1987 ranger, 2.9, Automatic.
pulled the motor to do some work on it. Left the tranny and torque converter. Installed new motor mounts. Put the engine back in, lined up the flex plate holes with the torque converter, put the nuts on but didn’t torque them. Put in all bell housing to engine bolts, tightened them and then went to torque nuts on Fly wheel/torque converter and couldn’t budge the crank. Loosened all housing bolts and can turn the crank.
what is the problem???

 

Did the input shaft come out of the transmission?
It looks like it can go in either way but it does have a front and back, if reversed it will stick out to far

Torque converter seating
Torque converter MUST BE seated fully inside the bell housing FIRST, then transmission can be lifted into place and installed
Failure to do it this way will break the front pump inside the transmission, which can lock it up

This applies to ALL automatics, not a Ford thing
Short video here