ATI Racing Torque Converter Cut Open Lathe 

The year was 1977. I operated the cut open machine for the 400 THM torque converter in Dept. 433, Torus Division at Hydra-Matic Willow Run. The converters were rejects from testing; they were removed from racks, and were hand placed, hub down, into a massive chuck that clamped around the outside of the impeller body, (which we simply called the "pump") with the cover, pilot and lugs facing upwards. A plexiglass door was pulled down and the machine was cycled. A thick triangular cutting tool was indexed into the weld as the unit spun. The cycle time was about a minute and a half or so...it seemed. You knew it was almost done when ATF fluid began to get flung on the cover door of the machine. The machine cycle ended. Then you removed it, and the converter cover was separated, or almost separated from the impeller housing but still held by a bare "thread" of the weld, sometimes....then you banged the thing on a metal fixture, if you had to......to pop it open on a table that had a grated surface so that the fluid could drain. Then the internal parts were separated, and sorted down their respective conveyors to be sent thru a washer and put into tubs to be sent back their original department for inspection...and rebuilt...if possible. The bearings were never reused and were junked. Did I mention that the THM400 torque converter, filled with ATF, is heavier than most torque converters? The production on that job was 200 units per shift. My partner and I figured out the most time efficient method to do that job, the idea was to keep the machine running with as little time between cycles as possible, and working together, we were able to work our asses off and get 200 units by lunch time. Then go hide. The boss was happy because we always got the count. It was hard, heavy, filthy work, and guessed what we smelled like when we went home every day? Transmission fluid...you can bet. One thing that used to happen, was that occasionally when the cutting tool got really dull, the chips coming off the operation, would get very hot, and cause a fire inside the machine, aided by the ATFluid igniting...it was so hot. We would look down the aisle to see if the boss was around....and enjoy the fire for a minute as it grew before we reached for the extinguisher...heh. Fun times. In the 3 years I spent in Dept. 433, I did most of the operations making the impeller unit, and can remember the step by step manufacturing process in fairly great detail....Then spent some time in Dept 431 which was the torque converter assembly dept, where they were assembled, welded together, filled with fluid, balanced and tested. I have been retired from Hydra-Matic Willow Run since 2008, and spent several years making planetary pinion gears...and many other jobs. They closed in 2010, and the building was torn down in 2014. It was originally the Willow Run B-24 bomber plant, built by Henry Ford...in 1941...so much history there...Thanks for reading this.

I had a Precision torque converter in my car it was in there for 4 years absolutely Flawless converter before that I have one from JW that lasted about 6 months

6:50 jump to the opening

Just dropped my auto box off to be rebuilt. He asked for the torque converter too. I didn't know why because it was a sealed unit. He explained this procedure to cut them open. For me this is fascinating. What a beautiful piece of engineering a torque converter is.

I was wondering on why cutting it open. Very interesting to watch. Pretty ingenious on opening that converter

Hey wow! Two pieces of a torque converter...awesome.

48 years ago I worked at a Transmission Rebuilding shop with my Uncle and Cousin with a Friend named Terry rebuilding Standard style Converters..I think our best count for one day was 80 units cut open rebuilt and re-welded painted and on the shelf..I remember the Fords C4, C6 getting the most repairs from vanes being separated(torn out) from the front casing..we would braze them in place by hand..

I’m here from the thread I was reading where he was speaking about it and you were responding lol. After you cut it open and let him know there was no issue & posted this video, he stopped responding altogether 😂. I’m sure it was his error & not yalls.

Interesting to see one opened up. But, this video leaves an unanswered question - Given that the torque converter was fine, was it ever determined what the customer was complaining about?

I like how it self lubes as you break through lol

Torque converters work by directing fluid at variant angles from the pump side to the drive side via the fins or sometimes called blades, in my understanding competition converters use a more aggressive fin angle increasing flow rate and pressure through the torque drive, if that's the case just cutting one open you are not going to see anything different unless you are going to use pitch angle gauges and micro measures ect to see the difference.

Precision makes a great torque converter, probably the transmission or the driver that had an issue.

very good work

this guy knows his stuff, love all you experts with some of the comments. work for ATI for ten years then say something.

The fluid is what allows it to convert torque

That was great. I always wanted to see inside the torque converter. Iron American Dream on RU-vid.

Porpoising is generally caused by miss match of spring rates and shock settings between the front and rear suspension.

Thanks for sharing it but is it really needed to cut it?

I would think you would dyno it to test it first...

Excellent video. I learned a lot. Keep up the good work. Thank You.

So, is that what makes a lockup converter, it has a set of clutches driven by a piston? Piston applies and locks the converter to the input shaft?

very good video

This is why I love youtube. I had wondered how they rebuilt em.

thank you.

depending what HP it delt saw....i would want to see the LU clutches

súper información.. thx..

Agreed

Do you know how many miles dit that one do? Thanks

Interesting , now I want to make a turbine out of one or two

it can be welded back together, as im sure it will be after they fully inspect it...

Is that a NAG converter?

When watching the converter spin on the lathe, you can see the light reflection moving up and down indicating that the housing is not consistent. Not sure if that could contribute to the "proposing" but if the fluid is controlled/contained by this part of the housing, at certain rpms you might have a vibration issue... Yes? No?

Very nice my friend. Like

Is it possible for a bearing or any of those internal parts to be worn which sounds like nails rattling in a coffee can?

That looks a w580 we make in Perrysburg. Without the pretty pink

comments clueless this is done all the time rebuild rewelded even on heavy equipment I just did 580 case backhoe new pump seal hub as well.

@Achilleos1991 Its the same fluid inside your automatic transmission.

Years ago some torque converters actually bolt it up where you can take them apart and rebuild them when I was taking transmission School we had a big room with best missions on shelves and we had about 10 tables in the room and we could go in there and have class and we could practice taking the Transmissions apart and putting them back together they did have one transmission it was a really old transmission was an automatic can you can actually take the torque converter apart also Borg Warner made a transmission with a Overdrive on the extension housing area it works really good my transmission teacher had a very old pickup truck back in the fifties and it had a ward Warner manual transmission also had an over Drive Unit it used a solenoid and it had a square Paul that would engage into the Sun Gear on the overdrive gear part simple design and works really well

If you added up all the revelutions that mill has run how far would a 36" tall tire travel? Just a thought.

It would seem the person who returned it had installed it and had to remove it so they could send it back. Thinking that was the suspected problem and how it is perfectly good, can you venture a guess as to what issue he thought that unit was causing and more importantly what was causing his issue?

Why arent you using some water to freeze the cut?¡?

How thick is the oil inside the torque converter?

looks they understand about automatic transmission!!

get the turbin out?

thx

does a regular race torque converter for a non lock up trans contain clutches ? like a turbo 350 , powerglide , 727 , 904 etc

What parts are laying "under" the rotor when initial disassembly begins at 6:59

"I don't see anything on the turban." xD

Was this video taken with the first digital camera ever made?

Sweet vid! I have a 94 previa and the input shaft seal blew out. Put a new one in and when i picked up the torque converter to put back in, i saw about 7 tiny cylinder bearings came out. I know that's not good. Ordered a reman Toyota one. What part are the little cylinder bearings from on the inside?

I can't understand him,what was it doing? What was wrong?

Actions starts at 5:00

OMG when he cut it open I saw blood coming out of it

Barbie makes one tough converter.

Is it a "sealed for life" component?

is it filled with oil or just a slush amount? is the coupling primarily air?

So why did you cut it open . . . ?

damn that's thick

yep, i tot i heard wrng

Looks like a Hemi tq

lol "thats our cut apart machine" aka lathe lol n this over here is a "metal sticker togetherer"

Why didn’t you just use a parting tool?

It's filled with transmission fluid and no it's not primarily air

With that fast a set up you should take some time to get the tool geometry right. Crazy chatter

place is a shambles , more untidy than my workshop

Good

Did that thing get painted in a bathhouse?

Torque converter blood at 6:56

Can or we you give me a ball park figure for retuning a new converter from a well company and how useful can an 11” converter be.i had one built for a new drive train to be test in a 3/4 van and moved to a 72’ nova later than was suppose to be 2800-3200 but when I tested it there was no looseness at all but I don’t recall the figures as I was hurt and had to go thru a lot for yrs but getting back to it now.i will say it worked well but I expect at least a little looseness and just knew 11” was to big.it was $425 then,$525 now so it’s good but I just don’t know if an 11” will work in a nova as it will need to.the was to use it then and retune it later.i don’t don’t see much response for questions like this,hope it’s ok

I had my skull opened this way.......the only thing that was found inside was porn hub residue.

If the motor had a big cam it could have been porpoising or surging but that would be normal...

You should use Cooling fluids too!

I would have thought that the original GM tooling would have been slap worn out a long time ago.

Fast Forward to 6:55

Can you show us a bad one?

Amigo, oque é isso?

That's a good job for someone other than me!!

Why no cutting oil?

Nesesito saber dónde pueden abrir un convertidor de 700 Chevrolet electrónica

Looks like it might pay to have a test fixture for these... some way to spin it up and test the lockup.

One qestion! Changin the stock torq conventer with this sport one how much more torq can transmition handle? If ZF states the input for 5hf 19fla is 310nm. So tuning 2.7 biturbo with k04 turbos and other tuning parts to 500hp and increasing the tork will damage the stock transmition?

Cutting it open seems like an unnecessary way to check for damage, still cool to see the inside of it. When its cut open can it be welded back together or is it pretty much done?

So that is 8 minutes of my life I will never get back!

The cutter opener device

I see this video is 8 years old, What do you think of Koenigsegg's new gearless transmission system?

Is it worthwhile?!?!?!

Why would someone send a converter to ATI to have it checked out unless it was one from ATI?

It bleeds, we can kill it!

I only deal with Dynamic Racing Transmissions, in CT. The best there is.

why ?

So you bought a brand new racing Torque Converter just to open it up!!!!! Nice. And you know thats kinda funny cutting that open with a Lathe. I tried to cut open a junk one on the weld with a cuttin torch, it wouldn't come apart. So where is this any different ?

in my super comp rail i ran a spragless converter it was deadly consistant it would run dead on all day long unreal ill never run a sprag again !

A slush bucket opening.

But, why is it pink??

so what was the client complaining about?

Except its unbalanced, eggshaped, and I can see dark clutch material in the fluid inside....all actually normal. If its shuddering its being overloaded...speed costs...how fast you wanna go?

About 90% of the transmission fluid is held inside the torque converter, when you drop the transmission pan only a few quarts come out, old fords had drain plugs on there converters so you could do a complete drain and refill. That's how a line lock works on a automatic transmission it stops the fluid flow off to the converter then when your ready hit the button and it releases all that fluid into the converter launching the car forward.

That’s why i replace torque converters with clutches..

what speed are u cutting on the machine.

Why was it so hard to cut that thing open?? Especially using a lathe ...