Day one of the transmission project.

I purchased, from "Northern Tool", a set of 12 ton jackstands and a 2 ton long frame floor jack. I was lucky to catch them both on special - $225 for everything plus shipping. The stands are massive and I like the 12 inch footprint at the bottom. I have the car over 2 feet in the air and it is absolutely stable. The jack easily lifted the car to that height and there was plenty left over.

Starting with the exhaust system - as I feared, even heat plus penetrating oil would not loosen the nuts at the exhaust manifolds. I broke two of the three studs on the passenger side getting that converter off. I'm one for two so far on the driver's side, however the remaining one will surely suffer a similar fate.

There is enough material left to try a stud extracter tool on. I figure a good dose of heat on the manifold plus the tool might do it. (opinions?)

Otherwise, with the converters and the starter out of the way it looks like the manifolds will come out through the bottom fairly easily. (or am I dreaming?)

Sizing up the remainder of the job at this stage, it seems pretty straightforward. It looks like there will be ample room to get at everything. I don't foresee any difficulties.



I have a question for the more experienced transmission guys:

I can understand why it is probably a good idea to install the transmission and converter together. Are there any objections to just pulling the transmission without the converter. I haven't picked up a transmission jack yet and I may be removing it the hard way. It would make things a lot lighter without that twelve inch stocker weighing things down. What will it hurt?

- Tony

 

How did you attempt to get them loose? Use a 1/2 impact then tighten them just slightly and they will break loose with the impact.

It will need to come straight back enough to break the converter loose from the tranny and i'm not sure you have that much room. It would be wise to get the transmission jack because it will have to all go back in in one piece anyway, there is no escaping that.

 

Just using hand tools. A 1/2 drive ratchet. There was absolutely no give to them, and they are rusted badly. I'm going to replace all six of the studs. It would be nice if they could be removed without dropping the manifolds.

 

Tony,

Like 1989vette said, if you can get the converter far enough back without having the flywheel interfere, it won't make any difference, besides the weight. Oh, and trying to break those converter bolts loose without air tools is difficult, to say the least. They have red loctite applied from the factory and will require a propane torch if hand tools are all that is available. You will also have to wedge something into the flywheel/case gap to stop the flywheel from turning while you are removing the bolts.

As for the transmission jack, either buy an adapter for your floor jack ($42.99 at Harbor Freight) or get a dedicated transmission jack at Harbor Freight. I recently visited the Harbor Freight website and saw they increased the price of the transmission jack to $86! Even at $86, you will see how it is so worth it!

Good choice for the heavy-duty jack stand and jack. Those will pay for themselves time and time again and will provide an additional level of safety.

Sorry to hear about the exhaust removal problems, but that is just how it is. When you put the exhaust back use plenty of anti-seize and you will never have that problem again. The heat from the exhaust actually disintegrated my AIR tube to exhaust pipe clamp bolt and I had to get a new one. There were literally 2 threads left on the bolt, protected inside the thread of the clamp. The rest of the bolt was history.

Jonathan

 

Not if you don't mind wiping up a gal of trans fluid off your floor.
Some maths for you.
To drop trans with convertor , you have to pull trans back 1/2" to clear the block dowels.
To get trans out without convertor , trans has to come back nearly 6" to clear input shaft.
Even lowering the engine so the block is hard against the firewall I don't think you will get it back that far.
FYI
The top bellhousing bolts are a PITA to get to.Easiest way is floor jack under oil pan .Lower engine as far as it goes (check for clearance on wiper motor! )then
use long extentions working over the top of the trans.

For install I find it handy to cut the heads off 2 same size bolts and use them as alingment studs in the holes above the dowels.
Using nuts on these you can close up the trans to engine gap instead of trying to do so with the proper bolts risking cross threads because trans may not be square to block

 

Day 2:

Dropped the pan to drain trans. Filter came down with the pan.

Unlike other transmissions that I have been into, this filter does not have bolt holes in it. What holds it in? It does not appear to fit correctly, however it does look like the illustration I find in online parts catalogs. The nozzle that extends upward does not seem to reach far enough. Perhaps something is missing?

Also, I thought that this year (1996) 4l60e had the removable bellhousing. This case is one piece.

There was a green tag siliconed to the drivers side of the case, near the back.

Click Me

There is a possibility that this transmission has been replaced. Is there a cross reference to the above numbers?

 

The green tag indicates that it is a gm remanufactured unit.
Tag identifies it as a 1996 vette trans.
1996 vette trans had 1 piece case.
A grommet holds the filter tight into the pump bore, and the pan prevents it from falling down.

 

Excellent! Thank you for that explanation.

 

I'm finally organized to the point where the teardown is happening. First problem I've noticed is in the valve body. The highlighted valve appears to be binding. The three on the left will move in and out easily. The highlighted one on the right would not move. I pressed on it with the handle of a screwdriver and it went in and stayed in. You may be able to tell in the picture that it is slightly further in than the others.

What effect would THIS have had on the transmission in operation?

 

I think that at operating pressure, some valves may unbind and move freely. Go over each sleeve/bushing and valve with your fingernail and remove any knicks with some very fine grit emory paper (available at the local hardware store). Roll the valve with your thumb nail ,staying stationary, to find any bumps in the valves or bushings. For the actual bores, you can take a wooden dowel and wrap the emory paper around it and smooth any knicks out this way. For this technique, turn the dowel in the bore, don't pull it in and out. The same holds true when smoothing the valves, go in a circular motion around the outside.

Good luck with the rest of the rebuild!

Jonathan

 

Almost done disassembling the case and, except for the schticky valve, haven't found a bloody thing wrong yet. This transmission was rebuilt (or possibly replaced) just before I bought the car and everything looks brand new. I haven't taken the input drum apart yet so that's where the problem has to be.

I'm gonna be peeved if that valve is the whole problem and all I had to do was drop the valve body.

 

Look closer upon disassembly of the forward drum.
You may find a cracked apply piston. Also inspect the planetaries and output shaft carefully. Sometimes the shaft cracks lengthwise.

 

I can't find anything that looks bad. The clutches all look new, the seals are intact and flexible. I realize now that the thing I was looking at in the valve body is just the button plug, not the actual valve.

The input sprag locks up in one direction and freewheels in the other direction but quite hard and rough feeling.

The tips of the 3-4 apply shell are a little boogered up.

The output shaft has a noticeable worn spot HERE

What else could have caused a loss of forward drive? 3-4 Solenoid?

 

My output shaft had some wear in the same place, but it wore purple, not blue. And those plugs can be tricky . Just make sure to remove the roll-pins (if you have any) and then the button plugs should pop right out.

Jonathan

 

Well, I found it. Took the sprag apart and discovered THIS

Looks like I need an entire new assembly. The bearing races are a little rough.

It's a good thing, I was beginning to have doubts about my sanity.

 

LMAO! I was going to say in my last post to check the sprag! That might have been the problem?
Maybe they didn't replace it during the last rebuild?

Jonathan

 

Probably not. They changed all the clutches but used the original steels. Probably just did the soft parts.