Butch's 64 Sport Fury 383.... torqueflite education

[Butch Edison <waedison@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pat Blais is nearly a legend in the Northwest for his ability to rebuild
Torqueflites. The best I've heard it put is that Pat was the first one in
this region (back in the sixties) to take a TF apart, figure it out, and
build them out the way they should be. He's an Ebay seller as well and is on
our forum's vendor page. I removed my first ever TF, Pat swapped out a
similar TF with me that he rebuilt, taking mine as a core. I wanted to stay
with authentic ball & trunnion look of the car, but Pat was not happy about
that, as he said the 64s had some inherent problems that were corrected in
65-66. But he found a way. I think he said the TF I got was out of a 65
Imperial or some such, the last car Chrysler put the ball and trunnion on,
then he beefed up the internals and the shift points a bit.

So, I get the transmission, install it, and I'm feeling pretty darned good
about myself having never done anything like that before. Lesson learned....
don't tighten up those Schumacher headers before installing all the TF
bolts, because there's not quite enough room to slide one bolt by the header
on the right side.  Having paid attention on this forum and listening to
Pat, I carefully adjusted the Neutral Safety Switch tangs to the proper
position in Neutral and Park before putting the pan on. I'd already
pre-loaded the convertor with one quart of oil, put in 5 more. I left the
transmission cooling return line off the tranny per Pat's instructions,
started the car for about 20 seconds, draining a quart of TF fluid off. Then
I buttoned it up, put in 2 more quarts of oil, started the engine and filled
the tranny the rest of the way. Now I'm feeling near-brillant, soon to be
humbled again. Keep in mind, this is all with the headers off, so I'm not
hearing anything coming from the tranny.

I put the console shift lever in Reverse,,,, no reverse. Instantly I'm
thinking "I wonder what refunds I can get from the Hot August Nights
people?", but I fish around with the shifter and find reverse, almost in the
Park position. Well, not time to worry about it right now, I've got to get
the car over to the exhaust shop and get the pipes welded on, so I drive it
out of the garage and into the trailer. Not going to sleep well tonight
thinking about the Torqueflite.

I leave the car overnight, the owner of the shop calls, says the exhaust is
on and "by the way", he noticed that the tranny wasn't properly adjusted but
he did that, so all the gear shift positions work and are in their proper
place and the car only starts now in Neutral and Park. Lesson learned....
just getting the tangs correctly positioned on the Neutral Safety Switch is
not the end-all be-all for getting the shift points right. You still may
have to use the control cable adjustment wheel to fine tune the shifter.

The car is still on the rack when I get to the shop, we check out the
exhaust system,,,, I'm a happy albeit poorer $$$$ guy. He starts to back the
car off the rack and HOLY CRAP !!!! The tranny is clattering like crazy!
Again.... I'm like totally deflated. What the H***!  He's much calmer. The
car is on a rack that allows you to "drive" the car, so he starts it up,
puts it in gear and I listen as best a deaf guy can, feel along the tranny
till I come to the Park Lock cable. AHAH!  That's the problem area, what's
the problem? When I took the old tranny out, I was careful to note that that
the park lock cable was in as far as it would go, so was very diligent about
putting this one all the way back in till it stopped. I anxiously call Pat
and he says "Hmmm, I gave you a sheet that tells you how to adjust that
cable Butch. You want it in just far enough to make PARK engage on a slope
but not so far in that it makes any noise. AND he says, you should never
assume that Park will hold the car on a hill. It could fail. (never knew
that). " Whew... we adjusted it, pull it off the rack and a couple of
minutes later...HUGE puddle of TF fluid under the car! Here we go again.  We
put the car back on the rack and see that it all came out the filler tube.
The shop owner surmises it was an air bubble that cut loose and pushed the
TF out. We refilled it and I start putting miles on the car. 

Well, not many. I get above 40 mph and the damn thing starts clattering
again. I know what to do now though, so my wife (how thinks and deals in
micro) helps me adjust the Park Lock pin in 1/8ths, then 1/16ths, and
finally 1/32nd of an inch using a variety of washers and shims to accurately
gauge travel movement of the pin. You have to do something like that because
once you tap the holding bolt loose, unless you have 8 hands, the pin will
move a little.

So, I've now put about a hundred miles on the car. It runs cool, sounds
great, and the Torqueflite feels super.

I'm sure you have nodded off by now and I surely need a nap, so this is the
last of my great adventure notes (HOPEFULLY!)

/Butch/Ferndale, WA 


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