converter weights ( and "EXPERT" weld techs )

[Nacho-RT74]

Just went to a converter shop to weld the counterweights. I took measurements and make marks on converter. Since I don't have the perfect measurements tools just made aprox marks to have a guidance.

Arriving the owner of the shop treat me like an ignorant and I was showing that I KNOW WHAT I BOUGHT AND WHAT I HAVE.

Gave the converter and weights to the "tech". He tells oh yes they go here and here... just putting anywhere ( on the right side, but anywhere ) and he was to begin to weld and I stopped... HEY... THEY GO HERE AND HERE, I MADE THE MARKS. and I show the instruction sheet. He laugh and finally went to weld on the marks I made without check the sheet or right measuring made by me.

At that moment I was called to run to move the car and since nothing is perfect, the starter motor went bad... didn't want to spin. Had to take a hammer to hit it and make it work.

When got back I took the converter already welded, measured weights and noticed that one of them wasn't perfect placed, maybe one milimeter out of position. Dunno if because my bad measurement ( thats why I wanted a "tech" check ) or simply it moved when welding.

do you think will be a BIG problem on the balancing ? Do I have really to worry about ?

[aifilaw]

Remove and have it rewelded... more importantly, have it checked on a balancing machine.

If its really out of balance (and by that I mean grams) you will notice a bad engine shake, maybe even vehicle shake.
If its slightly out of balance  you will not notice anything, except maybe at certain RPM's... but the RPM thing will happen in both cases.


In any converter out of balance scenario you have between 1 month and 1 year before you wipe out a bearing and destroy your engine at worst. Maybe that will put it into perspective for you, because its happened to me. Something so seemingly small will cost a lot of money.

[Nacho-RT74]

I will give a try first and test... but DAMN!!!!

[John_Kunkel]

I wouldn't worry about one millimeter (.040").

A converter can't be spun balanced on a common balancer because the internal parts are free to float around.

[Nacho-RT74]

I wouldn't worry about one millimeter (.040").

YOU CAN'T IMAGINE HOW MUCH YOU RELAX ME WHEN YOU SAY THAT!!!!!! specially coming from you

anyway I couldn't mesure it EXACTLY, maybe is a little bit more... maybe one and a half milimeter ?. Same about the other weight... could it be fine or maybe less than a milimeter off...

what is for sure these ones look better than the ones attached on my actual converter...what BTW found IS NOT THE ONE my car had originally, was replaced at the tranny shop  . The one my car had was without drain plug and this one does have a drain plug... mine had the ring gear damaged, so guys replaced the converted instead replace the gear on mine 

[aifilaw]

Definitely listen to Kunkel on this one.
My story is quite true, I've lost a crank bearing due to an imbalanced converter that was off by "a little".

But if he says 1-2 millimeters is not going to cause that much disruption, then I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[Nacho-RT74]

yea, but anyway will be alert. I'm advised about the damage can get the system on an unbalanced part of it. I'm replacing right now the converter because an emergency. Got damaged threads on the converter ( dunno how... maybne overtorqued on tranny shop ) on my car and was being just tied to engine by 2 of the flywheel bolts.

Since I will make some changes on engine pretty soon ( pistons, cam etc... ) will check balance on the complete rotation system including converter on that moment.