4HP22 torque converter seating question

[shogun]

Congrats, all learned something from your experience, thanks for the feedback.

[Dash01]

Congrats, all learned something from your experience, thanks for the feedback.

Back at you, Shogun. Your contributions of expertise, coupled with specific links to data and sources including factory shop manuals and illustrations, are invaluable to us. They are greatly appreciated by me and I'm sure every other lister on this website. THANK YOU!

Such insight is simply unavailable to most of us from any other source. For example, a friend in my small town owns an auto parts store, and his son is a senior repair technician at a major BMW dealership in the Seattle area. Helpful as these folks are, the body of knowledge on older cars such as E34 and E32 is increasingly scarce, as technicians of that vintage have now mostly moved on. In other words, even the factory-trained BMW guys are no longer on top of their game for such older cars, so listers on this forum in many cases are now probably the best source of such information.

[ryan roopnarine]

glad to be of help, if i was. i am happy to be able to save someone else the PITA of trying to mount their tranny wrong and possibly save a pump (unlike someone i know that had to take it all apart again and only figured out what was wrong when they reseated it separate from the car.....)


oh, and PS
good luck with the rest of the work that you have ahead of you getting your 3800lb paperweight moving again.

[Dash01]

Thanks Ryan. BTW, the most useful single piece of information that helped me was your observation that seating the TC is is two stage process. At a glance, one can see that the TC has those notches in its aft shaft, and that such would fit corresponding tabs on the tranny. What is not described in any literature that I found, however, is the two-stage process of fitment, leaving me working with the misconception that I'd properly seated the TC after only the first stage. Without your comments, I'd still be under the damn car in the driveway, teaching the neighborhood kids some new vocabulary my wife calls "Car Talk."


Glitches to note: 1.) Various printed sources describe the triangular drive plate as having indentations where the 3 bolts go through. My drive plate has no such indentations, but instead is completely flat. 2.) Shogun's excellent factory literature has a long list showing the dimensional inset of the TC on various ZF transmissions, which range from 22mm upward. In other words, the TC inset list refers to the depth of the geometric plane intersecting the TC nuts from the geometric plane of the bellhousing flange. So, depending on the number cast onto the upper left side of the tranny case, a given TC may be inset from the plane of the bellhousing flange by quite a bit. My tranny number does not appear on the printed list. Bentley E34 book makes no mention of this, other than to say the TC nuts should be inset from said flange plane. Best to keep in mind, however, that every tranny shown on that list has some TC inset. 3.) If separating tranny from engine, BMW has a special tool to keep the TC from sliding out from its seating and causing re-seating problems. Duct tape would probably work great for this.

[whiskychaser]

Thats some damn good information! I'd just add that you need the flat of the triangle on the flex plate at the top and stick something in one of the TC holes to line it up with the hole in the bellhousing - the stub of a pencil will do! When installing the tranny, I use a bit of threaded bar with a couple of nuts on to clamp to the edges of the bellhousing. That holds the TC in place until the gap between the bellhousing and engine is about 1/2" when it is removed.

[Dash01]

Thats some damn good information! I'd just add that you need the flat of the triangle on the flex plate at the top and stick something in one of the TC holes to line it up with the hole in the bellhousing - the stub of a pencil will do! When installing the tranny, I use a bit of threaded bar with a couple of nuts on to clamp to the edges of the bellhousing. That holds the TC in place until the gap between the bellhousing and engine is about 1/2" when it is removed.

Good point, Whiskey. Here's another little tip: Magnetize your 17mm socket so the three 17mm bolts that attach the drive plate to the TC will not fall down to the bottom of the bell housing. When it does, it'll be on the wrong (forward) side of the flywheel, without enough space to get it out of the 2"X3" inspection hole at the bottom. In such event, plan on using a magnet on a stick or string, aided by some good vocabulary.

Otherwise, I used an old Bic pen as an alignment dowel.

Another idea to keep the 17mm bolt from falling down would be to use a thin-wall sleeve or channel made of perhaps an old plastic bottle, to place under the bolt/socket wrench and catch the little bugger before it falls. Or, maybe tie a thread to the 17mm bolt shaft and tie the other end someplace secure, until the little bastard is properly engaged on the TC nut. These wonderful thoughts somehow came to me just after I just crawled out from under the goddamned car in the rain, fishing that little sucker out. You knew that.

[whiskychaser]

ROFL. An old BIC pen is exactly what I used :-) Magnetising the socket is a great idea. I used a bit of grease to stop the bolt falling out of the socket. Only drive you can get in there is a 3/8 and then you need a UJ to tighten it up. This stuff isnt in Bentleys!

[Dash01]

BTW, just in case my tranny (after all this effort) is toast, does anybody know if the 5 speed manual gearbox from a 1997 328i will fit this M30 engine and E34 car? Just wondering. Some gomer has one locally for $400, and the Cash for Clunkers deal ended last week, of course.

[Dash01]

OK, working in spare time on weekends, got the new engine all set up and she seems fine.

Put the car it in gear, both forward and reverse, and NOTHING. No nudge, no creep, no lurch. Nothing.

No fault indicators on onboard computer readout.

Tranny dipstick shows normal level, but the color of the stuff on the stick is basically clear, not red or brown.

So, having drained no tranny fluid during engine swap, I replaced none. I believe the torque converter was properly seated.

The car has been sitting for many months, so I'm wondering if a ball valve is stuck, or similar.

Your thoughts?

[ryan roopnarine]

was the unit a salvage, rebuild, or new?

if it was a salvage, what year car did it come out of?