OK so i started fitting up my box today to make up the crossmember and mount the shifter cable etc etc..

The box is a vl turbo jatco, came with a converter to suit a RB30.. tried mounting the box to my engine and it bottoms out and wont go all the way in! the converter is all the way into the box... checked that 100 times but it still sits around 10mm out from being flush

Anyone had any experiece with this.. i know not many ppl have done this but woth a shot.. will i have to get another stall made with a smaller profile?

The difference is that the CA bell housing must be shorter my first hi stall converter was from a VL it needed the face machined to be use able not a big thing for a competent converter repair shop take the box out sit it on the floor run a straight edge across the front of the bell housing measure in to the mounting bolts , gives you X distance now do the same at the engine run the straight edge across the rear of the flex plate and measure towards where the gearbox meets up with the block give you Y distance , now what is the distance of the 2 it will be seen clearly on a piece of paper you also want around a couple of millimeters of free play as you want the converter to come towards the flex plate when doing up the bolts as if not it will kill the thrust bearings in your engine real quick , always allow for this as one converter shop did not but I checked it before installing by measuring as it is no fun wrestling a gearbox on your back only to have it in and out 5 times for someone Else's mistakes . hope this helps

Nick.

yep this definately helps! i was thinking of something along those lines!

When you say the "face" needs machining i take it you mean the part that goes through the front gearbox seal?
So it brings the converter into the bellhousing more?

I think my first post made sense lol.. the converter goes all the way into the spigot but bottoms out leaving a 10mm (approx!) gap all the way around.

thanks for the reply Nick

by face I meant the part that bolts up to the flexplate mine needed around 8mm machined off it .Hope this helps

Nick

hmmm well im not sure that will work with mine! see i have just dummied it up with no flex plate (im yet to get one) and it wont go all the way in.. best way to describe it is that it feels like the converter isnt all the way in!.. the converter is bottoming out on the crank and the box wont meet with the block.. im not sure whats goin on

FOr my charger, I stuffed up the last box, and took the car off the road. I had the convertor reconditioned (it was nothing outrageous, just one with 500rpm higher stall rpm than std) and had it sitting in storage till the next transmission let go (which is actually a semi common thing if you abuse the bw autos, and frankly a 904 t/flite is the go)

Anyway I rebuilt yet another trans, and as I was about to fit it, I grabbed the convertor, and it wouldn't slide in all the way. I though it must just be being difficult, but to no avail. Luckily enough I had the old std convertor, and also had a bunch of transmission spares, litering the floor of my shed.

So I sat the convertors down and tried things one at a time. first tried a spare front pump impellor. Both went in no probs. Then tried a spare input shaft - both went in identical distances. Then I tried the front pump assembly that has a hollow pipe/shaft with splines on it, basically it is the stator support for the convertor. And hey presto - it went in a good 5-10mm further on the old convertor vs the new one.

A bit of a look with a led torch and it could be seen that a support splined section inside the convertor had been fitted 'upside down' so the splines on the front of the trans couldn't go in deep enough to let the convertor slide all the way back.

This may not be the case with yours, but stuff like this inevitibly happens from time to time, especially if the engineering shop doesn't do a million convertors of that particular brand/type every day. They fixed it up no sweat, no charge, even though I couldn't find the receipt and it had been sitting on the shelf for some time. If you can possibly repeat the sort of tests I did, by all means try it.

You also have to watch out with some transmissions - from the same make/model/family - they can have different input shafts and other stuff depending on which engine they were originally behind.

There's more than one jatco - jatco stands for something like japanese automatic trans corp, and so it's a brand not a specific trans model. there are more than one jatco type out there (nfi exactly how many)


It's also definitely possible, as already said, that the bellhousing are different and as such so are hte front or overall length of the torque convertor to suit it.

only just realised that you had posted a repley mate, cheers for that.

i managed to get a hold of a standard ca18 jatco convertor, so ill slide it on and see if it will all work out, if so ill sell the convertor that i got with the box (to suit vl)

I know the splines on the box suit the convertor as the box was pulled out of the car while i watched, and was previously running.

so yehj ill do some more researching and trial fitting and see what happens.

deos anyone kn o if the ca18 and ca20 auto bellhousings are different?
Id think they are not but you never know!

ok i have had another look at my box situation! without the convertor on the box the input shaft is pushing against the crank!! not good, as though the bellhousing is too shallow..

So i need a favour off someone that has Silvia auto box lying around, i need the measurement from where the bellhousing bolts to the box and where it bolts to the engine(so the length of the bellhousing), just to confirm if the bluebird housing i have wont work.. Needed pretty urgent too guys! i may be interested in buying one too if they are different

cheers