[Alan Roehrich]

Did he take the plate loose from the frame, or did he take the plate out completely? If the mid plate was removed completely, that is the problem, unless the converter was also altered. The converter should be made to compensate for the thickness of the mid plate. When you then remove the mid plate, the converter is "too long", and you have a thrust problem.

Also, it is possible for the pump itself to develop a leak internally, and have line pressure leak into the converter charge/cooler circuit, that will create excessive pressure and burn the thrust bearing.

I've also seen people block off the cooler passages and create this problem. I just don't like blocking the cooler, if I'm not going to run a cooler, I make a small loop from steel tubing to run between the two cooler fittings, I find that to cause no problems at all, where I've seen various methods of blocking off the cooler cause all sorts of problems.