Sorry. When you said fly wheel, I missed that this was an automatic.
That is possible that the torque converter came out but normally that would cause an issue when trying to torque everything that it won't actually go back together. Basically the bell housing would sit off the engine and not be flush.
Did you get the torque converter bolts back through the flexplate and tighten the nuts back down?
My bet is still the starter is faulty. Even though it operates when pulled out, does not mean it is able to turn the engine over.
If you have gone to this amount of trouble, I would just throw that old starter on before you pull the transmission back again.
I have done hundreds of these transmissions and starters so I have had that out many times and if you did not remove the converter but only pushed the transmission back, that converter should have stayed in place.
Wednesday, December 30th, 2020 AT 4:54 PM