Problem solved....well, sort of. I pulled the inspection plate down today and had a look inside the bellhousing. During assembly, I got the two pieces swapped around. The crankshaft bush was on the outside of the flex plate and the ring was on the inside. This makes the flex plate/torque converter assembly "shorter". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />
Ok, pulled all the sundry items off: driveshafts, linkage, electrical, etc. Unbolted the trans from the engine and with the trans on a floor jack, I slid everything backwards about 4". It was just enough to get access to the flex plate bolts. Got them out, swapped the pieces around in the correct order and got everything back together. Get in the truck, fire it up, and.......still no motion forward or back. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I wasn't too happy.
I went back to the first transmission to check some things and discovered I was unable to pull the torque converter all the way out. It'd move about 3" and then bind. A couple of good tugs finally got it out and now I can see the damage. The bearing surface of the converter is overheated and the tangs that drive the oil pump are messed up. That's what was getting hung up in the pump body. I suspect the same thing has probably happened to the 2nd transmission. So even tho the converter never quite engaged into the pump, it was close enough to generate heat and damage the pump and the converter. Now it looks like I need to find another torque converter and have the front pump assembly re-done. Then another a$$-busting weekend swapping it all out....AGAIN!
Thanks for all your help. If anyone has a used converter to fit an AW372L, I'm interested. I'll have to check locally to see if anyone can redo the pump for me.