Re: 56 Ultramatic Torque Converters

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2013/2/9 15:09:27

Yeah, the wave washer did not prove to be an improvement; IIRC it was upgraded once during production to a hardened or phosphatized wave washer or something similar. As the washer disintegerates into little pieces of sharp steel it just churnes around and chews the living heck out of the turbine blades. The best bet is to just eliminate it and return (hopefully before it disintegratges) to the 55 arrangement. Kanter sells a wave-washer eliminator kit and has so for quite some years. Most of the better Ultramatic rebuilders are aware of this weakness and routinely make the change.

There may still be a few NOS units around, if not used 56 converters should be plentiful, I'd give Mike Dulinksi a try, that's where I got my spare unit.