Topic: Seating an A340F torque convert in A340H, this shouldn't be this hard.

[Zelephant]

I am in the process of swapping a 3RZ into my 89 4Runner. I want to (and at this point must) keep the original A340H automatic transmission. My donor vehicle was also an auto, and I acquired the 3RZ torque converter and bellhousing.  I thought I had both mounted up to the old tranny right, but when I went to put the 3RZ in, I saw that the TC was out at least 1/2" too far, and therefore not seated correctly. I yanked the engine back out, and for the past two evenings have been trying to properly seat the TC. According to my research, the TC should slide onto the input shaft, click once, then rotate 90-degrees and click back again, fully seating. I can only get the first click. I have spun, pushed, and tapped on the TC with a sledge, but it will not seat. Is there some sort of compatibility issue I missed, or another technique to putting the TC on which I do not know? Any advice advice is greatly appreciated, especially from folks who have been here before. This is my first engine swap, and I'm very much flying by the seat of my pants!

[R.DesJardin]

Sounds like you need a VZ converter for this swap, a RZ converter has a different spline count than a R/RE converter. I've written this up in a couple threads. The R series flex plate has a different bolt pattern and smaller bolts than the RZ. Does this help?

[Zelephant [OP]]

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=85488.msg976580#msg976580
^^This one? That explains a lot. I did notice a difference in bolt size between the two flexplates. Didn't realize the pattern was different. So the 3RZ TC shares the bolt pattern and thread size with the 3VZE TC? Should be easy to find one of those.

BTW R.DesJardin, I've seen your build thread on Yotatech, and you and your truck are an inspiration to the rest of us who want to run autos. I been drooling over the triple-sticks you sell for a very long time; I certainly want them on my rig in the future. But first things first, I need to finish the motor swap.

[R.DesJardin]

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=85488.msg976580#msg976580
^^This one? That explains a lot. I did notice a difference in bolt size between the two flexplates. Didn't realize the pattern was different. So the 3RZ TC shares the bolt pattern and thread size with the 3VZE TC? Should be easy to find one of those.

BTW R.DesJardin, I've seen your build thread on Yotatech, and you and your truck are an inspiration to the rest of us who want to run autos. I been drooling over the triple-sticks you sell for a very long time; I certainly want them on my rig in the future. But first things first, I need to finish the motor swap.

I had a 3VZ A340H I picked up in case I wanted to do a 5VZ swap, turned out I needed the TC for my 2RZ swap. Thanks for the compliments on the build, I just built my 2RZ with LCE cams, a Thorley header and port matched the intake. Probably look into some other bolt on mods later but I want to get an AFR gauge first just to keep track of stuff..

Maybe we can get Big Mike to make a A340 swap sticky, seems that more Toyota guys are doing this especially with all the Tacoma and late model 4Runners that have autos to use to swap in our older trucks...........

[Zelephant [OP]]

I got my hands on a 3VZE TC last Friday. I attempted to install it on Saturday, but through an embassingly long process, I discovered that it has the same problem as my 3RZ TC: it refuses to completely seat. I messed around with the original 3RZ TC and tranny sitting in my driveway, and I found I couldn't get those seat properly either. For this reason, I feel like I must be doing something something wrong with the install. I'm slipping it onto the input shaft, and can feel the second set of spines mate up, but I keep spinning and pushing, expecting the TC to "clunk" down once more, and it just doesn't happen. What am I doing wrong?

[R.DesJardin]

You process is correct. I did the same thing for a sanity check to make sure there was a difference. Make sure the weight to the TC isn't keeping it from aligning on the second set of splines. I usually lift up a little and push and turn, yes I need three hands.

[lucky7]

If I remember rite you just have to work it around an force it I had the tranny in bolts up before I realized an had to pull it back out

[Zelephant [OP]]

So I'm still fighting with this torque converter. I managed to seat the 3RZ TC in the  3RZ A340F I have sitting in my driveway, so I know what a fully seated TC looks like now. Problem is, I can't even get the original 22RE TC to seat in the A340H in my 4Runner. Not exactly asking for help at this point, as I'm fairly clear on what needs to happen. It's just inexplicably not happening, and this is more of a SITREP.

EDIT: Figured it out. It was the notches on the hollow shaft that enters the tranny. On a hunch, I increased the edge chamfer to the notches with an angle grinder very, very slightly. Tried the TC again and it clunked right in!