I received a Yank torque converter that I ordered this week and the installation instructions say that you must break it in with normal driving for 150 miles before stalling it on the brake or WOT. The reason for this the instructions say is to break in the lock up clutch and if you don’t follow these instructions you will violate the warranty. Would someone please help understand how WOT will damage the lock up clutch? Unless tuned to do so the lock up clutch is not applied under WOT, so I don’t understand how it can be damaged. Please enlighten me.

 

the way it's been explained to me is that you want to bed the friction surfaces, seat the stator sprag, seat bearings and shed any loose friction material out of the converter before you really make it work. seems pretty reasonable imo

 

Thanks Doug. I can go along with that. The instructions made it sound like it was all about the clutch, which I had a hard time wrapping my head around being that the clutch isn't applied at WOT. We are following the break-in procedure, just wanted to know the why behind it. Not going to gamble with a $950 part that we had to wait 5 weeks for.

 

Plus there are idiots that will try to lock-up the clutch under wide open throttle!