D17VTECPOWER

iTrader: (1)

Please forgive my dumb question, I know almost nothing about automatic transmissions. I am in the middle of changing the transmission in my 2005 Civic to a JDM SLXA transmission, but I didn't fill the torque converter with new fluid before I put it in because I wanted to avoid making a mess. I figured it didn't matter because the pump would fill it anyways, but I realized that the torque converter is a fluid coupling and won't turn the transmission's shaft with no fluid in it, so the pump may never even turn. Is this a problem, or will the transmission's pump fill the torque converter anyways? Thanks in advance and sorry for the stupid question

Colin42

there's a reason the torque converter is supposed to be filled before you install it.......

D17VTECPOWER

iTrader: (1)

I have an update. I filled the trans with fluid and ran the engine for about 10 seconds with the trans in neutral to see if the pump would fill the torque converter, and somehow it did. It dropped the fluid level by about 2 quarts, so I filled it up again and ran it for another 10 seconds. This time the fluid level only dropped by about 1/2 a quart, so I topped it off and ran it through the gears and rechecked the fluid. The trans took a total of about 5.75 out of 6 quarts of fluid. The transmission works perfectly fine now.

Knowing almost nothing about transmissions, I am confused about how the torque converter was able to spin the transmission's shaft to run the pump with no fluid in it since it is a fluid coupling. Anyone know how this worked? Thanks