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Anyone rebuilt a 700 themselves?

southernspeed

southernspeed

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Got some major work going on over the Christmas holidays, part of which will be rebuilding my 700R4.
I've rebuilt a TH350, is there anything I should be worried/scared about when doing the 700???
Is there any MUST HAVE tools? On the 350 I just had to make a couple of tools...no biggy.
Don't tell me to buy a rebuilt unit as I've already spent A LOT of money with TCI on parts...plus shipping a complete trans over here is out of the question!
 
might want to PM Or2Play as he as been looking into this for a while now. still collecting parts and tools
grant
 
Im curious to know if anyone has actually done this and kept a tally of their costs? Im really considering this option since I have two 700r4s in my collection of vehicles.
 
I thought about it when I had mine done but after all the horror stories and special tools (not sure what they are.) I ended up just paying a local tranny shop $200 to install my B&M Master Kit. That is pretty hard to beat.
 
cok5 said:
I thought about it when I had mine done but after all the horror stories and special tools (not sure what they are.) I ended up just paying a local tranny shop $200 to install my B&M Master Kit. That is pretty hard to beat.
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True but I'm doing a lot more than a shift kit! And over here a trans shop (who don't really know those boxes anyway) would want 10 x that!
 
No it was a complete overhaul/rebuild.....no shift kit here (that was included in the kit) I bought the best kit B&M had.
 
I'm probably stating the obvious, but take your time and take a lot of digital pictures as you take apart the trans. Taking notes would probably be a good idea, too. If you're really careful and have a fair amount of mechanical ability, I'd bet it will go well.
 
cok5 said:
No it was a complete overhaul/rebuild.....no shift kit here (that was included in the kit) I bought the best kit B&M had.
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Sorry, misread your post! Wish it were that cheap over here!!
 
i've rebuilt a 400 and then a 700, it's not easy. there are step by step video's for this, DEFINATELY invest in one of these, or dont bother trying, as well as a rebuild manual, too. just take your time, off the top of my head, you will need to buy/make a spring compressor in order to get the c-clips out a the aft end of the tranny(either one or two of em). be sure to mind witch order and where the clutches go and all that mumbo jumbo. check everything it tells you to. for me, i hated installing all the damn seals, just pissed me off cuz i sucked at it and tore my fair share. on that note, many seals are one-way, so take note, one seal at at time, just dont take them all of, take one off, replace it, repeat. snap-ring pliers make life easy, there will be a couple difficult ones if i remember correctly. the digital camera thing that jum burk said is genius, anything that looks like it may have one or two ways of doin, take a picture.. well that's all i got off the top of my head, a tranny bench-mount makes life easier as well. i didnt read the link, so sorry if i repeated a bunch of things.. best of luck, let us know if you have any question..
 
Get a GM overhaul manual for the year you need. Can beat them for details.
 
they are not that bad to do. theres one retaining clip (Ithink its the last retaining clip u pull) can be a pain. also make sure to work in a clean enviroment. I also highly reccomend you replace the pump too.
 
If you want it to live get the hardened inputshaft/drum from bowtie overdrives, after I did mine with a new factory drum, one hard shift:eek1: (with 35's)and tranny back out and a call to bowtie it was shipped next day and all is well now:D
 
recent rebuild

I recently overhauled a 4L60 a few months ago in my art vehicle; the 4L60 (a 1990 core) which I overhauled had a nightmare - a 7 vane pump and the absence of an oil slinger on the reaction carrier.

During the overhaul, I pulled out a crate of 700R4 parts from a core tranny which I tore down years ago and swapped the grenaded planetary and swapped the front pump rotor with a 10 vane. What caused my tranny to growl was a failed reaction carrier and a 7 vane pump - keep in mind that the tranny that I overhauled actually came from a 1990 K1500 with a 4.3.

I came to know that the 4.3 tranny has the same clutch packs as the small block with the exception of the pump rotor and reaction carrier. The only upgrade which I have done was to swap a DACCO DBF converter in place of a DGF purchased back in 2001 (the DBF has a 2000 stall speed).

Although my art vehicle (based on an M1009 sketch) is street driven, I did not reconnect the front driveshaft since the slip yoke is worn.
 
hmmm i wonder if i could do it? also any good tranny upgrades on the way like the hardened input shaft/drum? any liks to good sites and where can i get that video thats onthe 4 wheeler page?
 
there are a few special tools that you need, one is the piston string compressor. you can get a tool that you can use on all 5 packs, i got mine online for $80 shipped. the other 2 is depending on what brand kit you use. its the installer/resizer for the sealing rings on the input shaft and the pump stator shaft. some of the cheap kits come with a sliced sealing ring, for easy installating, but they leak. the input seal ring installer is like $100 and the resizer is another $30, the pump ring installer is $75 and the resizer is $50.

i have every tool that you would need to rebuilt a 700r4, some are general purpose tranny tools. i have well over $1500 in just the tools.

the 700r4 is a very picky tranny and a fairly challenge rebuild, a th350 is probably one of the easiest of them to rebuild. comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.
in a 700r4 everything has to be almost perfect to get any decent miles out of it. there are a couple issues that you have to look for, i can't think of them right off the top of my head, but you can find most of them online and in any book. the best and only book that i use is the ATSG book, you can order them from napa for $20.
it takes me 6-8 hours of straight working to rebuild a 700r4.
I came to know that the 4.3 tranny has the same clutch packs as the small block with the exception of the pump rotor and reaction carrier.
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ive been telling people this for years, but everyone still thinks that the 4.3 has less clutch packs and are a weaker tranny. the pump rotor is the same, they used a 10 vane after 86 or 87 no matter what its behind, sounds like yours was swapped in. the reaction carrier is a little different between the 4.3 and the 350, nothing to be worried about though.
 
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