Progress report...
Well, it has't fired a lick, yet;
The reason it hasn't is not ENTIRELY our fault.
Case in point; we destroyed the 904's front pump drive tangs by bolting the tranny up to the back of the block, with ZERO torque-converter clearance, or "play" if you will... the converter had no fore-and-aft clearance, once the bell housing bolts were tightened. Wouldn't slide on the input shaft, at all.....
We noticed that the converter was "tight" against the flex plate AND the front pump; you could not move it.
We removed it and took the transmission to a repair facility who replaced the front pump "tang/gear" assembly. We had damaged it when we attempted to bolt it up.... our bad...
The repair shop installed the converter in the case, making sure the drive was properly seated in the pump. We tried again, to bolt up the transmission to the back of the block, and AGAIN, the converter was too tight (bottomed out in the pump before the case was bolted up to the back of the block.)
That time, we were careful and didn't force anything. We took the converter out and measured all the pertinent shafts, and any other things we thought might be contributing to this mess.
Here's what we found: We had the original /6 904 converter out of our donor car for reference.
This new converter is early 3/8" "fatter" than the original. Same diameter, but that "fatter" dimension makes the converter LONGER, even though the pump-drive shaft is the same length.
They sold me a converter that will not work in this application.
People warned me about Dacco (cheap) converters, but I'll be honest; I never anticipated anything like this.
It's a bastard converter; small (early) pilot shaft, to fit the smaller pilot hole in the 1964 (forged) crank, but a late-model spline count to fit the 1972 transmission innards.
But, that shouldn't matter. Now, I have to wait 'til Monday morning to take it to them for replacement; they're not open on Saturday.
Took us a long time to figure out just why this converter wouldn't fit. Never heard of such a thing....:wack:
