Trouble getting bell housing tight to engine
 

I have an '83 f250 with the 6.9 and automatic trans.
I broke the starter mount as in thread https://www.dieselbombers.com/ford-p...nt-broken.htmlapparently because of hydrolock - rain water had been leaking through the air cleaner cover into the intake. I have rotated the engine at front end using a 15/16 socket on 1/2" wrench and extension at least 8 times by hand by now. Water does not drip out of the exhaust manifold any more.

The starter mount is part of the engine-to-transmission Adapter which is a 1" thick piece of cast iron that goes between the top half of the bell housing and engine and extends down further on the passenger side to serve as the starter mounting as well. So to replace this I had to slide the trans down the frame a bit and remove the torque converter, flex plate and flywheel in order to slide adapter off of guide pins.

In hindsight I should have unbolted the converter from the flex plate before separating trans from engine and let it go down the frame with the trans... next time - maybe I'll remember.

In putting these back together I am having a problem getting the bell housing to come tight to the engine without a major effort. It goes ok until just after the guide pins get started (about a 3/8" gap), then I really have to crank on the wrench to try to get it tighter but it didn't feel right and when I backed the bolts off the gap sprung back open. I think what is happening is that I am bending the flex plate and bell housing.

I this OK?
I have read that there should be a little bit of play in the converter.

I backed the trans off and tried again carefully but got the same result.

I figure I am not getting the converter seated properly.
So how can I be sure I have it right?

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

I think I got it.
I measured the total length of the torque converter- 6-15/16".
I stuck a 1/2" strip of aluminium into the transmission hole and put a straight edge across bell housing and marked the depth on the strip. That measured 7".
So then I knew I had to get the converter just inside that point.

Then I stuck the converter in and got to a point that must have been where I was before which turned out to be about 7-3/8" so I kept rocking and turning until I thought I felt it go in a bit which brought it to just inside the straight edge. Dude!

Then I was able to bring the trans into the engine block fairly snug (1/8") rocking by hand.
I checked that the converter still had some play.
Then I was able to bring the trans tight with easy pressure on 3/8" wrench after which I could still move the converter back and forth about 1/16"+-.

So I bolted it up to the flex pan and I'm moving on.