“Will a High Stall Converter Wake Up My 1964 Chevy C10?”
Oh Jesus. Oh yeah. Right into right into the power van
and then nothing but smoke out of the tires. All right, guys. All right. So,
the next next part of the saga of low life I’ve talked about in
previous videos. Go back and watch some of the videos of getting old Low Life
back on the road reliably and correctly. I’ve talked about how the torque converter
in this thing is more than likely not uh working correctly. We’re going
to show you that. I’m going to go out to a place safe to do it
where there’s nobody around. It drives fine, you know.
Um it’s always drove fine. like right here. 1300 RPMs. Wow. Downshift. Just listen to the motor. So, 1500 RPMs.
If this had the proper torque converter, it would rev up as it was accelerating. It would rev up hard and not feel like you’re
pulling a boat, not downshifting. right there. It’s accelerating, but it’s accelerating slower than it should. I’ll
show you here in the tack what I mean because uh for those of that of you that don’t
know what a torque converter actually does. Apologize for that swinging
around and getting in the way. So, how I understand it, and I’m still learning
this stuff, guys, but how I understand it, think about a manual transmission
and you have a clutch. A clutch isn’t a button that you push and all
of a sudden you go. When you were learning, any of you out there that have drove manual
transmissions, when you were learning how to drive a manual transmission, if you let
the clutch out too fast, you stalled it. The motor would and you’d have to restart it.
And if you let it out too slow, you didn’t really go nowhere. The motor would be revving,
but you wouldn’t be actually going anywhere. [Music] The sweet spot is and and with a clutch, you were
the torque converter. You knew that motor’s power. Every vehicle was different. Some cars you could
let out fairly quick and take off. Some cars you had to really take it off a little bit slower so
that the RPMs were up and then the motor and your speed would catch up to the clutch. And then when
it was out, it was basically a lockup converter. That’s what a torque converter does. And that’s
what stall is. Except for with a torque converter, you need to do the proper math to know
how fast or how slow that clutch needs to come out so that you don’t kill it. You
don’t dog it. It accelerates correctly as quickly as it can without over revving and
not being like you got an anchor behind you where you’re letting it out too slow and the
motor’s like uh and then you know you stall it on the latter right now. This motor
was required, and they didn’t have this when I bought the motor, but they show
it now on all of their sites. I was told a uh 22 to 2400 stall. I got a 2200. Calling
the company now, going back and looking at the part number, they’re saying it’s a 22
to 2500. Um, it’s stalling at like 1,400. And when I say stalling, it’s completely it slips
to 14 and then it’s all in under acceleration. At idle the other day, and I don’t know if
I brought this up in a previous video, but the other day it was raining out and it had
just started raining, so you get that little bit of oil on the ground. I was sitting at a light
and I let my foot off the brake. Had not touched the accelerator pedal at all. just let my foot off
the brake and the truck started to slide this way, which means the tires were completely engaged
under full power. A stall would not allow that to happen. If your torque converter was stalling, it
would not allow that to happen. It would slowly, as you take off, it would slowly build up to the
point where it’s locked in. It was locked in at idle. You give it gas in this thing and you watch
the RPMs and the RPMs basically are going as fast as the truck is from a dead from a roll. Let’s
say with a stall converter of 2,000 or like this one 2500. I’m idling at 900. I should
under heavy acceleration, not power braking, nothing like that. just sitting there. Light turns
green. Hit the throttle. You should watch those RPMs go up to 2500. 22 to 2500. And I’m only doing
10 mph. You know dang well that 10 m hour is in 2500 RPMs. And then you’re doing 20, 30, 40, 50,
and you kind of catch up to those RPMs. And then the RPMs run with the speed because you slipped
enough to get into your power band of the motor. And this is just really lame in terms cuz I have
no idea that how to explain it technically. This is just one hot rod idiot that knows a few things
talking to other hot rodders. You’re not idiots. I’m not going to call you that. But um basic
basic understanding of how a torque converter works. That’s my basic understanding. And when
you read about torque converters and they give you that gap, it’s because they’re not a full
race converter will give you this is a 3000. This is a 4,000 stall. Um street converters they
got a little because the motors are different. So, what I just ordered for this is a
uh and my fuel economy should go up, by the way, cuz every time you dump the clutch
and have to lug the motor to go with a manual, you’re killing your fuel economy, which is kind
of what this is doing. Doesn’t stall the motor, but it’s enough. Now that I just said that,
that might be why when I was shifting into gear, come to a stop, throw it in reverse, um sometimes
it would stall the motor because that torque converter is grabbing too hard. That might be
it. I raised the RPMs to overcome it. Might be able to lower my idle after all this.
Anyways, sidetracked. ADD kicked in. Um, where was I? Oh, so what I ordered is I called ACC
converters out of Muscle Scholes. Muscle Scholes, Alabama, Louisiana. Muscle Scholes, Mississippi.
Muscle Scholes. Muscle. I used to deliver there on occasion. It’s Alabama, I think. Anyways, Muscle
Scholes. We’ll just leave it at that. They’re the builders of the Boss Hog converters. American
made, American built, um, American company since the 70s. Talked to them. They were wonderful.
Took all my information of the motor, the truck, the weight, the tire size, the gears, everything
to do with this truck. And you’re not drag racing it? No. No. I daily drive it, but I want it to do
what it’s supposed to do but doesn’t have to be drag race perfect. And they recommended a 10-in
converter that is a 2800 to 3200 stall. This is supposed to have a 2800 stall is what they say
now. So, that was in my ballpark. It was the one I had picked. Called them. They said, “Yep, that’ll
do it.” But with the how light this truck is, now mind you, take this with a grain of salt
because I don’t understand it completely other than it’s just too easy. Again, back to a clutch.
If you’re in a one- ton pickup truck and it’s empty with nothing, no load in it, you’re going to
be able to let that clutch out sooner, quicker to get that going. But if you have 2,000 lbs. in the
bed, you’re going to have to feather that clutch to get moving because of the weight. Now, what she
said, because of the weight of this truck is rated at 3,400 lbs, um that 30 that 28 to 3200 stall is
going to roughly end up being she said 25 to 2600. I’m okay with that. 28 is what they recommend. Um
a little low right now. It’s doing if that 2200 I got in here. Follow me on this. So, if she’s
saying that 28 to 32 is going to be closer to 25, then my 22 is probably closer to 17, 16. What did I say? It seems like 12. No
wonder this thing’s locking up so soon. So, number one, wrong converter. Number two, I don’t think
it’s working right. Cuz like I said in I don’t know if you guys can hear it and I have no way
of showing it to you, but if I put this in gear, she wants to lurch there. It’s lurching
forward and I’m sitting on the brake like a normal brake. It wants to push through
the brakes. I’ve got to stand and my t my leg gets tired if I’m doing a lot of in
town driving and hit every red light. My leg gets tired from having to hold it this
hard to keep it from lurching through. So, I throw it neutral all the time. Should
avoid that. A good torque converter when you’re driving and you let off the gas, if you’re
at like 2,000 RPMs and you let off the gas, it should coast and go almost back down to your
idle RPM. So, if you’re at 2,000 and you got your idle set at 9, it should go down to 1,000 or,100
RPMs roughly. It shouldn’t stay at 2,000 RPMs and engine break you down. Um, that’s what this
does 75% of the time. Lately, it’s been starting to kind of go back down to idle when you’re
coasting, but most of the time it stays locked up. Something wrong with the converter. It’s the
wrong converter. Anyways, since day one, I’ve always been like, you know, this motor is supposed
to be 400 horse. It drives like it’s 200 horse. I’ve been up against a couple of vehicles and I’ve
got on it. And I’m like, um, how come you’re not I mean, you’re going, but this four-cylinder’s
beating me. Hopped up four-cylinder. I’m like, this four-cylinder’s beating me. I’ve had 300
horse motors that accelerate faster than her. So, it’s always been an issue. We’re going to kill
two birds with one stone. We’re going to get so we don’t have to stand on the brakes all the
time. She drives normal. Two, it’s going to uh accelerate finally like it’s supposed to,
which will be fun to drive. And three, and this is really important, it will help my fuel economy.
I am getting I’ve got this thing pretty dialed in, and it seems to me it’s only getting about 10
or 11 miles per gallon. Driving it normal. Um, it should be getting closer to 14 or 15
in town. I would be happy with anything in the teens. 13 and above. Um, 15 was is my
ultimate, which I always thought and I thought it would get 20 on the highway and I think
I did 15 on the highway the way it is. Now, that has nothing to do with the converter. That
had to do with my poor timing. And I’ve never really checked my fuel economy since I haven’t
driven it on any road trips where I went through a whole tank on the highway. I can’t tell you.
So, that’s what we’re doing today, guys. Um, torque converter is supposed to be in this
afternoon. I’ll probably put it in tomorrow, but I’m going to go ahead and get myself into the
uh shop, let it cool down, get it up on the lift, and then I’m going to pull this transmission
one more time, and uh we’ll kind of go from there. Also, I’m going to wire up. There’s
a second way I can wire up the transmission. Right now it it’s wired up that only fourth gear
has overdrive. Uh fourth gear has lock up. And what I’m going to do is I can wire it so that I
can put it on a switch and lock it up in third. Officer he’s creeping looking at me. So, I’m going to wire it up while it’s out
because I’ll have easier access to the plug. Um, there’s a place on the plug where you run another
wire and then you jump it to the existing wire and put a toggle in and that’ll tell the third gear to
lock up. Um, they say these 700 R4s run hot if you don’t run them locked up in lockup. Like if I run
around in third without it allowing it to lock up and a lot of the miles around here, uh the mile
per hours around here would benefit from third gear. So I want to be able to lock it up in third
and not run it hot. So it’s a lot of talk to say we’re changing a torque converter, but let me see
now I can’t get on it cuz that cop turned behind me and he might be heading back this way. That’s
the RPMs right there. [Music] Hope you can see it through that glare. Got nowhere else to move
it. No way to move you guys to a different spot. [Music] 15 100. That did what it was supposed to. Went to 2500 almost instantly while the
vehicle was still accelerating. See it stay there. I’m accelerating
and it’s not going nowhere. That’s the vehicle catching up. That’s the motor
catching up to the slip of the transmission which is what you want. Last week, it wasn’t doing
that. Last week, you’d do this, and it wouldn’t go up. It would just do exact. So, now this is
going to work like it’s supposed to. [Music] 14,000 mi of it not working like it’s
supposed to. And now it’s going to still ain’t high enough. It should be going to
the 3,000 mark up here. It seems to depending on how hard I hit it, which is how they work.
22 to 2500 seem to be what we’re dealing with. We’re in third. See posting. It doesn’t come down much. kind of doing what it’s supposed to do at this
point. It’s too low of an RPM for this motor, but it wasn’t doing that at all. I’d be rolling
at 1,500 and punching and it was at 15 16 17 18 19 you know I mean it quicker than that obviously
but it was the truck was accelerating at the same speed as the RPMs where there you saw the RPMs
instantly go up and then the motor catch up to the RPMs. That’s what a torque converter is supposed
to do. But it wasn’t doing that. It hasn’t been doing that since I tried to get it back out and
it it hasn’t been doing that 6 years ago. Um, I used to tell people I can trick the converter
because there it was too low. And some lower stall converters, if you put enough horsepower behind
them, they’ll stall higher. Not where they’re supposed to, not where you want it to stall, but
it’ll stall higher. But I’d say I’d get on it, let it go, and then smack it again. and all
of a sudden you’d see the RPMs go what? And it was also the tires breaking loose. So,
it’s a combination of the two. Um, yeah. Always got to be something to make
me feel guilty for buying new parts. Can’t be I can’t afford to keep doing this.
But it is what it is. So, I had the wrong stall. Even if the stall worked perfectly, I’d
probably live with it because it’d be safe. um what it did the other day in the rain breaking
loose at idle like that pushing through the pushing through the brakes like it does is not a
good thing. So, we’re changing it just for that. If the performance increases, that’s awesome. But
the second tide reason I’m doing it is because fuel economy. If it’s locking up low like that
all the time, it’s killing my fuel economy. And and gas still isn’t cheap. It isn’t cheap. And I’m
just a stickler. If I’m getting good gas mileage, it means everything’s tuned properly. Everything’s
matching parts-wise properly. It’s supposed to be doing what it’s it’s it’s doing its best.
That means it’s tuned to the best. So, it bugs me that the fuel economy is way cheap,
way lower than it should be. I think the best I’ve done is 10.4. So, all right, enough rambling
on. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] converter came in. So, I got to check it
out before I get any further on pulling the transmission Cuz if it’s wrong
and I have the transmission out, I’m sitting for another week waiting
for the right one to show up. So, it’s got the right number on the box. They
told me an order. So, that’s a bonus. 60022. Heavy little bastard. but it is a lot smaller. You
see where the ears, the mounting ears are on the outside instead of underneath the converter that
the number wrote on there. It should be the right one. And she said that some people complained when
they received theirs and it’s not a lockup. It’s misrepresented. Blah blah blah. And she says
it is definitely a lockup. You cannot see it by looking straight down the snow. It is a
lockup. All right, let’s uh try these out. I got lights off because it’s time to
get out of here. Transmission’s out. And uh that’s out. Spilt a little.
Taking the converter out. You can see the difference. That’s a 10 in. That’s
a 12 in. So, a couple things happen here. Um, one is they’re a lot lighter. I don’t know. I
don’t have a scale otherwise I’d measure it. Yeah, cuz that’s uh being 10 in and it’s not as as deep
and uh you just got less rotating mass. Motor revs up quicker. Um, less rotating mass. Why guys would
go with billet flywheels over steel down to ounces matter how fast the motor revs up. So motor should
rev up a little faster. Should get on converter uh better. Um I hope that one works like they say
it’s going to. And uh we never have to pull this transmission ever again. That’d be wonderful. Um
that took about an hour. So, got about an hour and a half into pulling this, taking my time,
jamming to some tunes, and uh just kind of looking at stuff and double checking and triple
checking and and so forth. So, we got her. And uh this time it won’t take two months to put
back together. This time it’s going back together tomorrow or the next day. It’s Friday night right
now, so um it’ll either go back together Saturday. Um, I checked my torque converter bolts that I
was talking about. They do not thread into that. It’s a different thread pitch. So, tomorrow, like
usually my mail comes at like 11 that should be in that. So, I’ll have the bolts. I don’t know when
the fluid’s coming. I can’t bolt that in until I have fluid cuz you have to prime it with at least
a quart. It’s what it says in the I always thought it was more than a quart. I usually filled it
so that at least when I turned it on its side, nothing came out. Um, but they says fill
it with a quart and then put it in. So, that’s what I’m going to do. And then I’m going to
fill the rest of the transmission when we get it all back in. But, uh, I measured the spacing for
bolting it up to the flywheel matches. The nub on the back that goes into the crank is exactly the
same as the one I took out. And when I held it up to the the crank, it took a little finesse
and then it popped in. So, that’s awesome. We’re uh we’re good so far. Hopefully tomorrow
just go back together and it’s just a matter of little this, a little that and uh we’ll be driving
it tomorrow and grinning ear to ear cuz we’ve got 3,000 stall and she’s running like a scalded dog.
That’s right. Scalded dog. That’s what we like. All right, enough talking. It’ll be tomorrow for
me. It’ll be 2 seconds for you. See you in a bit. the next day. All right, guys. Another day
and uh we’ve got a lot done already this morning. Kind of at a standstill. Bolts
for the converter haven’t showed up, but as you can see, it is back up in there. [Music] Got a quart in there. And we just got to do
everything else. But the hard part’s done. So, train is up. Now, I just got to button
everything else up. Um, unfortunately, it’s not going to happen tonight. Um, this has
been an off and on to thing today because of uh I’m using type F. I know. I know. It’s a
Chevy. Why you using type F? Because that’s what the person with the converter said to use is best.
Her theory is type F runs cooler. It’s better for the transmissions. It has better detergents in it
so that uh it keeps the transmission cleaner. And I’ve always known in the past that it has better
friction modifiers so you get better traction and less wear uh slippage on your clutches. And I’ve
actually seen a couple of other Chevy transmission builders recommend Type F. So, I had to order
it though. Nobody had it in stock. Um cuz you need I was told doing a converter change, dropping
all the fluid and doing a converter change um was going to be 11 quarts. Sounds like a lot. Um they
say with a filter change in a $700 R4 is like 5 to six quarts. So that would mean it was be five
quarts, four to five quarts in the uh converter. Well, that small 10in converter I think is going
to be less than that. My point is nobody had it except for AutoZone and they had five quarts. Napa
could get it next day. Napa had Valvaline version. AutoZone had the STP version, the STP version.
They couldn’t get the rest of it until Monday, and it was $2 more a quart. Everybody else
on the Valvaline was $10.99 a quart. Autozone could get it for $8.99 a quart. And I got it for
$6.99 a quart through Napa. They had a sale. So, if I’m ordering 12 quart, I order 12 because
one extra for the uh if you got a cooler, and I do. So, just in case. Um, but that
being said, it Saturday, it’s a weekend. And, uh, the they had eight of them and they
were waiting on four from another store. I took the eight, but it took until
afternoon to get the eight and then uh the other four came in later and I just
haven’t gone to get them. I’ll pick them up tomorrow. tomorrow. I think they’re open tomorrow.
I’ll pick it up tomorrow. But, um, I don’t think I’m going to need them to be honest with you.
I’m really surprised if it’d be that much. But, um, it was enough to get me started so I
could at least put a quart in the converter, get it pushed in there, get everything put up. Um,
still waiting on my converter bolts. Still haven’t showed up. Still say they’re coming sometime today
by 9:00 tonight. And uh to be honest with you, since it’s going to be that late for the bolts and
uh it took so long now it’s starting to rain out and when it rains out I am not pulling that out
to get this out. Um if the bolts were here that means I’m going to finish tomorrow. Truck won’t be
whatever till tomorrow. I’ll I’ll come in, put a couple of the hours in tomorrow and uh hopefully
the bolts will be here and then uh the fluid and it shouldn’t be more than an hour. Hot rod math,
hot rod time zone. Shouldn’t be more than an hour to button the rest of that stuff up. That means 3
hours. So, I’ll come in for 6 hours tomorrow and uh should be able to get everything done in 10
hours. And who knows, maybe by next week I can drive it home because that’s how hot rod math
works. Okay, there’s your update for today. Next update, get on the ground ready to
rock and roll. The next day. All right, day I guess day three, partial day. um going
to get after this nonsense we call torque converter change. Um not in a hurry because
as I mentioned last night two seconds ago for you guys. Um converter bolts didn’t show up.
Now it’s Sunday. So they are not they’re not going to be here till tomorrow. Let’s just put
it that way. um postal service said they were still delivering them at 8:00 last night. They had
been they hadn’t been updated in the tracking and uh still said oh be delivered by 9:00 p.m.
I thought okay it said in transit to final destination and then this morning it said arrived
at it went from a town an hour and a half north of us to a town south of us and then now it’s from
there coming to probably my distribution center here and then they’ll deliver it tomorrow.
Whatever. I’m in no hurry at this point. Um, it’s crappy out. It’s been raining off and on this
morning and uh, it’s just a little afternoon now, but uh, as we talked about, I ain’t pulling that
out. I ain’t pulling that out in the salty rain. Um, I just don’t like to. We’ve got for those of
you for those of you that don’t know what Mazmad, my 1956 Chevy Nomad, and if you look, this is
this is all 49y old paint, 50ome year old paint. But we have bare metal showing and where the
moldings have rubbed over the years. It’s created little no holes, just a little surface
rust and paint missing and chips missing and whatnot. And I don’t want salty water to sit
there and cause that to rust out. And then on uh on this side, we had some paint come off.
And that’s actually bare metal where the paint came off. Um we figured it was painted in like 73,
74, something like that. So yeah, old car stuff. Go on the channel. I’ve got a bunch of videos
updating this and uh talking about it, talking about the history and uh if you like this kind
of stuff and you like this kind of content and you like hearing about old cars, you like seeing
somebody modernize them so they can drive them and use them, old classic cars, I’m your guy. I could
be one of your guys. put me in your arsenal. So, you know, hit that like button down there. Show
YouTube that you like this kind of stuff and hit that subscribe button so YouTube knows
you like this kind of stuff. And then, um, actually go back into my catalog on my channel
there and and look up Mazmad, 1956 Chevy Nomad. I got a bunch of videos on there. Look up Bromad.
Uh, that’s my brother’s 1955 Chevy Nomad. My brother Bromad. get it. I call this Mazmad cuz it
was my mom’s. It’s been in my family for 45 years and uh I’ve had it for 10. How about that? Okay,
enough about that. I got to get to work on this. I’m going to put everything back together so all
I have to do tomorrow whenever the dang bolts show up, I can put them in, torque them in. I’ve got to
torque on this and uh I got to grease U-joints and put the exhaust back together and uh put the oil
lines on and hook up the cable and put the plug in and run the wires again and nice so they’re not
flopping around and it’s not a whole lot to do. Um but there’s stuff to do and I want it done before
I leave today. Uh, I came in to do some editing on some videos. That’s what I do on Sunday mornings.
And then, uh, I’m going to spend an hour or so on this. And hopefully have that buttoned up.
And then, uh, let’s button this up. [Music] All right, real quick before the battery dies. Guys,
drive shaft back in. Greased well. Greased well. Couldn’t grease it before with the grease tip. I
got I got lock one of these locking grease tips on and the and this you got to be able to maneuver
it out of the way. So, having it out and greasing it big time difference. Exhaust is in. Bolted in.
Clamps are on. Tighten them at the headers. Uh, tighten the bolts for this back there’s the
exhaust solid. Now, all we’re waiting on converter bolts. Put those in. Get my fluid in and uh we
should be good to go. That’ll be tomorrow. So, we’ll see you tomorrow. All right guys,
this is day number three or four or three. Whatever. Got in the most important thing that’s been holding up this whole freaking
ordeal. Let me show you what it is. That’s it. It’s all what
we’re holding up first set of torque converter bolts. They’re supposed to be
straight from ACC. Who knows? Um, supposed to be grade grade 8 or 10. Who knows? Guy just said,
“I have a shop where we do a lot of transmission replacements, and I’ve got these in a box. They’re
no longer in their packaging from ACC Components. Everybody else wanted eight bucks plus uh $12
shipping. I think one place was eight bucks with $6 shipping. This guy was five bucks shipped
to your door. So, I don’t know. Could I got them local at hardware? Problem is the 16. I don’t know
if that’s the problem, but 3/4 of an inch might have been the problem. What do I know? All I know
is I uh when I bought the converter in the line, it said uh accessories needed or something like
that and it gave a number and when I put it in eBay bolts came up and went to the site of the
people who sell the bolts. The only difference is is these aren’t black oxide. The other ones
are all black oxide. These look stainless. Oh, a little heavier than I don’t know if
that has anything to do with anything, but I’m going to double check them,
make sure that they fit the thread, and they should. I think the other ones are
more of a fine thread, you know, fine thread, but they’re cap, you know, I like this better,
but these are fine thread versus thick thread and a little bit longer cuz I think the uh the
pads, these are/ inch and these are 3/4 inch. I don’t know if that means anything. Just thought
I’d share with you what’s been holding up the process. These were supposed to be here Saturday
and uh didn’t show up Saturday, didn’t show up Sunday. Here we are Monday. So, we’re two days
behind. Could have had it all together. Not in a hurry. Nice today. I get this buttoned up. I
got about a half hour worth of doing this. I’m going to go back and uh bolt check everything. I
left early last night, so I still have to put the uh shift linkage back up and clean up some wiring
there. And that’s that’s it. A few moments later. I don’t get it, guys. I was sent
garbage. That’s all I can say. I was sent garbage. How about that?
What’s that look like to you? I hadn’t even got to my 40-foot lbs. and
the damn head of the bolt snapped off. Are you kidding me? These are supposed to be grade eight or better. How the hell
you snapping it with 40-foot lbs? These are grade 9.8. [Music] I can’t win. Get a hot rod. be a wonderful hobby. It’s calming,
soothing, relaxing. They lied. They lied. Christ gripes. Now I am going to have to try to see if I
can get some at the hardware store. And at least a eight. These say 9.8. I don’t know if you can
see that or not. 9.8. These are converter bolts. Why do they always have to change the
damn thread pitch? Why don’t they just keep everything universal before I go too far?
And I got to get that out cuz I put blue Loctite on and the heads off. I’m going to take the
other two out before that stuff sets. And uh Holy crap, I almost went and forgot about it.
And then that would have locked in there. And then how you getting that out with blue Loctite on and
no way to Yeah. All right. Make sure if you break a bolt with Loctite on it, you get the damn rest
of the bolt out. That’s what I got to do now. Oh, I was able to get that out before the blue
Loctite kicked in. I had to run a grinder over the end of it, make a little end cuz I not
enough was sticking out to grab it with anything. And then I was able to put a screwdriver on it
and run it back through. Had a burr there. So, it would I couldn’t run it out continue to run
it out. I had to run it back the way it came. line it back up so it can come out the
hole of the flex plate and all that. So, good times. Much later. Reason I
ordered these, if anybody’s wondering, is it’s tough to find anything under an inch
anywhere locally, Home Depot, you name it. Um, and I I did I looked everywhere um before I
ordered the ones that just broke and I went back and looked and uh I couldn’t find where it
said what grade they were. I I almost positive one of the ads for the ones they recommended
said that they were grade 10. I thought that’s a little extreme, but uh [Music] I actually
found by accident at Lowe’s. All right. Um grade eight. I just wish they
had a flanged head, you know, um like these helps distribute the weight. The
hole on those are just a little on the bigger side because these are I don’t know I think these
are a 7/16 and this is a 38 for the converter. So I’m going to run the washers on these but they had
exactly and in grade eight and they’re $152 for two and they had four two two packs two packs
of two. So, I had four uh for less than what I paid for the other ones and that’s all they
had was the two packs. So, total of four. So, I guess it was my unlucky lucky day today. Hot
Rodden guys. But you don’t give up. When you give up, your project sits undone in the corner for
years. Said it’s been a couple extra days. So, um, going to go ahead and throw that in. Loctite,
washers, and, uh, hopefully the heads don’t break off of these. All right; it’s been raining
since I left to go do this. I don’t know if it’s going to let up before I leave. If it
don’t, again, Mazmad doesn’t get moved out. So, um, probably won’t do a test drive till tomorrow.
But, we’re going to get it all buttoned up tonight and make sure we’re ready to go. And if it
does stop raining and the ground dries up, I’m I’ll sneak the Nomad out and drive it
home. Uh drive the home. So, all right, guys. Let me get back at this. A few moments later. All
right. Got her all buttoned up. Didn’t snap any converter bolts. Got her torqued. Bell housing’s
torqued. Wires are run. Shifter cables on. Everything else is tight. Exhaust tight. So, I’m
going to lower her down. Put seven quarts in and uh fire it up. Well, guys, I got nice enough out
to move the Nomad noob everything around, so I did. And uh we’re going to go for a ride home. And
I I tell you right now, she’s not fighting through the pedal. I barely have to hold that pedal.
And she comes to a stop. So that’s a bonus. seems to be uh it’s what I always like.
It’s a weird thing to say how I’m saying it, but it’s driving looser, which most cars drive
loose. They don’t drive like everything is on the edge. That’s what I’m talking about. I barely
even laid into that and the RPMs went up. I wasn’t watching cuz uh the
ass end was starting to pass me. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s not so uh it’s not so grabby. I don’t know how to explain it in words. Uh when your stall’s too low and
it’s it’s grabbing too soon. Everything feels tight. Not in a good way. Tight.
Like just tense. Everything feels tense. and uh it wanted to accelerate when I get on the
pedal, but it couldn’t because it was being held back. It’s the only thing I can explain when
I what I felt. It’s like I know this motor’s got more. If I’m up in the 4,000 range and I’m
playing around, she snaps like crazy because you’re in the power band, but on the low end
driving, she just seem like a 4 cylinder turd. I haven’t even done much, but I can tell already much traffic around here. And this
is a narrow two-laner. Thought if there wouldn’t be anybody out
here, I’d give her hell. But I don’t know if you can hear
it. I’m running right now at like 1300 RPMs. Now, listen. I’ll give it gas. And it’s not, but it’s revving. [Music] And that’s a bow where it wants
to grab. And then you’re going to launch. Let me just see if we
can do that up here a little bit. All right. I don’t want it to go in overdrive. Oh Jesus. Oh yeah. Right into right into the power van and
then nothing but smoke out of the tire tires. much better and not too crazy to be honest with
you. Not like my Chevel that had the 3600 stall in it. Uh which still wasn’t enough for that
car, but it was plenty fun. It was plenty fast and uh it was controllable where this one is
controllable cuz it’s so lightweight. But I would bet that things I she said 2500. I bet that we’ll
have to look tomorrow. We’re almost home now. But uh we’ll have to look tomorrow and see where she’s
actually flashing to cuz uh that feels like 33200 to me. Sounds like it. Yeah. It even seems to idle
different because we got like I told about earlier that uh less rotating mass on that smaller
converter. I don’t know why it’s doing that. I might have to readjust some of my timing
parameters. I’m probably in a different timing parameter. And then it wants to get
into a oscillation because the timing’s off. It’s probably idling in a
completely different place. All right, guys. We’ll see you tomorrow. 3 days
later. All right, guys. Thought I’d give you a little been a couple of days. Try to turn that air
conditioning down a little. It’s hotter than crap out here in Florida. been driving it just home
into the shop and a couple of errands for the last couple of days since we got the uh torque
converter in. And uh I wanted to show you a few things like right there you can see the RPMs. I
let off the gas and it drops down to basically idle. That’s what it’s supposed to do. And uh
when we take off, you can see the RPMs go up. like they’re supposed to do instead
of kind of just following the uh instead of following the miles per hour. So, I think we got her licked. I’ve just got to
adjust some timing because now it’s freer. And it makes me giggle. Oh, truck sounds good. It’s driving a lot better. Uh,
I just have to do some tuning because with the air on and the compressor running, it likes to do
this little oscillating um, idle gets to a point where it kind of gets out of hand and then runs
really lean and and I’ve been adjusting the uh, the air fuel ratio to be a little bit richer,
not rich, but richer than what I had it. Um, and I adjusted the timing so it can kind of
catch itself because it’s free flowing better than what it was before. Before in gear,
uh, it was being held back by the torque converter basically holding the motor back. So,
it was being it was tuned different at idle. So, we’re adjusting and playing with that a little
bit. But other than that, and as you can tell, I’m I’m not I’m in gear, air on, idling,
getting it pretty close. The other thing I noticed on the right there is the air
fuel ratio. Um, it’s a lot more stable. Before that thing would always bounce around
between 12 and 15 and then it wasn’t really really dialed in. And again, that was the torque
converter holding that motor back. It was fighting to do everything it was supposed to do. So,
yeah, guys, feeling pretty good about it. So, we’re going to drive around a little bit here and
uh grab lunch, get back to the shop. Yeah, I can I barely even have to hold the brakes on to keep
this from pushing. So, man, that’s so much better. Such a good feeling. And when you let off the
brake, it barely creeps forward where before it would just it would creep up to 10 m an hour like
right now. And this motor just sounds like it’s doing what it’s supposed to when I take off, too,
cuz it’s just not uh it’s not bugging anymore. That was like maybe quarter throttle and I mean
we’re up to 60 already. Not even not giving her the beans. see what the RPMs look like when
we’re trying to give her some of the beans. We run that just likes to walk all over. I want to go look at video and see what it’s doing
cuz I’m driving and every time I get on this thing now, I am in the power band with that torque
converter, which I’m happy about. And uh yeah, we’ll just see what the RPMs are actually doing.
The next day. All right, guys. New development. Small thing, not a big thing. Converter’s
working really good. I have just noticed a uh vibration. And for those of you who have seen
the previous videos, we talked about a vibration. And that’s one reason we took the whole thing
apart. We thought the flex plate was bent. And uh we took out the rear main. Wasn’t the case.
Everything was straight. Got everything back together last time. but the previous time and
the majority of my vibration was gone. But then running at about oh 45 miles an hour or so,
whatever it was, I don’t remember. Um I’d get this could have been tires. Um checked U-joints,
all that kind of stuff. Uh couldn’t find it. Could very well be tires or something that sat for a
little while with the tires low. Could have a flat spot on them. Funny, it goes away. Low speeds,
it’s not there. high speeds. It’s not there just at a certain speed. Well, now we changed the
converter, and I made sure everything was clean when I put it all back together. Wiped down the
surfaces of the transmission and all that. And uh I’ve got a substantial vibration that wasn’t
there at all before. So, it has to do something with maybe the converter, maybe not. So, what I’m
doing, I’ve got old Low Life back up on the on the lift. Tell me down below if I’m on the right
path with this because uh I just might be an idiot the way I did things, but I am not an expert.
So, I make mistakes. And I got to thinking, I was laying there last night thinking to
myself, and I said, “Self, it’s kind of weird that that vibration showed up after you put
a new converter in.” Um, is it the converter? So, I got in a hurry. I was going to film underneath.
And I’ve got more of a than I had before at idle. I don’t notice the vibration or the shake as much
at idle, but I can see it in the converter and the flex plate are doing this. And I That’s what it
was doing before. We took it all apart, made sure everything was right, put it all back together,
then it was gone. What the hell? I got thinking to myself. I said, “Self, you know, you you you kind
of did things a little backwards. I don’t know if you did it the very first time when you built
this truck, but uh I put everything in and I never torqued down the bell housing to last.” You say,
“Why does that matter?” Well, what if follow me on this. What if that bell housing to block I had
everything snugged. I I took it by hand and just kind of snugged it all down. I didn’t crank on
it at all. Um but I just snugged a couple of the bolts so everything was lined up to put everything
else together. And then I was going to come back and torque them. And uh I ended up torquing the
torque converter down to the flex plate first. Why does that matter, you say? I don’t know if it
does. But what if what if this is the transmission and this is the block and they’re supposed to be
like this, right? And because I didn’t tighten and torque it all down first, it was ever so slightly.
This is exaggerated, but what if it was ever so slightly just just a little off the dowels,
whatever. Just And then I torqued down the torque converter and then I came back and I torqued down
the transmission bolts. Now that’s moved and the torque converter would have never have been flatly
seated against the flex plate when I torqued it. They say when you do these you
should uh hand tighten all the bolts, go back around and then torque
them. That way it seats centered. What I’m going to do is I’m going to loosen them
all up. And now that the transmission is torqued properly, I’m going to loosen them all up. And
then I’m going to go back and torque them and make sure that everything’s straight. Cuz maybe that
little smidgen, if it was off by a millimeter, out of round, out of center, and it had to pull
itself in. It’s all just a hair out of balance. It’s worth a try though cuz I when you’re
on the gas and you’re doing driving, doing whatever, it really runs and drives
a lot better. But just cruising at uh oh, 35 mph. Um, yeah, I’m getting a substantial in
my butt. So, it’s not tires and the steering. It’s either output shaft or rear end. No noise
coming out of the rear end. Um, it’s something along those lines. Or simply just I torqued
that puppy down out of round, not naturally seated. That’s what we’re going to try. It’s all
I can do. A few moments later. All right. Well, every spec I find on these says uh 35, 37,
or 42 foot-lbs was the other one I found. Um, so I I just torque them to 40. Always set your
torque wrench back to zero. Don’t store it under a load. Makes them inaccurate. That’s the
wives tail. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but why risk it? Got her down. Going to pull it
out in a second. But the other issue I ran into, and this is all new. I don’t know why it started
happening. Probably cuz I got more of a vibration going on. I don’t know. But, uh, my relay for the
electric fan is losing power. Go down there, play with the relay, uh, the part that the plug that
goes into the relay, and fan comes back on. So, there’s been a couple of times in the last few
days that I look down and I’m in the 200s. I’m like, “What the hell is going on with my cooling
now?” Get out and the fan’s not running. Found it through that relay. Um, I’m going to see if I
can fix the pin. So, nothing to really see. Uh, no way for me to set this up without But my
relays are right there. And it’s that red wire coming down that if I wiggle that, the fan comes
back on. So, I am going to rectify that somehow. Other than that, I got a big smile on my
face every time I’m driving this. It drives like it’s supposed to. Happy, happy, happy.
All right. Going to do a little clean up, too. So, for those of you who haven’t seen this
before, uh, riv nuts. When I put this together, I use stainless self tappers cuz I was young dumb
and didn’t know any better. And, uh, about a year or two later, I I came across rivnuts. And, uh, I
didn’t like them at first. I’ve used them before with the hand and I could never get them tight
enough. The pneumatic one is a game changer. Um, sets them in a lot easier, a lot nicer. I’ve got
bags of these. We’re going to rivnut where those uh where the relay goes and that way they will
be tight and won’t ever loosen up because self tappers eventually the whole wallers out. You
can see it right there. [Music] much later. So, initial startup pulling it out of
the shop. Uh, pretty good. I don’t uh it sounds really stupid, but uh it
feels like it’s idling better. So, was it bound up just a little
itty bitty smidgey bit? Maybe. Um let’s go for a ride down the road. It
already seems smoother. It was all It had a little vibration at takeoff right there
before. I think we nipped it. God, I hope so. Really? That’s 40. Still a little bit there coming in the
butt. I don’t know if you can see it or not. Much better. But I still got something going on
in the back. That’s kind of what we had going on before. I guess so. Maybe that’s something to do
with tires. But that lower shimmy shake like right here it would it would shake a little. Last night
when I was going home I noticed it and I’m like ah hard to take a Hot Rodder serious
with his old man glasses onoo here’s working. It’s hot out today guys. Uh,
what does it say? 92 real fill 102. Really humid. It’s 177. So, the fan must be working. [Music] I was just rolling into the pedal.
I never even got the wide open. Be honest with you, I’m a little scared. I’ve own 9-second cars. I
I uh but it’s been a while. I’ve been in Mexico doing 175 miles an hour
on a motorcycle. It’s been a while. I don’t know what to expect from this. I’m still
learning it. It’s never ran like this. Temp’s going up burning a
relay up or something for my for my uh cooling fan. I just put it Oh, yeah. So,
that relay all of a sudden it’s not working again. So, I’m going to have to figure out something
in them wires. Maybe it’s just a cheap relay plug is cheap. Um, might have to rewire that
crap. All right. Anyways, that’s going to be it for this edition of What the Crap is going
on with my my C10. Uh, we’ve got a lot of the bugs worked out. She’s 95% there, guys. Um, that
little shimmy shake. We’ll figure that out. Uh, it needs to be on a four post lift, not this, because
there’s no way to do it. Uh, I can get an angle, uh, finder on the rear end when it’s sitting out
there. But, see, the problem is sitting out there, I’d have to air it all the way up to get under
it. At ride height, I can’t get under it. So, I need it on a four post lift. Find out what
the angle is. See if I have to adjust that. Um, cuz that that’s really the only thing left that I
can think of. And it’s always kind of been there. It’s been, you know, it’s been several years since
I’ve drove the truck a lot. So, you know, memories are coming back to me slowly, but uh anyways, it’s
good enough to drive. It’s an inconvenience with the the little shimmy, but a lot of it is gone. Um
the main part that happened. So, I guess the the moral of that story is torque your transmission
down first, then the torque converter. Uh I I think that was just a hair out. It wouldn’t even
slide back, guys. When I loosened up the bolt, I tried to wiggle it and it was still hard as a
rocket. I tried to pull it back. I couldn’t. I stuck a pry bar back in there cuz it should come
back. And when I measured it, it was 3/16 of an inch. It should pop back. And it took a second
and it popped. And then I could wiggle it and move it. So, it definitely was bound up a little
bit, pushed it back flat, uh, snugged up the nuts, and then went back around and and torqued them
all. And I’m telling you, I feel a difference at idle and I feel a difference at takeoff initially.
That other vibration came just like it does now. But that wasn’t helping. So live and learn. I
wasn’t thinking. You know, you’re just thinking, it’s all in here. I’ll just torque this right now
and then I’ll torque that be the last thing I do cuz I’ve got to have this in a certain spot
and I got to have that back up and then then I can go do it. And you know, it’s neither here
nor there. Anyways, don’t wait for your hot rod to be perfect to enjoy it like this. It’s not
perfect. If I If I waited for it to be perfect, it’d been 11 years sitting in a garage staring at
it with all the parts and wondering what the hell I was thinking. Do something to your ride. Drive
it while it’s good enough. As long as it’s safe. Make sure it’s safe. Plan your next thing. Get it
in the garage. Do the next thing. Drive it while it’s good enough. And one day it’ll be perfect.
It be perfect for you or you’re kind of perfect. But you got the opportunity to enjoy the ride and
the journey to get it there. And that’s what it’s all about, man. Hot rotten. Keep wrenching. I’m
Cory. This is “MadRatt Garage”. See you next time.
Is my 1964 Chevy C10 sluggish off the line? Today we dive into stall converters—what they do, why they matter, and whether my setup needs an upgrade.
🔧 What We Cover:
– Symptoms of a low stall converter
– How stall affects torque and launch
– Real-world test results from my C10
🛠️ Watch the full C10 build series here: [Playlist Link]
💬 Drop your thoughts below:
Have you swapped your converter before? What RPM worked best for your setup?
What is MadRatt Garage?
muscle/classic car restoration videos
It’s just a place to watch an everyday guy like you, doing classic car and truck restorations and repairs on a budget. Just a place you can come and watch an eveyday DIY’r entertain you with his struggles of working on Classic cars and trucks. Watch as I show you some good tips and also how “NOT” to do things, that I’ve learned over the years of working on my dream vehicles with an average joe budget.
Or maybe I’m working on something that you would like to own yourself but know you never will. (hint, that’s the kind of YT channels I watch. I watch guys work on stuff I’ll never own but I find interesting) So come on in, Pull up a chair and hang out and shoot the breeze in the comments and let’s make a kool community where Gear Heads and Hot Rodders hang out.
Welcome one and all.
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MadRatt Garage2
Check it out here: www.youtube.com/@MadRattGarage2
V I D E O S T O W A T C H N E X T :
Intro to the 1956 Chevy Nomad Build
Intro to the 1955 Chevy Nomad Build
The auction find 1966 Chevy Nova Wagon project
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“Don’t wait for your project to be perfect to enjoy it! Do a little at a time and enjoy it being “good enough” Enjoy the Journey until one day it’s perfect”
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2 Comments
Ole truck sounds good!! 👍
Ever upgraded your stall converter? What RPM gave you the best launch? Let’s compare setups!”