[Bikley]

Today was brake day. My wife told me it was making a weird noise. It's been almost 3 years since we did the brakes so we pulled the front tire off, and sure enough it was down to the wear indicators.

 

[Bikley]

Well hell. It looks like the pan has to come off the tranny again. The 1-2 shift issue has returned. This time though it's only the first shift of the morning. After that it shifts normally.

I'm going to switch out the valve body with one I went through myself and put a shift kit into before. The one i put in to begin with was supposed to be "refurbished" so I didn't look at it very closely. Probably a mistake.

Then I bought a beast 1-2 accumulator made from zinc with a bonded seal. It should do the trick.

 

[WoodButcher]

Kudos to you for persistence!
When the transmission I rebuilt in my '93 went south I knew I wasn't going in again. Off to monster trans I went.

 

[Bikley]

Kudos to you for persistence!
When the transmission I rebuilt in my '93 went south I knew I wasn't going in again. Off to monster trans I went.

I've been married for 35 years. I don't give up easily. 😃

All the issues since the forward sprag exploded have been stupid little things. It's not burning clutches so it's worth going in and getting it right. Eventually we're going to rebuild the one that belongs in the Blazer and all the lessons learned so far should make that one practically bulletproof.

 

[Bikley]

I think it's fixed.

I used a bottle of TransTune and apparently gave the trans an enema. When I added it the fluid was nice and red and when I drained it, it looked like it had dysentery. The bottle says you can leave in but I wouldn't recommend it.

At any rate, once we had the pan off it seemed like the filter seal was loose. It came out way too easy, and the 1-2 shift solenoid was also loose in it's bore. After putting in my nifty new 1-2 accumulator, new filter and seal and a new O ring on the solenoid it is back to shifting normally. Thankfully no need to change the valve body.

 

[Bikley]

Here we go again...

A few days ago I was informed that the van was knocking. It was dark so I went out just to listen and figure out what was up. It was definitely knocking but it didn't sound like an engine knock, so I was thinking that maybe the flex plate had broken or a TC bolt had backed out. It sat for a couple days until it was warm enough to crawl under it. I found transmission fluid dripping from the torque converter cover. After taking the cover off we didn't see anything obvious so we knew it had to come out, again.

The first problem became obvious when we drained it and coolant came out first. Then at the back we found that the transmission mount bolts and one of the rubber disks were gone and the other is dry and rotted.

Once we had the transmission out the source of the knock was obvious, there was a a fairly deep groove on the hub of the torque converter. I forgot to take a picture because we were in a hurry to get to the shop to get a new one before they closed for the weekend, and we needed it for a core.

On a side note, it was one year ago today we put it back in after the cheap Chinese forward sprag exploded. We had a bad wind storm and a huge wildfire that burned an entire neighborhood just north of us, and the Discount Tire a couple blocks up the street collapsed.

At this point I'm not sure what was cause and what was effect. I have a new radiator, torque converter and gasket set. I'm waiting on new clutches and band and a bushing set. As soon as i get it apart I'll make the decision on steels but since it is fairly new I think they are probably ok to reuse. I'm also hoping that just the pump bushing is destroyed and not the pump itself. We'll see.

I can't seem to find the rubber disks for the transmission mount so I'm thinking about getting some of those hard rubber vibration dampers they put under washing machines.

Fun fun fun...