor from FTI Competition Converters on the left, old $900 8" Coan on the right.
The new converter should drive nice and easy on the street, but still flash or stall around 4500 on the trans brake. The Coan came with paperwork saying it is NOT to be used on the street.
I hate working on the Chevelle in my garage... it's too small to move around the car without walking sideways... and finding tools... yeesh. I probably spent an hour looking for tools. I usually work my junk at his house, in his garage, but he's got too many projects in the way at his house, so I tackled it today; here.
-I only have one set of jack stands... but I have concrete blocks. Ok, car's up in the air, nice and sturdy.
-Pull the drive shaft...after I find my friggin 5/16 wrench.
-Take the bolts out of the cross member
-Remove the coverter bolts. Since I don't own a flywheel/flexplate turning tool, I use vise grips to rotate it to access all three bolts.
-Disconnect the speedo and shifter cables; unplug the trans brake solenoid wire.
-Remove bolts from bell housing of tranny... ugh. The bottom two were easy, the other four were a royal pain. I have a CSR composite tranny shield, and used some 12 point 3/8 wrench size bolts to secure it. These four bolts took about an hour. The top two were only accesable from above, so I crawled up there under the hood and stood on the frame rails. After dropping the wrench three times (and having to climb back out from under the hood to retrieve it), I finally tied the wrench to my wrist, so the next four times I "dropped it", I could keep going.
-Last (yeah, right) disconnect the cooler lines so I can pull the tranny back and swap converters.
Oops, the dipstick tube is hanging me up; pulled it out.
The cross member wouldn't slide back far enough, I had to remove it from the car. To do so required dropping one side of the exhaust from the header.
The transmission still wouldn't slide back far enough. I thought it did, but I didn't realize the input shafts were sticking out of the front of the tranny about four and a half inches. After dumping about a quart of tranny fluid on my arm and my garage floor, I slid the converter back in place and crawled out from under the car to loosen one of the headers... then the other.
Finally, I got the tranny back far enough, and the coverter came out... nice and easy. When I went to put the new one in, I expected to have to struggle with it; they never just go right in... this one did.
After mating the tranny back to the engine, I put the bottom two bolts in and put the cross member back in and loosely put the bolts in it... then called it a day.
New 10" custom convertor from FTI Competition Converters on the left, old $900 8" Coan on the right.
The new converter should drive nice and easy on the street, but still flash or stall around 4500 on the trans brake. The Coan came with paperwork saying it is NOT to be used on the street.
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