Nothing new to tell you, guys. It's been raining here and I've been busy and I've only just now arranged for a tow. I'm looking up torque converters and flex plates now, and I'm beginning to think that I may need a torque converter made for the 3.3...
I really appreciate the input, you're basically giving me a list of what I need to look for that I couldn't find in my FSM. Now if only it would stop raining. I'll let you know when I find out if it's a loose bolt, bent flex plate, mangled torque converter, or something even worse, then hopefully we can figure out why it happened so that hopefully others can avoid it.
I'm still hoping for a quick fix, but in the interest of gathering information, is it better to choose a torque converter based on the engine, or the transmission? Or should I just figure out a year model which had the vg33e and the RE4R01A? Will the torque converter out of an Xterra that had a 5-speed auto work with my 4-speed? Is there anyone who makes heavy duty or racing quality torque converters or flywheels for these?
I guess it might be a good time to put in a new(ish?) tranny, but I really don't want to. I'm hoping not to have to take the transmission out at all, and I'd almost rather not have to take the engine back out either, if it turns out to be a loose bolt or something, but I suppose I have to check the flywheel and torque converter now.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I still don't know if the engine will free up as soon as I pull the starter back out. I do hope that if I damaged the brand new starter it'll be covered by the limited warranty. I'm waiting for the tow truck now. I'll try to keep up with this thread as I get time to work on the truck. I can hardly wait to see what I did wrong that caused this, myself, and warn people about it. I'm almost tempted to try to get a recording of the sound it's making, but I really don't want to try to start it again until I check everything and the engine turns freely.
Edit: I just realized that flywheels are fot manual transmissions and flexplates are for automatic transmissions and they're not synonymous. So...my mistake, I meant flexplate the whole time.