TH400 swap questions...
03-17-2013, 05:39 PM
#1
TH400 swap questions... Hey guys, I am underway on swapping the TA to a TH400. Very excited to get it all finished up, but just have a couple of questions I guess.
1. I was having trouble getting the bellhousing to drop in and mate up to the engine block and I didn't know what it was that was stopping it from dropping in all the way. So on a whim I decided to measure the two alignment tabs that are on your engine and just help line up to the holes in the bellhousing. You know the two tabs, one on each side of the motor? Well anyways, I measured them and sure enough, the tab on the engine is bigger than the bellhousing hole by .030"! So I drilled out the bellhousing just a small bit and that was all it took! Now it dropped all the way in to mate to the engine. The wierd part though was that looking through ALLLL the TH400 swap write-ups I never saw anything mentioned about that you wopuld have to do this simple modification. Did anyone else have to do this to their TH400's? I did cut the ears off of my tranny beforehand just in case anyone asks.
2. Last question was, what size bolts are you guys using for the converter bolts? I have the right size and thread pitch bolt, but I guess I might have bought them too long. My converter has threaded pads, which is good, and my bolts I purchased are Grade 8 1.25" long. I am thinking I need to go down to a 1" bolt, or MAYBE even a .75" bolt? What do you guys think?
Info about my setup: FTI 3600 stall for TH400 to LS engine, late model (1989) TH400 with short tail 32 spline output with TCI RMVB w/ transbrake.
Thanks in advance for some help!
1. I was having trouble getting the bellhousing to drop in and mate up to the engine block and I didn't know what it was that was stopping it from dropping in all the way. So on a whim I decided to measure the two alignment tabs that are on your engine and just help line up to the holes in the bellhousing. You know the two tabs, one on each side of the motor? Well anyways, I measured them and sure enough, the tab on the engine is bigger than the bellhousing hole by .030"! So I drilled out the bellhousing just a small bit and that was all it took! Now it dropped all the way in to mate to the engine. The wierd part though was that looking through ALLLL the TH400 swap write-ups I never saw anything mentioned about that you wopuld have to do this simple modification. Did anyone else have to do this to their TH400's? I did cut the ears off of my tranny beforehand just in case anyone asks.
2. Last question was, what size bolts are you guys using for the converter bolts? I have the right size and thread pitch bolt, but I guess I might have bought them too long. My converter has threaded pads, which is good, and my bolts I purchased are Grade 8 1.25" long. I am thinking I need to go down to a 1" bolt, or MAYBE even a .75" bolt? What do you guys think?
Info about my setup: FTI 3600 stall for TH400 to LS engine, late model (1989) TH400 with short tail 32 spline output with TCI RMVB w/ transbrake.
Thanks in advance for some help!
