on time in my life i knew a guy that changed his stick shift valiant. A 66 to be exact. To an automatic. He got a trans fron the junkyard that wouldn't fit because the converter snout wouldn't fit in the crank. I don't know why he did this, but to make it fit he ground off the nose of the converter. He drove that car for years with that arrangement with no problems. It might have been a later model trans which is the opposite of my problem. I agree that if i you don't do it right don't do it. But, the point i'm trying to make is the converter bolts held the converter just fine. So, even though i'm going to do it right it doesn't mean it won't work the other way. Maybe he was just lucky.