Just another little thing you can do is get some Grade 8 bolts and get them a little longer than the factory bolts. There is a couple more threads down in the hole that will help you out a bit. I had to take the next size bolts and trim a couple of threads off of them so they were not too long. Definitely clean the holes good with brake cleaner and use lock tight on them. Leave it sit over night if you can and let the lock tight do it's magic.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

I found out the hard way about the torque converter going on one way. Not saying this was the cause. But longer bolts and lock tight is a good idea

Watch out for the bolt head thickness the torque converter bolts don't have lots of room to the block.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

What are we saying "they only go on one way" are you all referring to the asymmetry in the flex plat holes or the bolts themselves?

I didn't use Loctite last time, but had no issues. That won't stop me from using it this time (red or blue?).

Yes, watch the head height, torque converter bolts have skinny heads for a reason.

If you stripped them, couldn't you drill/tap the holes to bigger (fine) thread size just by access of the inspection plate?

Brian

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https://tinyurl.com/yynpj4v2

It was the torque converter bolts. Purring now.

The bolts are interchangeable, but the holes in the flex plate only line up with the threaded holes in the torque converter one way. I had to re-learn this recently. It wasn't the first time I've done it, though, so either I learned it last time and forgot, or I just got lucky ten years ago. 25% chance of getting it right on the first try, after all.

Just for the collective info dump, I use red loctite on those. It may be overkill, but I'd rather err on the safe side when it comes to the rotating assembly.

_________________
Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

I wouldn't suggest red loctite on those. Everything I pulled that was factory installed (newer cars) had either no locking compound or blue removable loctite. (Even the fords that used red loctite to install the driveline bolts didn't use it on the flexplate bolts IIRC)
We always put on pressure plate bolts with an impact gun and I never saw any come back, but if your doing it by hand you need the big three foot mechanics prybar (the fatness of the tip fits the grooves better than the smaller ones) to put in a ring gear tooth to hold the converter well enough to torque the bolts and you need a breaker bar or torque wrench to get enough torque for them to work properly.
Snug but not torqued down bolts with loctite to keep them from backing out don't give the clamping force needed on the thin metal of a flexplate to transfer the force through the bolting of the joint and instead will end up transferring the force through the side of the bolt body which can start crack propagation and eventually lead to flex plate failure.

Yes, I know about the asymmetry in the flex plate, I mark one of the bolts/arms/a bit of the torque converter with a shot of red spray paint before I take it apart.

I'll use blue Loctite this time, actually I recall last time I had bought a new set of bolts (as the heads on the old ones were worn) and the new ones had some blue on there already; so my assertion that I didn't use it was incorrect.

NOTE ON BLUE LOCTITE: I was cleaning some oil pan bolts, sprayed them with the Rustoelum rust reformer: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-S ... /100392541
I often use it as a primer, that stuff is great.

BUT it seems to be incompatible with blue Loctite. After the bolts had dried, I put some blue Loctite on there hoping to let it dry so the bolts would be ready when I put the pan back on later. The loctite never dried and turned into a yucky brown goo. I think the phosphate in the rustoleum reacted in a bad way with the Loctite. I assume this because I have no data otherwise. I've never pretreated bolts with blue Loctite, does it dry otherwise? You obviously can buy bolts with blue stuff dried already on there; perhaps that's another formulation?

Brian

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I'm sure blue is more reasonable, but even the red came apart without much trouble after ten years in the car.

I'm always hesitant to use an impact wrench, but that's just me. I just used a regular clicker torque wrench to the FSM spec. I think I held the flexplate with a short prybar.
I wish I'd thought of this. I think we got it on the third or fourth orientation this time. Luckily we were mating the engine and trans out of the car, so it wasn't nearly as much hassle as it would have been.

_________________
Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

I just tightened mine by feel, knowing they are fine thread and how much a bolt that size can roughly take, they were still snug when I took them off. What is the spec for them?

brian

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My '64 FSM says 270 inch pounds (22.5 ft-lbs) for the flex plate to converter bolts.

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

Certainly don't want to use an impact on these! They are only 5/16" bolts and you will not have any threads left after one hit of the gun. The torque convertor to flywheel bolts, maybe yes.

Rick

_________________
2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Using a torque wrench can be tricky from the inspection plate area. I found it easier to remove the starter,you'll have plenty of room to get at the bolts thru the starter hole.

I have never used anything other than a box end wrench (and that includes not using loc-tite) on the torque converter to flex plate bolts. I make them good and snug using my offset ten inch box end wrench. Never had one come loose. 22.5 foot pounds is not very much torque.

FYI, the flex plate to crankshaft bolts are 55 ft-lbs, at least in '64. I can't imagine these values changed much if at all in later years, though.

_________________
Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing