Bad TH400 Converter? (Video)

[Z33Art]

At the end of last year I put the car away due to a clanking sound coming from the tunnel area. After taking the transmission and torque converter out I noticed that the converter makes a clanking sound when you shake it. I don't seem to remember this upon installation. Below is a video of the sound.




Is this normal or is the converter bad?

[BAD LS1]

Sounds like the turbine to me which is kinda normal until the input shaft is in it. Did you check to see if the converter had some spacing issues before removal? Like it was too far out and the pump drive ears are chucking?

[Z33Art]

I did not double check the spacing. Is there a way to check if the pump drive ears are chucking with the trans and tc out of the car? Maybe a wear point that would indicate an issue?

[juicedimpss]

ryan,a convertor will "clunk" when you shake it around. the real concern is when it sounds like a rock tumbler when the car is running.

[J-Bru-Ha Z-28]

ryan,a convertor will "clunk" when you shake it around. the real concern is when it sounds like a rock tumbler when the car is running.

This is not a good thing to hear at all...Tom can vouch for this. I have not seen it yet in person but he just tore my 4L60E out of my camaro and it sounded like some rocks tumbling. Lots of foreign debris in there if you know what I mean...converter is getting sent back to Precision Industries tomorrow.

[BAD LS1]

^^^^ This one appears to have some of the converter internals that went cow shit, like torringtons, sprag and turbine etc... it proceeded to pump garbage into the pan, plugging the filter with non ferrous debris (silver) and plugging the filter which led to the trans just quit working in any gear. amazingly the rest of the trans components were still intact and nothing was wore out except the seperator plate check ball holes. First one ive personally seen like this, but not the first time ive heard of a converter going cowshit and munching the internals though. Z, you may wanna drop your pan and make double sure yours didnt suffer the same fate if it was noisy to begin with.

[Z33Art]

ryan,a convertor will "clunk" when you shake it around. the real concern is when it sounds like a rock tumbler when the car is running.

I sounded like a bolt rolling around in the inspection cover for the torque converter. Then it would go away for a couple minutes and then it would come back again. Everything seemed to still work and drive the same and the sound did not seem to be RPM based.

[Z33Art]

^^^^ This one appears to have some of the converter internals that went cow shit, like torringtons, sprag and turbine etc... it proceeded to pump garbage into the pan, plugging the filter with non ferrous debris (silver) and plugging the filter which led to the trans just quit working in any gear. amazingly the rest of the trans components were still intact and nothing was wore out except the seperator plate check ball holes. First one ive personally seen like this, but not the first time ive heard of a converter going cowshit and munching the internals though. Z, you may wanna drop your pan and make double sure yours didnt suffer the same fate if it was noisy to begin with.

I will drop the pan Wednesday night and see what is in it. I will be sure to take some pictures of everything and hopefully see some clues as to what is wrong.

[Z33Art]

Pictures of what I found in the pan.





You can see there are some small shavings in the center. When I drained the fluid last week it was still red and looked good. The brown fluid is what was left in the transmission and settled down into the pan over the weekend. The magnet has some sludge on it but no chunks or shavings.

Any input on what is shown in the pictures?

[BAD LS1]

looks like the same shit that was in the fore mentioned trans im working on. fluid is the same color too. i havent been working on auto's all that long, but chunks or shavings is not good! Clutch material is one thing and very light metal (read fine) junk build up on the magnet...

[juicedimpss]

that convertor is fragged.

[Z33Art]

that convertor is fragged.

That is what I'm guessing. The sound was coming from the TC/Flexplate area and it isn't the flexplate so....

I'm debating if I should get it cut apart or if I should just buy a new one..

Anyone have input on what I should replace in the transmission other than the filter and gasket?

[BAD LS1]

acc valve.jpg

Click pic^^^

She needs a good flushing! I just spent the better part of the morning trying to get a stuck 3/4 accumulator valve from the VB that was siezed due to all the grit so let it be an example of what that trash can do! i doubt yours is that bad that massive amount of junk got everywhere, but it does backwash from the converter...

Notice the nice goober up the side of it, luckily the bore it fits in appears it can be freshend with 1500 grit, and that it doesnt seal on the outside diameter.

[juicedimpss]

trans needs to come apart and be cleaned. thats the worst part of a cheaper convertor....when they break,the trans needs a freshen up.

[Dr.Buick]

th400 are easy to rebuild. kit with clutches is less than 300

[BAD LS1]

The report is the stator was broke and some fins were bent on the one im working on, im sure yours suffered similar fate. This was a P.I. Vigilante.

[J-Bru-Ha Z-28]

The report is the stator was broke and some fins were bent on the one im working on, im sure yours suffered similar fate. This was a P.I. Vigilante.

P.I. is arguably one of the better converter manufactures too, but time and miles do add up, my converter was originally installed in '03 so there were an estimated 60-80k miles put on this converter. Even with it being well out of warranty they are rebuilding it at what I consider a reasonable cost considering a new converter from them is in the $700+ ballpark. With that said I would have bought a new one from them if they had told me the one I sent them was junk, their new converters carry a 5 year warranty these days.

Hopefuly yours did not suffer any ill effects on any other trans components like mine with the siezed up valve body components.

[Z33Art]

Well I'm going to replace the converter with a better one and rebuild the transmission.

Other than that the car is all ready to go to COR for the cage this week!