I was just wondering how durable the stock torque converter is in this thing. It's a 73 Valiant 3-speed auto. Everything on the car is stock. I was driving home a few minutes ago when I got stopped by a red light. I loaded the engine up a little bit while still on the brakes before it turned green. Not much at all though, maybe 12-1500rpm. Light turned green, car lept a bit, I chuckled at how pathetic it was and went on my merry way. Everything is perfetcly normal at this point. Car drives fine. I get maybe a quarter mile down the road when I had to nail it to get past someone and change lanes. When it made the 3-2 downshift it made a brief shrieking noise followed by a 30-40% power loss all the rest of the way home. When I parked it, it was idling rough at 5-600rpm and there is a knocking noise coming from the engine/transmission (hard to tell precisely). The scenario in which it happened, and the symptoms would lead me to believe that the torque converter has let go or is binding or something. Anyways, it would help to know how reliable the stock converter is. I'd like to get some response on this before I try to drive it anywhere else to work on it (can't do it here). I can't think of any reason why the motor would develope rod knock in this situation, but the noise I'm hearing is pretty similar to rod knock, and I'd like to be more confident that it's the converter before I attempt to nurse it anywhere else. Anyways, if anyone has an good info about the strength/weakness/failure rate of this thing, it would help me out greatly! Thanks.

Stock converters are pretty rugged on the 904s. Its the same one as behind the SB V8s so your not hurting it with a slant.
Good luck. PS #5 rod bearing is possible. so take it easy.
My02.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Ouch. That's exactly what I didn't want to hear, but thanks. I was hoping it was the converter since that's a way easier and cheaper fix than catastrophic engine failure. Looks like I'm off to go start checking some things on the motor to see if any 1 cylinder is weaker than the others. Hopefully they will all suck equally. I swear if I blew up a so called "indestructable" motor in the 2 weeks that I've owned this car by giving my girlfriend a ride to work, I might just throw what's left of it in neutral and let it run over me... This sucks!

Check the converter/flex plate bolts. It has happened to me (and others on this site). If those bolts loosen up and bang on the engine block, it sounds pretty wicked.

Hopefully It not NEAR as bad as you think. Keep us posted on what its doing as there is a lot of talent on this site and they Really like to help.
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Well, I'm still not 100% sure what the problem is, but I have narrowed it to the engine and not the torque converter. At first the noise was barely audible at idle, and when I started pulling the spark plugs, the noise got significantly louder when I pulled #4 cylinder, and only on that one. Well, I decided to creep it around the block right quick to see what would happen under a light load and by the time I got back (less than half a mile), the knocking noise has been replaced (or overpowered) by a horrid metal on metal shrieking noise. I can't check my oil because I don't have the correct dipstick but I just changed it when I bought the car 2 weeks ago and as far as I know it's not leaking or burning oil of any significant amount. There is the possibility of low or no oil pressure since the wiring for the oil pressure sending unit is damaged/missing and I haven't put in the aftermarket unit I bought yet. I'm going to drain the oil tomorrow and saw apart the oil filter to check for any metal shavings. The only other thing I can think that might be relevant to tell you guys is that I did adjust the valves last weekend but it drove just fine all week until today. I haven't had much experience with any parts failing on a cylinder head so I'm not sure what the symptoms would be or what it might sound/feel like. It just sucks because I can't work on the car at my apartment and I'm not sure if it would survive the trip to a garage... Any other ideas you guys could offer me before I start trying to find a replacement motor?

I pulled ALL my bearing caps from underneath the car. Jacked up the engine, dropped the center link and pulled the oil pan. It may be possible that you can replace the bearing(if thats the problem) from under the car, providing the bearing surfaces are o.k.. My problem turned out to be the tc bolts.

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

Yeah, I just don't have any way of knowing yet if it's a main or a rod bearing, or if it's even a bearing at all. I'll tinker with it more tomorrow and see if I can find out for sure what went wrong.

There are only a couple of bolts holding that dust cover on the trans. I would look there first. Just for peace of mind. I wish I had.

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

If this becomes an engine issue, and you have further questions start a new thread in the engine section and the answers will come in quicker.
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

my 77 chrokee had that tc bolt prob, it sounded clankety and terrible at idle and would screetch mad on hard accel... i wouldnt be too concerned about loadin up the brakes a bit on a stock slant, but it will heat up converter and that could have loosend them...

That's pretty much exactly what it's doing, excpet I wouldn't say it takes a "hard" acceleration. Revving it up a little at idle will make all hell brake loose. I heard from a friend of a friend that he's seen the flex plate break on one of these before so I'll check that out when I get a chance.

That's exactly what happened to me. I feared I had spun a bearing before it was recommended to take a look at these bolts. I torqued them all to 30 ft-lbs and no more noise at all.

Valiant1, my symptoms weren't identical to yours, but this is an easy thing to check and could still be the culprit, so it's worth giving 'em all a retorque to be sure.

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me