I had the engine running perfectly but it stalled when i put it into gear. so i took the transmission out and installed a new TC. After that was installed i started the car and it now is not running right. The car moved but i cant know for sure if the TC was bad until the engine starts running right. It sounds like it has a knock, or no compression. It might be the exhaust because its not tight, or for some reason i lost a piston when i was working on it.

 

no , not a piston ...
but did you check plugs wires , that they did not get moved around or unplugged/ damaged during taking off the cap to do the tranny.

that is my next idea, did you take the cap off soo it didn't get damaged buy the possible tilting of the engine. even turned the distributor if it's loose???
or even the vacumm line to brake booster came off

was it the stalling that made it stop running good , maybe timing chain.

 

by any chance could you have put the TC in wrong? did you turn it back and forth sliding it in each gear? did you put the proper amount of tranny fluid (also fluid in the TC itself)?

Sorry cant really diagnose the prob with your question, not getting it lol, maybe it's just me lol

 

I put 6 quarts in the TC and it was seated correctly. also the engine was tilted on the distributor, so maybe it damaged the distributor or the cap, or rotor. Maybe even bent it. But the plugs and vacuum lines are fine.

 

IDK maybe try another dist.? or maybe the dist. moved and your timing is off?

 

well it turns out the compression tester i was using was broken, probably because it is over 25 yrs old. so i have at least 170psi in each area. so for some reason i put the spark plugs back in and it runs fine, except it has a bad idol because its not tuned right.

 

might have been just a loose plug wire connection
or might be a wire that got too close to exhaust, burned a little and was arcing.
now you moved it and it is ok???
the good news is that it's working, just keep it in mind if it comes back when it rains.