Greetings all, its been ages. Damn truck keeps running. Until now. 1990 Montero 4X4, 6L.

The short of it is that all of the torque converter bolts (to the flywheel) have worked themselves loose. Most of them ended up in the starter motor gear one by one over a period of months before they all came loose. I had no idea where they were coming from, truck ran fine until yesterday and now the motor just spins without engaging the tranny. The tow-truck driver clued me in.

Here's the question. Can I re-install new bolts without having to drop the tranny? Maybe through where the starter motor goes?

Thanks.

There is a thin sheetmetal cover on the bottom of the bell housing. Take that off and it will give you access to the TC bolts. FYI, dont re-use any of the old bolts (not that you planned to) they are known to stretch over time and can damage the TC if the stretched bolts are re-installed.

Just what I wanted to hear. How often does that happen?

Thanks loads.

Not very often that I know of, but it has happened to someone on this board before. I believe the bolts are a torque to yield design if I remember right, meaning the shank, although very short, is narrower than the threads so it stretches when torqued down. I remember someone posting pictures of a used vs new bolt and the difference in length was very apparent.

I originally posted the information after reading the notice in the instructions that came with a rebuilt lockup torque converter. Flying Doug didn't believe it and measured his used bolts compared to new ones and found 0.010" stretch. I suppose you could grind a little off the bolts and reuse them once, but since I saw that warning, I've used new bolts every time.

I don't remember if the warning was only for lockup torque converters, but it might be even more (or only) critical with those. The bolts are too cheap to take a chance.

Frank