leesvet

T/C scattered. A cracked vein came apart when you "punched it" and that set off a chain of catastrophic events that got you where you are today.
junk inside now has it completely locked up and bound, jammed and unable to grind itself in the normal rotation any more....that's why it WILL go the wrong rotation a little bit...

trash is now thru the whole trans assembly and probably got the planetary gears jammed and metal in the clutches...junk tends to bind rotating parts. AT hiway speeds, things happen real fast, the devestation spreads in seconds.

Get the TC bolts out and see what is locked up and whats NOT.

Good luck, prayers for the 396 !

cumbercr

This is pretty much what I have concluded. It will be a few days before I crawl under the car with a wrench and get the confirmation. It sucks to have a demanding job when there's more important things to do. And my old back doesn't care much for cold concrete floors.

The transmission would be the least expensive option at this point. The Vigilante converter is under warranty. There's a local shop I trust to rebuild the transmission.

On the other hand, the engine would be major. There's only one guy (Jim Barth) I trust to rebuild it. And I know that once we start down that path there will be upgrades and more power, maybe a 421 and well, you get the drift.

PcolaPaul

Seriously doubt the crank broke.
Sounds like the converter puked and caused the front pump to lock-up. This usually rings the drive ears off the converter snout or breaks a pump gear and it can cause the flex plate to fail also.

Usually if converter failed, the metal will stop in the pump gears and the transmission should be fine with a new front pump and a converter. Good luck!

dave_85

Did you put it back in park? Just asking.

cumbercr

Park and neutral both work. I'll be separating the torque converter from the flex plate this weekend. I'm about 95% sure the converter crapped.

Midnight 85

leesvet

well ?



inquiring minds wanna know !

esham

cumbercr

I'll post the diagnosis once I'm able to work on it. Life has been getting in the way of cars.

Cliff Harris

I think that it's pretty hard to get junk throughout the trans if a torque converter fails. The oil coming out of the converter goes straight into the pan, so no problem there.

Any ATF going through the pump comes directly from the filter because the filter is mounted in the pump inlet. As I showed in post #9 in this thread, my filter was full of metal particles but the oil in the pan had nothing in it.

Deakins

Kind of sounds like a planetary gear may have given up the ghost on you. I got away from the 4L60 transmissions long ago but that was a pretty common failure when we ran them. When they exploded things went down hill in seconds...just my .02 and best of luck with it!

cumbercr

Here's an update. I tried to remove the torque converter bolts. But I can only turn the engine about 1/4 revolution. There's no way I can get to two of the converter bolts. The transmission is obviously coming out. But the question is can I pull the transmission with the converter still bolted to the flex plate?

s carter

yes, since odds are your trans is toast any damage that could happen to your front pump or torque converter is moot, its a little tougher because the converter might hold it in place a bit, and the trans will be a little tail heavy because the converter wont be there as a counter balance.

tpi 421 vette

Hey Craig, you will want a fairly big catch pan under the front of the trans because it's going to leak a bit of trans fluid when you pull the trans and leave the converter bolted to the flywheel.

Hot Rod Roy

Are the rear wheels off the ground, and the trans in neutral, and the engine still can't be rotated?

If the tc is locked up internally, I don't see how you could have pulled to the side of the road with the engine still running, as if the trans was in neutral.

cumbercr

Yes I have the rear wheels off the ground and in neutral they turn fine.

Hot Rod Roy

Maybe I wasn't clear. I wasn't asking about the rear wheels turning, I was asking if the engine can be turned with the wheels off the ground, and with the trans in neutral.

So, does the driveshaft turn when the trans is in neutral?

cumbercr

No, the engine will only turn about 1/4 revolution. The driveshaft does turn in neutral.

s carter

at the end of all of this the cause will probably be a shattered front pump, right now there are bits of the front pump have the front half of the trans jammed up in the pump, so the back half will allow the wheels to spin.

cadmaniac

This is getting really interesting. Hopefully, we can learn from this. I had a broken piston in an engine I was pulling, but was able to pull the head and take the broken pieces out. That allowed me to rotate the crank and take out the torque converter bolts. How do you get this apart?

Any transmission specialists following this thread?