Since I am Waiting . . . . .
Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 10:51AM I have never been really satisfied with the way I decided to solve the torque converter mounting problem (1UZ bell housing to mate my1JZ torque converter and race modified 1JZ A342 trans). Since my racer is [still] down getting another short block put in, I felt this was a good time to "do it right" . . . well . . . sorta right. THE RIGHT WAY would have been to get a proper 1UZ race torque converter. But, you know, time and money . . . . . What I will do now is to make a drive ring adapter out of forged aluminum to go between the flex plate (or ring gear, if you will) and the torque converter. This drive ring is essentially a very big and [correctly] thick washer or spacer. The bolts will go all the way through the flex plate and the drive ring into the torque converter pads. No more stands and gussets welded to the flex plate. I found the drive ring idea on the [Aussie] Castlemaine Rod Shop site (very good driveline products) as a part of their 1UZ-to-Powerglide adapter. See the photo below - the drive ring, at the right thickness, will take care of all strength issues. I already have the "extended" torque converter locator pilot bearing to catch the front "knob" on the torque converter -- and another flex plate. The adapter plate, of course, is not necessary with the 1UZ bell housing. If you are wondering how to mate your 1JZ torque converter and trans to a 1UZ, this is a good way to do it.
Photo from the Castlemaine Rod Shop site.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Among the many technical decisions I had to make along the road of this %##@% project was how to mate the race 1JZ auto box and torque converter (TC) I already had to the 1UZ engine (using a 1UZ bell housing). Since nothing comes easy when fabricating a unique combination, I discovered that the 1UZ bell was "thicker" than the 1JZ bell, necessitating some kind of spacer between the ring gear (flex plate) and the TC so the torque converter splines would mesh correctly. My initial plan was to put stands between the flex plate and the TC . . . . and then, later, to weld gussets for strength. The more I thought about it, and the more helpful feed-back I got about it, left me uncomfortable with the reliability, at least in the long run, of such an approach. The "right way" to have done it would have been to buy a proper 1UZ race TC and build a 1UZ race auto box. But the next best, and very good way to do it is with a drive ring.
This was the original approach. The parts are labeled.
I later properly welded gussets for "strength" - which could have actually weakened the flex plate.
The proper way: a high quality steel drive ring. The drive ring is the same thickness as the stands in the photo above, but, of course, goes all the way around. There are two ways to bolt in the drive ring: bolt the drive ring to the TC and then bolt this assembly to the flex plate. The other is to put bolts from the flex plate all the way through the drive ring into the TC. I already had bolts the right length, so I used the latter method (even though, as can be seen, the drive ring was machined for either method). The locator knob on the front of the TC still fits into the extended pilot bushing at the rear of the crankshaft -- for support of the trans input shaft as in the standard configuration.
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