I pretty much hate body work in general, but paint stripping is tedious and a pain! I have found that those sponge type stripper pads on my angle grinder strip easier and faster than anything else! They also last a long time compared to flapper discs that seem to either fill up, or wear down, and heat up the metal too much!

 

Thats what I used Val. I got the idea from you actually. It took two to do the doors and four to do the whole truck. I use the double thick ones on a pistol grip gun going 28000 rpm. It never gets hot.

 

Well its been a bit and I have not much to say really. I did get the doors hung again. I wanted to prime them but I got into this trans build and It turned into a bit of a project in its self. Check it out.

I had this TH350 Laying around and needed another trans so I could swap the ST10 from the truck back to the car. I know I just spent a summer getting to work and it did but I really want the stick in my car.

The trans was torn down and completey cleaned and inpected for cracks. As well as deburring the areas with flash including some odd flash stuck in the fluid passages on the Valvebody side of the case.

I'm sure this wasnt flowing well.



Then I took a flat stone similar to one for sharpening a knife but actually made perfectly flat to go over the Valve body to ensure it didnt cross leak on itself. I did the same to the case side as well. I used a long board for body work on the case side. I then went through and knocked the sharp corners off both sides. Just something I do, couldnt help it. I work with tooling too much.

You can see the high spots on the VB here.


Then I installed a TransGo shift reprograming kit. Then cleaned the guts up in my parts washer and finally with brake clean to get the residue off them. I inspected everything as i went laying it all out on a clean cart covered in shop towels.

Here is right after I did the VB. I mixed AFT with petroleum jelly to thin it out. I would have never thought of that but the video I borrowed from Tim (78 on my plate) showed it and I thought it was cool.


Turns out my input and out put shaft were both toast. I got a hardened input with a new drum tig welded to the shaft for 125 so I grabbed it. This trans was a short shaft but it was going to go in my truck. I have a long drive shaft to make up for the shorter trans but it vibrated like heck. So I figured might as well make it a 9" output if I was gonna replace it anyhow. I got the shaft for $20 and the tail cone for $12 Not bad really.


After all that I had to take the apply pistons to work and machine .160" off each one to allow 5 clutches and steels in each drum. It came with 3 and 4. I also added a hardened intermediate sprag race as well as every other mod I could find in order to up the torque capacity of the trans. The only thing I should have done was get a intermediate drum with a 36 element sprag. I couldnt justify adding another $300 to what was supposed to be a budget rebuild. But total I have Less than 600 in it including buying tools for pulling the piston springs and a bushing installer.

I'm not quite done with the build. I still need to replace a couple pieces. I was shorted a couple pieces in my rebuild kit too.

Anyone reading have a intermediate wave steel/spring. I am also looking for forward and direct drum pressure plates. I will pay for them as long as their not heat checked or junk. More to come.

 

I have the thinner pressure plates here. I had to get thicker ones when I did mine. The rebuild kits come with 4/5 steels for the forward/direct drums. You should have 5 frictions for each I know. I called them on that too! If you have an old steel just sand it and it should be good to use. Progress is lookin' good!

 

Crazy flash in the case huh?

 

Never messed with automatics myself. Considered it a lot, but always chickened out and either had somebody else do it, or just bought a replacement trans.

 

I borrowed a DVD from Tim and watched it about ten times before I ever ordered parts. They are not that scarey when you watch someone do it step by step without ever cutting away like the Sat morning shows due. Plus the guy showed the weak points and how to do a TransGo reprograming kit. I did the math and after buying the spring compressor ($100) I have about $500 into what would cost $1000 or more from the big companies. I have a hardened input shaft and upgrades through out to get the HP rating about 650. Not bad really. I have a BOP TH400 at my dads that I'm going to dig into. The plan on that is to get it to 1000hp w/ a trans brake. I want to sell it after that to finance building a couple more and maybe doing it on the side now that I have the tools. I could use the $500 bushing driver kit but I make due with what I have here.

 

I've put the Trango reprogramming kits in before, and wasn't intimidated by them. Just never got into complete rebuilds. I'd like to get a good 700r4 to swap into my daily driver '69 Suburban to make it more economical on road trips. Hate to take a perfect TH400 out though, so keep waiting for either a screaming deal on the 700, or the 400 to give me problems, so I have an excuse to do it.

 

There is a J Yard here that has literally a mountain of cores. But a 700 will run between 100-200 bucks. Another 300 in it and it will be bullet proof. I still have my T10 but my ankle isnt going to get any better in this life so I may give up on the manual teans deal all together. On the fence really. If I could build an auto that liked to be down shifted that would be cool. I did build the Th350 to handle down shifts but they will never like it.

 

The TH350 in my Camaro loved to downshift, and worked fantastic both directions, but I have no idea what all the builder did, as it was done in the mid 80's and I long ago forgot. I do know he made it fully manual, and it was a Transgo kit, but not much else.
The TH350 in my Austin is also fully manual, but much different. It free wheels in 3rd gear, and has compression in 2nd and 1st. But if I drop it into 1st at anything over 10 mph it locks up so hard it feels like it will tear itself apart!
I've found a couple builders that will build me a 700R4 for around $300, but I need a good core, and their price doesn't include converter work, if it needs it. Just not sure I'll drive it enough to save the cost in gas mileage, so I've been hesitating.