How a torque converter with siezed stator is like in real world driving?

[Wizard]

Subject says all.  I'm just keeping it general for now.  I did lot of googling but not more clear real world experiences.  Just techanical school-style papers dryly explaining it.

Cheers, Wizard

[Ronmar]

Hard on the neck and hard on the transmission bands?  I would say it would be like trying to ride a mini bike without a centrifugal clutch, which would be pretty difficult IMO...

[M61hops]

I worked on a 1 ton Dodge van with a 360 and a 3 speed 727 "Torque Flite" that had something wrong with the torque converter but I'm not sure if the stator was siezed or free wheeling.  I would guess it was siezed.  The guy was down in Mexico with a small trailer and found he could not back uphill at all. He went to a transmission shop in a small town and they charged him for a trans rebuild but he didn't know if they replaced the torque converter; in any case the Mexican "rebuild" didn't fix the problem.  The van was extremely sluggish to get rolling forward and couldn't back up even a slight hill.  When trying to start uphill forward the manifold vacume would eaisily drop to 0 at only part throttle and it would stall out with a backfire  thru the carb on just a medium steep grade.  If you hit a hill with even a little bit of rolling motion the van could climb it but seemed way down on power to me.  The owner had bought the van at a goverment auction and wasn't sure if it had always been this way.  He was a carpenter and had built some heavy shelves and a bed inside to make it into a camper and it was full of all his living in stuff.  I suspected the torque converter but did a tune up on it which didn't help so he took it to a transmission shop and paid for another transmission with a new torque converter and it was fixed.  He said it had never felt so good pulling away from a stop  !  Hope this helps!                          Leland

[Wizard]

Thanks! And i know this one is easily explainable and was easily understood but siezed stator I have not seen enough stories about it that why I reach out here for stories.

Freely spinning stator (stator is locked via one way clutch internal in the TC and is deflecting the flow to strike the vanes at steeper angle for extra torque).  Now if stator is not locked and is allowed to spin like this and no multipication of torque is what caused his ills (almost no motion of any vehicle)  When TC halves becomes similar in speed, the stator is allowed to spin freely wrong way.  My acceleration is fine but I'm not sure about symptoms of a seized stator and trying to find out from their experiences online is thin on the surface.

Cheers, Wizard

[mobile_bob]

only siezed converter i ever ran across was used with an allison 540 series trans behind a 9 liter international
in a mid size truck,

in that case you could not pull the gear select into any gear without a harsh engagement and stalling of the engine at idle
there was no slippage in the converter at idle to allow for a smooth engagement and no forward or reverse motion of the truck.

if you throttled up and then pulled it into gear it would lauch the truck like a dragster, and bang your head on the back glass of the cab

once rolling the truck ran out fine, although each gear shift was abit harsher than normal, and when you applied the brakes to stop it
would slow down coming up to a stop sign and stall the engine as the truck stopped

the truck acted very much like a clutch type manual trans with the pedal linkage removed, basically the converter was no longer
a slip unit but a direct drive coupling between the engine and the flywheel.

not sure that helps, but it was from a sieze converter

bob g

[rl71459]

Is a siezed stator a rare problem?  I worked in a trans shop for awhile.... Cant recall ever dealing with that. I do remember stator sprag failure...

Rob

[mobile_bob]

i have only seen one in 35 plus years, and that was the allison i referred to
for most of the last 35 i have been involved only with allisons, although i was heavy into the torqueflite 727's
and never saw one of the sieze, saw every other imaginable failure but never a siezed converter in a 727.

these newer auto's with the lock up converter, aren't they electrically actuated by the puter when the car gets up
to cruising speed? is it possible that the solenoid is stuck open and keeping the converter in lockup?

i don't know how that might act, except i would expect no torque multiplication starting off from a stop.

even then there ought to be a test port to check the pressure to the lockup and see if it is locked when it shouldn't be?

bob g

[rl71459]

Ya know what... The condition bob described sounds alot like a hung lock up converter! When I say hung
I mean it does not disengage when the vehicle slows down... it will stall the engine if you come to a complete stop... also will make the thing shift hard as hell when underway.  The times I was involved with this it was usually the "lock Up" solenoid was junk and replaceing it solved the problem! it is a cheap and simple fix... or at least the ones I saw where. As I recall all brands suffered from this same problem at one point or another.

The quick diagnostic of this condition is to disconnect the wire going to the solenoid and see if the condition quits

OK... I will quit rambling now... Sorry
Rob

[Wizard]

Stator is what helps one to take off.  If it's not held, the stator spin backwards and you get extremely weak even nothing moves the vehicle.

The typical car/minivan TC is about 8" thru 10" dia.

I'm still fishing to hear real case experience, I'm patient.

Cheers, Wizard

[Crofter]

I have had the slipping situation with the resulting lack of torque and also one where the impellers came loose and locked up the torque converter entirely. My guess is that stator locked (torque multiplication mode) would give good torque and pull strong but as soon as you got off the throttle would have no coast but instead, heavy hydraulic retard, so you would move in lurches! All or nothing. Hard on the neck for passengers!