I just bought a 324 with hydramatic from a '55 Olds Holiday to put in a '36 Chevrolet Pickup I am building. I am trying to remove the transmission (which is good) to rebuild the motor. For some reason it moves about 1/4 inch and them stops. Pry bars and supporting the trans weight adequately don't seem to help. What could be causing this. I don't want to break anything but am very frustrated as everyone says it should come right out.
Thanks in advance for any help offered, Bill

 

The early Olds doesn't have a conventional torque converter. It has a 'coupler' that must be split. The front is like a flywheel. There are 32 bolts that hold it together. You will have to rotate the engine to get to all the bolts. Once they are all undone it will come apart. Remember to drain it first.

 

Thanks for the response, but when tried that it still didn't come apart. The flange on the "not a torque converter" came up to the opening in the bell housing and everything stopped again. Could it just be dried grease/oil and dirt on the end of the splined shaft binding? If so any ideas how to clean , or how much prying force can I safely apply without damaging the coupler?

 

So I got help from various sources and all failed to mention the critical component. You must first remove the bottom half of the bell-housing in order to remove the transmission. Mine was so covered in storage dirt and grime that I did not initially recognize the existence of a separate removable lower half of the cast in the block bell-housing.
With that removed and the torque coupler unbolted from the flex-plate there is room to pull the trans and torque coupler back and down separating the transmission from the motor. Now the trans is on a service cart and the motor is on an engine stand ready for further dismantling and assessment. Phewww! Glad to have that accomplished.