Hello everyone! I have a 98 Dakota 3.9 2 wheel drive. I blew the the original motor so I bought one out a Dakota that was in an accident. The motor I bought had a manual trans mine is an automatic. Not a big deal I had to remove some kind of a bearing where the crank is. But anyway I got it together started it and it ran like crap and thew a few codes having to do with the crank sensor. So I thought maybe I was drunker then I thought when I put it together and put the flex plat on wrong. So I pulled the trans and seen there is only one way it fits. While putting it back together I stripped one of the bolt holes on the torque converter. So I re tapped the hole one bolt size up. Wanted to do all of them but when I called a few trans shops to see about balancing the torque converter they said it wouldn't make a difference. So now I have all the bell housing bolts tight and there is a gap between the torque converter and the flex plate. I'm afraid if it try to tighten the bolts it will pull the torque converter out and it won't be seated right. I read somewhere about using washers between the gap but I didn't have to the first time I had it together. Did I do something wrong?

 

Is your bigger bolt bottoming out against the t/c?


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I haven't put any of the bolts for the torque converter in yet. I'm afraid it will pull the torque converter to far forward and it might not be seated right. I think if it is to far forward it won't turn the pump or something

 

did you for get the alinement pins? some times the pins are not stright, ie off set, but is very very rare.

 

Alinement pins for the bell housing? Yes they are fine the bell housing is mounted and all the bolts are tight. Just there is about a half inch gap between the flex plate and the torque converter. So when I start to tighten the flex plate and torque converter it will pull the torque converter forward and maybe out of the correct seating. I'm not sure if I just didn't notice it the fist time I put the trans back in or what. I want to finish it today but if I do it wrong I will have to pull the trans to fix it. I really really don't want to do it a fourth time!

 

This is the gap I was talking about


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This is the gap I was talking about


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http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...004_160459.jpg


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Sorry I was trying to post a picture from my phone... didn't work!


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i keep forgetting iam from the old school. iam not used to flex plates like that one.. my factory paper service manual 2001. shows the 42,, 46,,45 trans that the converter lug is to be 1/2 in from the front face of the trans, before bolting to the engine.