I am not sure. I know that I have seen some bearings that were just totally smoked after an end of the line spin test, but don’t recall hearing any specific information about the filling of torque converters. I know with most things, the big 3 at least likes stuff to be shipped dry since lube is rather messy, they weld together the torque converter with all the guts in it. They might add some lube after that, possibly inject under pressure, but I would not be surprised if for the first few seconds of a torque converter’s life it is run dry. Once there is a trace amount of lube in the system, it is 1000X better then totally dry and clean. I am pretty sure that most transmissions are spun tested after assembly, so if they started low speed, no load that would give the pump a chance to fill up the torque converter.
We did some testing at high load and high speed of the thrust bearings used in the 310mm torque converter, clean and dry they would run like 15-60 seconds before locking together in a molten mess. Put a drop of oil on them and they run for minutes (till they burn off the oil and create a molten mess)
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From: Caleb
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:10 AM
To: J
Subject: R
Sounds good on paper…maybe not so much on actually doing it…how do they fill them during first install? There’s no way the fill everyone by hand…
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From: J
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:09 AM
To: Caleb
Subject: R
Put a straw in and pull a vacuum!
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From: Caleb
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 10:59 AM
To: J
Subject: R
Yeah, they meant the cap that comes with it. Waiting for the thing to fill by gravity feed one quart at a time can really suck. I just had never heard of anyone doing that, and wondered about forcing the fluid in across the wings.
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From: J
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 10:40 AM
To: Caleb
Subject: R
I have not heard of such a thing. If you are not adding any debris or anything, I don’t see it being a problem. What rubber plug are you talking about? The cap that initially comes with the torque converter?
The torque converter normally drains itself half way every time the engine is shut off, so if you pour a qt into it on the bench before mating the torque converter to the transmission, it will be as good as when you start it up after sitting for a bit. Basically the torque converter is always a lube path, tends to trap heat so they flow a lot of fluid through it. During lock up the lube is fed from the side of the lockup clutch, and what ever lube flows past is how much is transferred. During slip operation they feed lube through the backside of the lockup clutch, forcing it off of the contact face.
So I don’t think that it would cause a problem, but I don’t think that it would be necessary.
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From: Caleb
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 10:06 AM
To: J
Subject: R
Off topic question…there has been a thread on a forum about using the rubber plug as a plunger to speed up the process of filling a torque converter…this just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me…have you ever heard of anyone doing this before?
