Finally assembled. New Precision of New Hapton TC and 36,000 GVW Hayden cooler going in with this rebuild.

I could not have done this without Transman. Thank you sir. I sincerely appreciate your patience in teaching this complete new guy how to do this. This is my first transmission build, and I was completely lost in the wood until you came and bailed me out.

I hope all of this different information helps out another guy who has to do this on his own, and maybe runs into some of the same problems that I did.

To whomever did this horrible damage to this first transmission, you're something I won't say here. However, your idiocy turned into a teachable moment for me, so I guess I owe them alittle thanks.

I will post a report after the trans is installed, and after I've driven it for a bit. Thank you all.

Glad you got it back together.

One last suggestion, leave the return line off at the cooler line fitting at the back of the main case, place it in a clear jug like a windshield solvent bottle.

Install approx 8 quarts of trans fluid in the trans. Have an assistant start the engine with the trans in park. Unless the valve body has been modified you should not have fluid flow to speak of.

When idling place the trans in neutral, once flow starts you should pump a quart of fluid out in about 10-12 seconds.
Once a quart is pumped place in park and shut the engine off.

This will make sure the whole cooler circuit is good, clean and that the anti-drain down valve is not stuck closed.

Top off the fluid and you should be good to go.

The VB has an updated Sonnax kit installed. I will go find the specs that they gave me. Ok, here they are: Upgraded Manual Valve, Upgraded Switch Valve, Upgraded Pressure Regulator Valve, all Solenoids are tested, rebuilt or replaced with new.

Unfortunately, I won't be the one installing this. I'm not set up to do it. My mechanic has been doing this for 30 plus years, so I hope he verifies that everything is flowing. If not, I can do this once I get the truck back home, its only a five minute drive. Is it common for the anti-drain down valve to be stuck after a rebuild?

A new cooler is going in, but I'm reusing the same lines. As of right now the fluid in the old unit is still bright, and when I had the pan down it had no bad sludging or metal flakes. My mechanic said he'd blow the lines out with compressed air, to check for any blockages.

My guess is the Sonnax regulatormvalve has the pump prime feature which means it should have cooler flow in Park. That’s good.
As for blowing out the lines with compressed air, he wil only be able to blow in one direction if the valve is in the line.

With a new cooler and since the old trans fluid was nice and red you are probably fine.

Not to hijack your thread, but since trans guys are on here, I have a 98 Dakota, V6, not sure what trans is in it.

It's not been changed, so what's in it, and is there anything to do to take out some of the "slack". Slow from drive to reverse and visa versa, upshifts are good.

i believe you have an A500 transmission.
if the unit is in good repair, a shift kit should solve your problem.
just my opinion, your mileage will vary.

I was thinking a newer style, I hope you’re right

A500 also goes by 42/44RE.

42/44 is the later industry designation that went in to use.

First digit is number if shifts, second number is relative torque capacity, R is rear wheel drives and E is electronic.

As for the slack you are talking about, if it does this first time in the day and does not occur the remainder of the day then it’s likley torque converter drain down.

Need more info.

Update on the transmission project.

Took the truck to mechanic's shop, tuesday before last. Popped in today to find out why I hadn't gotten any news. Found out he'd just moved the truck, with the transmission in the bed, over to his side open lot, and left it sitting in the back the entire time, and through the hurricane. He said "It was covered." I had covered the ends with heavy garbage bags and wrapped a tarp around it.

I pulled the bags off when I drove the truck back home and didn't see any signs of water inside the bags, around the seals, or anywhere near the entrances.

Do I pull the transmission apart to check everything, or do I sound ok? Please advise, I do not want all of my work to be in vain.

If the bags and tarp are totally dry inside you are likely ok. If the converter was in place only way for water to enter is the OD unit or dipstick opening.

As a quick check, pull the pan and make sure.

No converter, water could enter the pump and not get in to the pan but you should see rust I would think.

But you said things were dry so......

So, just to be safe I went and dropped the pan.

The valvebody and filter were dripping water after I unbolted them.

I have the case and OD unit apart, and have pulled everything in the main case, am drying, and cleaning. Next I will pull the OD unit and double check that everyhing is dry. Hey, at least I get to double check the orientation of the thrust bearings again.

Do I need to take the valvebody completely apart or just soak in mineral spirits? It came full of test fluid from the valve body shop and was wet with it when I put it in.

As always, I will follow any advice you have for me.

So much for dry tarp. 😅😅

At this point anybodies guess if the valve body got wet.

Oh no, the valve body definitely got wet. At least the filter was pouring water and there were water droplets on the bottom of the VB once I removed the filter.

What's the easiest way to ensure that it's purged of water?

Can I dunk and flush with mineral spirits, or does this need a complete tear down of the valve body?

If it were me I would split the valve body.

It’s already clean so just a matter of making sure all the steel valves are free and no rust forming.

Spray with WD-40 then rinse with mineral spirits.

Don’t even dry it, let it drip dry and assembled. Don’t use any towels to dry anything. Lint will screw things up.

Thank you! That is happening tomorrow. I will carefully split it open and do exactly what you recommended.

Do I need to be concerned about the solenoids?

I have been extremely careful about lint in this transmission. If I needed a rag for anything I used an old t shirt. I learned quickly that shop rags leave a ridiculous amount of lint.

I would hit everything with the WD-40 followed with mineral spirits. Get the trans running as soon as you can.

It's going into Tribb's transmission this upcoming week. I will definitely hit everything with WD-40 and mineral spirits, per your recommendations, sir.

The OD unit was dry, so bolted it back up to the main case. Only place I saw any rust was on the sun gear shell, it was nixed immediately.

VB is split, was doused in WD40 and then in mineral spirits. It's now drying inside a cracked open garbage bag. All check balls were removed, after taking clear pictures of their location, and stored safely.

Thank you for your help.

The new shop installed the trans today. I could not be happier.

I cannot believe how much smoother and stronger this truck is, with a fresh rebuild. I followed your advice, all the way through, and it turned out perfectly.

The only thing that the trans does that makes me think I need to adjust something is when it shifts down to a stop, it feels like the kickdown band hangs for a split second, and it's lurched a couple of times when getting to a complete stop. Other times it just has it's normal little "bump" and then stop.

Other than that I cannot believe how smooth these shifts are. The fluid was nice and bright when I got home, and as I drove it (first low speed around town and then on the highway after about 10 miles) it felt like it settled in and the shifts were smooth and felt right on time.

Here's the old dirty trans in the back of the truck.

Normally you should not feel a downshift when coming to a stop. Usually when you do you have a sticky TP linkage setup. Kickdown band (2nd gear band) is only on in 2nd. When slowing down it should never engage unless you manually pull it in to 2nd or stay on the throttle while pulling a grade and force 2nd gear with throttle pressure.

Closed throttle coming to a stop if you really work at it you may feel a slight bump around 1-2 mph but that’s rare most of the time.
Make sure the throttle pressure linkage is free and adjusted properly and a return spring is usually found on the TP lever to trans case.

Try shutting OD off and see if this bump disappears, it shouldn’t make a difference. The direct clutch in the OD unit comes on when OD come see off but the ORC in the OD should prevent any bump.

One other thing that I have seen is on two piece driveshafts the slip yoke at the center bearing can hang up on the splines.
Coming to a stop and depending on rate of decel the yoke can hang up on the splines then snap free/forward giving you what feels like a shift.