ZZ3Astro

This is my first time touching an automatic beyond the valve body and servo change. Had a bad experience with a local build and also recieved a defective B&M Holeshot 2400, so I changed my direction..

I did alot of research and ended up going with Dana at Pro Built Automatics. He recommended a modified version of his Pro Street build so that's what I ordered. Locally I sourced a 4L60e with a Vigilante 9.5" lockup converter, 2800-3000 stall, along with a beast sunshell for a great price (about half of a new vigilante). I will be using the input shaft from the 4L60e but the 700 case for now. I plan to build a microsquirt controller and will switch to the 4L next year.

Anyway, it seems like I've been waiting forever for the parts. I got tired of waiting and went ahead and tore down the trans so I could get the case to the cleaning machine. That way when my parts finally do show up, I'll be able to start putting things together. With any luck, I'll be finishing up the build early next week and hopefully have it in the car by next Friday. We'll see. It was a really straightforward tear-down. I'd rather gut the trans than work on the valve body from under the car, that's for sure!

Some pics I took along the way...


Got the valve body and servo out.. front pump bolts also out.


Front pump removed, revealing front drum assy and input shaft. This just lifts right out in one piece. Once that is out, the band comes right out.


The same parts I just mentioned now on the bench. A couple of spring clips holds the drum assy together. It has a bunch of clutches and an apply servo and I believe a planetary gear set in it.


This next section is mostly clutches behind a sprag bearing. Just in front of this was a planetary bearing and sunshell. Once the planetary came out, a spring clip had to be removed.


And this is the whole lot. Left side of pic is the front of the trans.

That's where I am tonight. The case was stipped down and I'll bring it by the transmission shop in the morning. Hope they make it look good!

robertfrank

iTrader: (27)

I bought a road race kit from Dana earlier this year and I'll tell you there is NO ONE who offers better customer service than him. He even called me at 11:30 at night to make adjustments on the kit he made for me. I would like to build it myself but I have a friend who is seven time world certified auto trans tech who's also now an instructor for UTI who's going to build it for me. So I think he's a little better qualified,lol

ZZ3Astro

Good to hear.. Dana isn't the fastest in the world to get your parts sent out, but if that means he gets it right the first time then it's well worth the wait. I don't like R&R'ing a transmission very often!

I can see where an experienced set of eye would be useful, particularly in assessing the condition of some of the parts that can get worn. I've got to great transmission shops just around the corner though, so I'll bring any questionable parts to them for inspection.

ZZ3Astro

Well the parts finally arrived. There isn't much documentation with this kit, but the internals are really simple and straighforward. A few clearance measurements and put everything back together the way it came out. I've ran into a few gotchas when it comes to needing the services of the transmission shop (luckily right down the street). Mostly with spring pack compression, bushing replacement, finding a suitable reverse input drum since mine was dished and today's dilemna, the pump stator has to be pressed out. Luckily I've got a friendly bunch at the trans shop and they've been quite helpful.

So I'm done with the internals, except for the pump rebuild because of needing the stator pressed. So tonight I hope to be done with the pump and install the servo. Then all I have left is the valve body work tomorrow and it's ready to roll.

Anyway some progress pics.


All of the old clutchs and steels along with the band and reverse input drum.


Case back from the cleaners


Input drum/reverse input drum all assembled, checked and ready to go in!


Pump halves.. new stator at top right of pic.


My transmission 'shop'.. I used some plastiboard stuff from Home Depot bathroom section for a nice clean countertop. Worked out well. You can see my spare 4L60e on the lower left sitting on my home made transmission mount (a bucket with a hole in the lid). I stole the reverse input drum from the 4L60e as the ones from the trans shop were all dished. They said it would be fine and I said this is a 600 hp build. They rolled their eyes and said these won't take that kind of power. Well luckily I don't have quite that much

Burnout91

It sounds like you have a handle on the trans rebuild.......but the bumper sticker on the work bench ("McCain / MILF") is priceless, bro!

Bill

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

dana is great to work with for sure. helps get you what you need the first time.

siduramaxde

I did my first 700r4 rebuild this past winter and I really enjoyed doing it. I took my time and when I got it back in the car it worked great! Trannys aren't that bad to work on. Everyone thinks trannys are hard to work on but it's not bad at all to rebuild one.

ZZ3Astro

The worst part of this job, by far, has been the easy to get to stuff. The valve body had to be upgraded to the newer style and the choices were limited. I spent a good part of today taking every valve apart and cleaning junk out of it. I was on track to put it back in the car tonight, but the accumulator housing has a casting flaw and now I have to find one of those.

It's been quite the experience.. not exactly hard, but this isn't a job I want to be forced to do in short order again. There are a lot of time consuming trips to get replacement parts, things pressed on etc. If I do another one, I'll buy a hydraulic press as well as a bushing changer tool kit before I start on it.

Right now I'm stuck with two pins that need to be pressed in and the accumulator. What sucks more is a promised my friend I'd have it done tonight and he's cleared his rack and morning to put the trans in for me while I go to WORK for the day, something I skipped out on today trying to get this thing in.

Bummed out, the weather is cool and I really wanted to be tuning this thing for the next few nights and make it to the drags Sunday.

Pro Built Automatics

To install the pins, take the accumulator housing and using the new piston as a guide, install the pin and tap it in carefully with a hammer (two or three wacks) and flip over the housing with the piston still in it as the guide, and place it on a hardened piece of metal, and hit the housing with a "dead blow hammer" if you have it, till the pin is flush with the bottom of the housing. Now turn over the housing and carefully continue tapping the pin in till it bottoms out. Make sure you use the red or blue loctite on the pin installation. Once you are done the piston should go up and down on the pin freely (not touching the sides of the housing). Flat sand the housing when done to make sure that it is flat (they warp). Now continue with the Shift kit installation. If you have any questions, call me at 909 795-1876. Dana

PS: The reverse/input drum that I see in the pictures "does not" look good where the band rides. Did you take a "straight edge" and check for flatness. It must be flat. If it is not the transmission will lose the 2-4 band very quickly.

ZZ3Astro

Dana,

Actually in my photos there are several reverse input drums depending on when the photo was taken. I ended up using the one out of my 4L60e and it was straight.

Got it running and driving tonight after another hour of work this morning - specifically going to the trans shop and searching for a suitable accumulator and then installed that and the pan.. ran it to my friend's shop where he already had the car on the lift. I went to work and he put it in for me.. good to have friends like that!

Everything seems to be great so far and we took it on a 50 mile break-in drive working on the tune (I upgraded the fuel pump and now I'm way too rich in boost as the original pump couldn't supply enough fuel). The only issue is my governor does not have stock springs and as expected, the part throttle shift for third is a bit late and it likes to kick down too easily. I've got my hands on a stock tpi governor and will put it in soon. Also the pump seemed a little noisy when we first ran it but I think it's behaving now.

Just before I got back home I did a launch and went through a couple of gears. This new 9.5" converter is gonna take some practice for traction! Anyway the shifts are phenomenal. They aren't bang/break hard, just solid instant shifts and the car keeps going.

So going forward, I just need to spend a few more hours changing the VE tables to get the injectors under control I was at 100% duty cycle with the old fuel pump and we're down in the 55% range now. Lots of room to turn up the boost soon!

ZZ3Astro

Finally made a quick video of it today... I love this little camera but it has AGC on the sound and makes everything sound weird. Either way, I'm super pleased with this transmission setup. Hats of to Dana, the shifts are the best I've ever had in a transmission.. I can't get over how quick they occur!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrsSPPMcFhM

Hoping things will hold together (both in terms of the weather AND the car!) and possibly work out for a trip to the drag strip this weekend. We'll see.

ZZ3Astro

Loving this build... Dana's shift setup rock! I do still have to deal with the incorrect shift valves that came in this valve body as my shift points logged as follows:

1->2 5700 rpm
2->3 4900 rpm
3->4 4700 rpm (oops left it in OD!)

Every run I did I just left it in D so I could concentrate on the launches and tune. Could have manually shifted the 2-3 but really 4900 isn't too bad.. 5200 is about where it should be though. 5700 is definitely not helping the ET though!

Anyway, here is my favorite video from the strip... check the link at the end of the video for the other vid which has all 9 runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn66egG2nTo

Pro Built Automatics

Tell me the letter/number code on the end of the shift valve bushings? 1-2 is closest to the outside of the valve body, then the next is 2-3 and then the 3-4 shift valve bushing. I need all "three"....