cadman

Tough call. The correct way to bolt the TC to the plate is through the inspection window with the tranny & engine bolted together. I would remove that screw and slowly push the engine and tranny together and be very careful to make sure the TC is not hanging up as you do it. If you feel any definite resistance I would pull the engine forward and tranny rearward and make sure the TC is installed correctly. At this point you don't want to throw away all of your hard work.

For reference, when the TC is correctly installed you should be able to push it .500" or .750" (don't remember which) below the face of the bellhousing. At this distance, when bolting the tranny and engine together the flex plate should contact and push the TC.

UKrunner

Wait wait wait!! So the torque convertor is supposed to be off the flexplate and pushed onto the input shaft of the transmission, the engine is then introduced to the torque convertor, splines lined up, crank or tc rotated until the holes in the flex plate align with the holes in the tc?

I have the tc bolted to the flexplate on the engine and am trying to push that as an assembly onto the tranny input shaft.

UKrunner

Oh and should I be using the 3.4 flexplate or the 3.0 with the 3.0 tc and 3.0 tranny?

cadman

Yes, the TC should be on the transmission input shaft first and then you mate the engine and tranny together. You are going to have one hell of a time getting the notches on the TC and pump to line up otherwise, and you may damage the splines in the TC. IIRC, the flex plates are the same. I'll check on the part numbers for you when I get home, but I think they are the same.

UKrunner

Well that has to be the problem! Now, I dont see this removable inspection plate. I'll have to check it out later as I cant think of any way to get a wrench onto the flexplate/tc bolts.

cadman

I may have some pics of the inspection window and flex plate/TC. I'll also post these if I have them.

UKrunner

Thanks man, frustration level is high. This was supposed to be done before it snowed and we have close to 3 feet now. Missus is pissed it's not done yet.

cadman

When the tranny is bolted up, roughly a quarter of the the bottom portion of the bell housing will be open. There is a rubber gasket and plate you bolt on to cover this up afterwards. This is where you bolt the TC to the flex plate.

Also, notice how deep the TC is set beneath the face of the bellhousing. In the pic the converter is sitting to print.

Refer to the first pic.

https://www.yotatech.com/50830101-post2.html

UKrunner

Oh wow - yep, I am a good few inched shy of the tc being home. Will have to get underneathto figure out the window as I still cant picture where it is. My bellhousing is one solid peice so this must be engine side right?

syber_kowboy

Wait you didn't set the motor first? I always put the transmission in after the engine is set. It makes everything easier except when the stupid differential gets in the way. The TC should be within an 1/8th of an inch off the flexplate when correctly set. The bell housing and the motor will mate up tight and right when the TC is seated all the way on the input shaft of the transmission.

cadman

I'll post a better picture.

Correct. You'll be looking at the front of the bellhousing from the front of the engine.

UKrunner

I never removed the transmission. I got the 3.0 out with the tc attached, bolted the tc to the 3.4 and slid it in. Its on the hoist dangling about 1/8 inch off the engine mounts and about .80 inches away from seated tight against the bell housing. I cant see a window and dont see any way to get to the tc bolts wehn the two are mated together.
Looking at your picture, the tc still has a way to go into the bellhousing. I will be removing the engine later tonight and seeing what I can come up with.
Not looking forward to that. My garage temp is in the teens and the flourescent lights are getting dim.

cadman

Can't upload a pic yet, I replaced the mainboard on my home workstation and still need to configure the BIOS, RAID, etc...

Don't know what year vehicle your 3.4 came from, but the flex plate on your 1991 is the same as a 1998 Tacoma and there probably are no changes to it at least to 2000 or so when there was some sort of change to the crank.

The plate circled in red is the cover for the window. You should still have this and you'll bolt up the TC and flex plate through this window. Depending on the size of your ratchet & socket, you'll use this or a box wrench to tighten the screws. Put a socket & ratchet on the crank and you can rotate the engine to the next screw while under there. This is how I did it. Also, one screw has a small shoulder and should be a different color than the rest of the screws, install this one first to line up the flex plate holes with the holes on the TC.

UKrunner

I do have that part, it fellout as I was pulling the 3.0 and I didnt see where it came from. I thought it got sandwiched between engine and tranny.

Thanks so much for the help! I'll update again when I get a chance to look at this again. Today I am busy prototyping and testing 40000 lumen LED lights!!

cadman

Just wanted to update - the flex plate from 3.0 is the same as the 3.4 at least to 2003, the latest year in my EPC. My guess is its the same until 4.0L.

UKrunner

Finally got to work on this today. Struggled for 2 hours to get the tc off the input splines. Rotated pushed back on very easy and slid right back to where it was before. Removed, retried same thing, over and over.
Here are a couple of pictures showing how far back we can get the tc. Distance from edge of the bellhousing to the ring where the bolt hole tabs are welded onto is about 1/2 inch.








So does this look right?

cadman

From the pictures I can't say for sure, but if thats as far back as the torque converter will go then I'll have to go out on a limb and say you probably do not have it on correctly. I don't have access to my 3.0 FSM at the moment, but on the A340F the distance from the mounting surface pads on the tc to the bellhousing face is .7067" or more and the A340H is the same if I remember correctly.

To make sure the tc is correctly installed you need to make sure the notches on the tc clutch sleeve are mated with the tabs in the ID of the drive gear in the oil pump. If you are lined up correctly the tc will slide back quite a bit further and you'll definitely know it. The only way to see where the drive gear tabs are is to remove the tc, look between the oil pump seal and stator shaft, and visually look. Take a marker and draw a line on the bellhousing face that lines up with those tabs, do the same with the tc and the notches on the sleeve, only draw the line somewhere on the tc that you can view, and try to get the tc oriented correctly and install.

Hopefully you can get the tc installed with the tranny and engine in the vehicle, but I even had a minor struggle doing it with the tranny out of the truck. That tc is heavy and lining up the notch and tabs can be a bitch.

syber_kowboy

Based on those pictures and my memory I'd have to say that the TC is not seated far enough. It should drop in another 3/4" or so.

mt_goat

If you pull off the TC and look at center, you should be able to see the slots that have to line up with the key on the shaft. That should get you close enough to wiggle it into place.

UKrunner

I take it that the slots on the tc shaft slide into keyways which are behind the face of the tranny and thats why we cant see to line up?

Looks like I need to pull the engine then to get a clear look at those keys.

Thanks for everyones help so far!


Radiator hoses, will the stock 3.4 top and bottom work with the 3.0 radiator?
How many quarts of oil does the 3.4 take?