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How would you build an auto tranny?

T

TrcksR4ME

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I am getting close to having my th350 rebuilt, and have been kicking around some ideas for it. The truck only see's maybe 1,000-2,000 miles a year, but it does have to do pavement to get to the trail.

I kinda like the idea of a reverse manual valve body, but not sure how good this would be for street driving. Also have looked at the transgo shift kit, and was thinking like their stage 3 kit.

Just want to get a good plan for what I want to do before I do it. One of those things where I can basically only afford to do it once, so don't want to feel like I compromised on it. I am aiming at off-road performance and making it HD. Street driving characteristics are low on the totem poll.

Any idears /forums/images/graemlins/ears.gif Opinions /forums/images/graemlins/ears.gif Thoughts /forums/images/graemlins/ears.gif
 
a full manual valve body would not be a big deal with only limited street driving. Just get all the internals replaced with heavy duty components
 
The only two reservations I have about the reverse manual valve body are one it has to have compression braking and two my wife doesn't like the idea (and she does drive my blazer).

If I do mine the way I'd really like I will have the full manual and Art Carr shifter.
 
/forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif hmmm good points.

I don't know all the ins and outs of the manual valve body setup, what all is changed with this setup? I know it goes 1-2-D, and read it removes the passing gear function, what else? Thanks
 
The only thing with a TH350 is that you cant get a manual reverse pattern valve body with compression braking. you can get just a manual valve body , but not with the compression braking feature. Id just usea a good hughes performance race rebuild kit with the good clutches and use a staget 2 shift kit. I think more than that would be to harsh.
 
The valve bodies are in fact available with compression braking. I have one in my TH350 in the buggy. I love it and for that few miles a year I would do it in a heart beat.
If you do get one have the tranny built with the toughest parts you can get, clutches etc. DO NOT do much if anything to inprove the tightness of the shifts. The reverse manual valve bodies run full line pressure all of the time so all shifts are quick and firm.
Watch the down shifts as they will try to put you through the windsheild when in low range and four wheel drive. With the doubler in 4:1 I have to almost stop to shift down a gear.
Now two wheel drive is a blast because you can come into corners fast and hard grab a gear lower, break the rear loose and get into a slide then go back up a gear to get the tires to grab agian.

I would get one agian if I had the chance.
BTW Mine is a TCI valve body. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know all the ins and outs of the manual valve body setup, what all is changed with this setup? I know it goes 1-2-D, and read it removes the passing gear function, what else? Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

As far as function, it's basically like having a manual and not having a clutch. There's no passing downshift; but you do it just like you were driving a stick, downshift yourself. I had a rachet shifter in my old blazer, and I would always just downshift manually. I was a lot of fun.

The other cool thing that comes in handy if you have a doubler like Brandon is that you can start in any gear. If the shifter is in "D" you will be in drive.

Truth be told, whenever I get my tranny rebuilt I'm doing the full manual reverse valve body whether the wife likes it or not. /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif I drive in the mountains a lot; and I like being able to manually downshift when I like, especially on downhill grades.
 
Wow....awesome /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif

I like the idea of being able to start in any gear, I don't have a doubler, but can imagine that might be handy in slick mud where your tires just want to spin all day long.

When you guys say upgrade the internals, what exactly do you mean? Like the actual internals of the tranny or is that in reference to what rebuild kit you get?

Info has been awesome, you guys rock! I really like the sound of the manual valve body the more I hear about it. /forums/images/graemlins/woot.gif
 
when i said internals i ment things like sun shells and sprags. There are a few parts that are known to be weaker in the 350 that when people are building them up grade the weak link of the 350 is the roller clutches they tend to break
 
Ok, so my plan is to buy a core th350 for this build so I can keep my truck useable through this project.

What I want to do is buy the parts a little at a time and either try rebuilding the tranny myself OR finding someone who builds tranny's to do it with my parts.

So if I go the full manual valve body route, what should my shopping list look like?
-Assume I will need a good quality rebuild kit,
-Manual valve body,
-Do I need a new torque converter?
-Internals, what parts are a needed, and what places sell them?

Is building a tranny like this something I could do with a good manual/video, and plenty of time? Or should I just plan on having someone do the work for me? I am willing to try myself, I am pretty good at tinkering with things.

Thanks for all the help!
 
get your self a good manual and vedio. If you take your time you should have no problem doing it your self. I would get a new torque converter it also gives you a chance to change the stall speed you are using. A good source for parts is ebay. In order to tell what all the internals you need you have to first get the core tranny and see if any thing is broken and go from there. Make sure the rebuild kit you use has steels and bushings a lot of cheaper kits do not have these. Also i would read up online about parts to be upgraded.
If you are going to do it your self read over the manual several times and learn about it. One major tip for trannys is keep every thing extreamly clean i can not stress that enough
 
My father-in-law and I rebuilt my TH400. It's got about 15,000miles and 3 years and it's still working. I figure I at least got the $100 that the rebuild cost baok out of it. We used a step-by-step manual to do it. It wasn't necessarily easy, but not impossible.
 
Ok, so I surfed around the net last night finding out more about th350's. SOunds like rebuilding it myself is possible if I get a good book and take my time. I also read about the possibility of changine the first gear ratio. I wonder how hard that would be if I am already in there replacing parts and making upgrades? Overall it was pretty hard to find good solid info on the net aside from "you can do this or that" but then no details about it.

I also read some opinions about rebuild kits, and some say they that with the name brand kits you are paying for the name and that its probably not even made by that company. I was thinking of along the lines of TCI and one of their "race" rebuild kits, but is it worth the extra money? Also was looking at the TCI manual valve body, reverse shift with compression braking in 1st and 2nd.

Now I wish I didn't already have a vacation planned for two weeks from now, that money would have paid for my new tranny /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif /forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif
 
Anyone know about the different rebuild kits being sold /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif I don't want to spend $200+ to find out the $100 kit is the same thing. Thanks
 
Cool, thanks for the link!

Looks like they also sell a lot of the upgrade parts too, Saweet /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
Along with the bulkparts link try kds performance I picked up the repair manual and video from kds. I'm currently gathering all the upgrade hard parts for my 700 rebuild. I'm planning on doing the rev manual valve body with braking. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
Z /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif
 
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