Pulled Engine with Torque Converter Attached: Did we Break Anything?

[Tshark299]

Admittedly working with automatics is completely foreign territory for me; all my projects have always been manuals. I was helping my brother pull the engine out of his automatic project and, not knowing any better, left the torque converter attached to the engine like I would a clutch.

Now I'm reading that we should have left the converter on the transmission, and that we may have damaged the transmission's input seal and/or pump and or ?. How likely is it that we did this, and is ther any way to tell before bolting everything back together?

If it's likely we did real damage, should we pull the tranny and take it to a shop or are there "just in case" repairs we can do ourselves for peace of mind?

Google says everything from "yeah I've always done it this way without any problem" to "your transmission is definitely damaged" so looking to get some opinions here. It's a 302/C4 combo in case it makes any difference.

Thanks!

 

[coco944x4s]

No need to pull the transmission out unless you got slam stupid and just jerked on it pulling it out and let the convertor hub come out really ****-eyed, all you need to replace is the input seal. Really the only reason to do that is just out of precaution, it would suck to put it all back together to find out it leaks.

 

[Tshark299]

No need to pull the transmission out unless you got slam stupid and just jerked on it pulling it out and let the convertor hub come out really ****-eyed, all you need to replace is the input seal. Really the only reason to do that is just out of precaution, it would suck to put it all back together to find out it leaks.

Yeah I think I remember it coming apart easily back in the fall, but I'm all about doing anything I can as a precaution now before everything gets bolted back in. In an input seal something that's doable at home or will we need to drag it to a transmission shop? Is that seal my main concern or is it likely anything else got messed up?

Also interested in thoughts on replacing the torque converter just because everything is apart. Are these things wear items?

 

[coco944x4s]

Seal is the main concern. Can be done at home. Pop old on out, tap new one in. that simple.