I drove the MerJeep to work today, first trip going that far(12 miles one way). Last night I flushed some seafoam through it and changed the fuel filters, the engine ran quite a bit smoother. On the way home from work, it ran rougher and was ticking. I am going to do a valve adjustment tomorrow and see if that helps. It may just need to be ran for a while, I don't know how long the car sat before I got it. All in all, i'm very happy with it so far. Thanks again to all of you for your assistance, I appreciate it.

John

 

I adjusted the valves tonight, the engine purrs like a kitten. Took it for a drive and something broke in the trans. I think it's the adapter ring between the torque converter and the engine. It's too cold to mess with it now. If it's repairable, I will weld pads on the converter to match the Benz flywheel pattern. That should be much stronger than the ring. If not, I will either run the Benz auto, or find a 700R4 for it. I guess I found the weak link........

John

 

shitty deal man, trial and error tho i guess. gonna have to be real carefull welding onto that torque converter too how thick was the old adapter ring? got any pics of it?

 

John i hate to hear you have that kind of problem so soon after the build but that is what's all about.You do your homework,design,build and trial than sometimes it work and sometimes dont.keep us posted on what you find for future builders so they know what not to use or maybe someone will have better idea how to make it better.Just don't give up on it yet.

 

The ring was cut out of the gas engine flexplate, here is a pic of it. It's about 1/8" thick. I welded studs to it to adapt the triangle flexplate of the Benz engine to the torque converter.I am not sure if this is what failed yet. It's either this or the triangle flexplate. If it warms up enough, I will start tearing into it.

John

 

i have a feeling its that ring that failed, those bolts look like an easy failing point. i wonder if you can drill the holes and put the bolts through both ways? might need to grind the heads down abit before hand but i think it sould work worst case make a new plate out of 1/4" and put all the bolts through it insted of welding to it

 

I was going to drill holes in the ring and bolt through with nuts, but there would have been no way to hold them from both sides once the engine and trans were together. If the ring failed, I will probably make some steel blocks and weld them to the torque converter in the pattern of the Benz flywheel. That would be much more stout. I was originally going to go that route, but was afraid I would damage the lockup friction disc, it's behind the front of the torque converter. The heat from welding may damage it. I would rather lose lockup then bust another ring. It may be fine anyway. I won't really know till I get the trans out.

John

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My neighbor helped me wrestle the Jeep back into the garage. It's definitely the adapter ring. The triangle flexplate is broken as well. I do have an extra flywheel for a 617, I may drill holes in it to match the existing pads on the converter, then I would not have to risk damaging the torque converter with heat. I thought about this idea before I built the Jeep, but was afraid I might burn the pump in the trans out because the 617 flywheel is thick and rigid, it would not be able to flex at all. It sure as hell would not break though!!!! I will know more when I get the trans back out.

John

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I dropped the trans tonight, looks like the torque converter and flexplate were too close together.It was the ring that was bolted the the torque converter that failed. None of the welds or studs broke, the whole ring broke into multiple pieces. When I made the ring, I think it added too much thickness to the assembly.The damage was not too bad, the inside of the bellhousing was scratched up, but no holes. I think my best bet is to weld new pads on the TC and get another flexplate. I'm kind of nervous about drilling through the thick flywheel and bolting the TC to it because it would not be able to flex. I don't know if it needs to flex, manual trannies obviously don't, but I don't want to take a chance. Does anyone have an OM617 flexplate they don't need?

John

 

Hey John, I have been doing alot of thinking about the same adapter issues concerning the torque conv.I think I will cut the end out of the benz converter,true it up on the lathe, then index it to the jeep converter. That way it should be strong enough while using the existing benz bolts, plus it may make it easier to keep the jeep conv true to the crank. I noticed you mentioned your conv was a lock up. I thought you were using a non-od trans. I assumed the only jeep trans with lock-up was the aw4. I hope to get the benz pulled soon so I can cut the benz t-converter apart and engineer the flex plate adapter. I will take lots of pics. My dad has the lathe but lives 250mi away, could take a while.

 

Chrysler has had lockup transmissions since 1978. Mine is a 1985 A 904 Torqueflite. It is a three speed but has lockup, it's an odd duck. It's a Chrysler trans with a Chevy 2.8 bellhousing pattern. If you don't have a lockup converter (or want one) maybe your converter idea would work. They are about the same diameter. A converter shop might do it for you if you have one nearby, they might even be able to make it lockup.The local one here would not touch mine. Good luck with your project!
I will probably start on the converter today.

John

 

Hey John,maybe I didn't explain my idea completely. I plan on cutting the whole back off the benz conv,(the side/end that bolts to the flex plate) and using that as the adapter between the jeep conv and benz flex plate. Once I cut the benz conv apart I will chuck it up in the lathe and index it to the jeep bolt pattern and snout on the conv. That way I don't mess with any of the benz flywheel/flex plate bolt-up, balance etc. I should not have any issues strength since I am using the factory benz set-up. Hope that helps! I don't know if you have the benz conv , my trans is junk so I don't mind cutting up mine.