[Tater1977]

I purchased a Summit brand 2000 stall torque converter off the clearance shelf at summits head quarters awhile back . I recently went to install it and noticed it had fluid in it already. It looked fine so I went ahead and installed it. When I filled the trans and fired up the car, it was making a light but noticable tapping noise while idling. After removing the trans inspection cover and starting the engine, I realized that the converter was wobbling and looked to have at least 1/2 inch run out and the noise was coming from the converter. I immediatly shut the engine down. I did not drive the car at all like this, and only ran the engine on and off for 5 or so min to locate the issue. The trans did engage in all gears with the bad converter.

Thinking back, it did go in kind of hard. i had to tap it 3 times with a rubber mallet to engage the pump gear, and lightly pop it forward with a pry bar to bring it up to the flex plate.

I went to summit and bought a new Summit 2000 converter, and removed the defective clearance summit converter. I installed the new converter. It almost went on too easy. I did verify that the pump gear tabs were ok prior to installing the converter, and even indexed them at 3 and 9 o clock position to aid in converter installation. The Gear rotated with no issue using a pocket screw driver when I was aligning the tabs at 3 and 9.

I finished installing the trans tonight, added a total of 6 qts to the pan through the dipstick tube, first four, then two more when I had no gear engagement. After checking and rechecking the fluid level, I determined the pump is pumping zero oil. This was verified by cracking a trans line loose at the radiator, then starting the engine and having a helper shift the trans to drive with the engine running.

I picked the car back up on the lift, dropped the inspection cover, unbolted the converter from the flex plate, and easily slid it back to whithin 1/16 inch from the bell housing. The converter felt like it fit very losely when engaged in the front pump, I could wobble it by hand about 3/8 of an inch. I compared this with a known good fresh spare race trans and converter I had, they were nice and tight with very little play. I am thinking I damaged the front pump when i ran the engine with the defective converter. Any opinions on how bad I tore it up. Pulling trans out AGAIN:sad: tomorrow and removing pump. Contemplating getting a fresh pump assembly vs possibly replacing a couple parts.

By the way this is my better halfs car who is 9 mos preggo and due next week. She wanted to drive her GS one more time to a local cruise this friday before she is busy for the next couple monthes. I am still hoping I can Pull something out of my a$$ and have it going for her by this Friday.

 

[El Guapo]

Did you fill the convertors before installing?
You should never use any type of force to get a convertor to go on. Once on the input shaft, rotate it so the gears are meshed in the pump and converter (3 clicks, I think). There should be no "wobble" when installed on the pump .

 

[Tater1977]

Yep, probably just going to try and get a reman pump assembly from my local trans shop and swap it out. Then I can dissasemble the broken one later on and hopefuly repair it for a spare.

 

[Motorvation]

Maybe crapped out the bushing. How did the hub look? No pump could mean broken pump gear tabs...

Steve O.

 

[Chevelle '71]

it may be too late, but you could still have an air bubble. check the fluid level engine off, then start and place in neutral.. does the fluid level change. No change could just be air trapped in converter, did you pre-fill it. the greater of two evils is that the poor fit with previous converter caused you to stack the pump. The negative to that is the stator or back side of the pump takes all the abuse when converter is forced against it. Most likely will be grooved by pump gear... If you get it sorted and manage a replacement pump. once you get fluid in it and started...put transmission in reverse, this will dump all fluid into the pan, minimizing the chance that you fill your valvebody with metal shavings.

 

[Tater1977]

it may be too late, but you could still have an air bubble. check the fluid level engine off, then start and place in neutral.. does the fluid level change. No change could just be air trapped in converter, did you pre-fill it. the greater of two evils is that the poor fit with previous converter caused you to stack the pump. The negative to that is the stator or back side of the pump takes all the abuse when converter is forced against it. Most likely will be grooved by pump gear... If you get it sorted and manage a replacement pump. once you get fluid in it and started...put transmission in reverse, this will dump all fluid into the pan, minimizing the chance that you fill your valvebody with metal shavings.

Thanks for the tip on putting the trans in reverse to purge any possible shavings. I will certainly do that . I removed the trans this evening. Im getting pretty good at it as I had it drained and out in under an hour. The converter didnt seem to have any more than the quart of fluid in it that I pre filled it with. The tabs were still intact in the pump gear, and it rotated fine with a small screw driver. The bushing in the pump directly behind the converter seal looks grooved up, im guessing this is the cause of my end play.

I called the trans shop today. They said they could get me a reman pump tomorrow for $160.00 as long as i let him know before noon. I decided to just take them the trans and new converter. I will let him install the pump and verify nothing else behind it is damaged. I may go ahead and expand on chevelle 71's advice and have him tear the trans down and flush it just to be safe:thumbsup:

With the junk summit 2000 Clearance table converter $60, new summit 2000 converter $100, fluid $60, filter kit $20, and new pump $160, I am $400 dollars into this ordeal already:sad: . At this point whats another couple hundred to guarantee this ordeal is over.:yes: