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By MarkMontereyBay - 14 Years Ago
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I have my torque converter at a shop in Pleasanton, Ca being inspected, cleaned and a new ring gear welded in place. The converter is apparently missing the factory "0"s that are used to index the front piece with the back half. The converter checks out good but we can't find a shop that can balance it in the Bay Area. No one seems to have the correct adapter for the old Fordo to mount it on the balancing machine. Anyone know of a place in Northern/Central California? Closest we have found is in LA.
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By Pete 55Tbird - 14 Years Ago
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Mark The 55 FOM converter balance marks are one on the outside of the converter and the other on the face of the flex plate/ring gear. Two little o. The one on the converter is on the side. I don`t know if the 1957 is the same. Pete
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By MarkMontereyBay - 14 Years Ago
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Pete,
Yeah..I have some marks that look like it could be 0's on both. They are more crescent shaped as if the punch-master was a little hungover or just a bad shot. Those marks were mis-aligned about 3 inches when I separated the converter( I made punch marks of my own before taking it apart). The converter was also incorrectly indexed to the flex plate, leaving the drain plugs covered so I couldn't drain the converter for service. When I got it out found that both the drain plugs were cross-threaded and forced into place. Had to have them tapped, etc. I did have a suspect converter balance problem at about 650 to 850 RPM in park and it came back again about 1600RPM and cleared up after 1750 RPM. I have chased some bad converters when I worked for Ford on new trucks and it feels the same. Finally had to remove the trans, take out the converter, and put the trans back without it, then run up the engine to verify it was the converter. I hate the idea of putting this one back in and not knowing if it is correctly balanced plus it has new welds for the ring gear.
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By MarkMontereyBay - 14 Years Ago
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My Fordomatic torque converter was shipped to these folks for balancing. It will probably cost an arm and leg with the shipping costs but at least it has been balanced with the new ring gear, etc. No mysteries regarding it as the source of the vibration.
http://www.ctconverters.com/
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By Pete 55Tbird - 14 Years Ago
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Mark when you do get your rebalanced torque converter back can you please post a note of if they used the Ford tiny "o" on the flexplate face and side of converter as Ford did or remark the new witness marks with a new location/symbol. Thanks Pete
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By MarkMontereyBay - 14 Years Ago
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Pete,
Will do. I don't expect to hear anything until near the end of the week. I am fairly sure what looked like the factory stamps were real but with a new ring gear welded on and the vibration problem, I had it done anyway. The proof will be after getting everything back in and the car running. The shortblock is assembled with new rings. Heads going back on today.
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By MarkMontereyBay - 14 Years Ago
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I picked up the Fordomatic torque converter after it had a new ring gear installed and was shipped out to be balanced. Here is some photos:
This is a shot of what we think may have been the "0" index stamp on the torque converter housing.
This is a shot of what might be the corresponding stamp on the front cover:
After the converter was checked and the new gear welded in place it was balanced by a shop in LA. The above stamps are not aligned now and a new set of marks are there to index the converter front plate and housing.
This is the weight that was added to balance it:
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