Crank end play, destroyed converter, 408 nightmare

As mentioned above, you can unbolt the converter and slide it back into the pump. The converter SHOULD slide so far back it damn near, or even touches the case. I say it may or may not touch the case because of dimensional tolerances. But if it doesn't touch the case it better be damn close.

If you are lucky (I'm not) you might be able to grab the converter and spin it a bit while trying to push it back and it MAY go back into the pump. I've never been able to do it. In fact, as a lesson to my friends who don't listen, when I catch what they've done, I make the pull the trans just so they learn to slow down and do it once.

Yes, I'm a prick and difficult to get along with. I don't like doing things twice. Especially when it costs money to do it wrong.
Thanks. This was what I thought. And should be easy enough to alleviate my concern. Because I just saw this happen. To a Chevy friend's power glide. Pump shot and nice gouging around pump. All inside one block of driving. It sounded bad and was performing like trans was slipping. I don't need to see this twice to anyone.

All my road hot rods are or were manual transmission. (I just believe it brings a better "back in the day" experience.) So my auto trans experience is lighter. But I do remember my Vo-tech automotive class back in the 70s. And I was told explicitly not to bolt converter on first. So now I'm sounding alittle like a "Know it all" explaining. "I wouldn't do that." So thanks for confirming for me.