Automatic Transmission Rebuilding

Clear the room because today your attention is mandatory over the last couple of shows, I've tried some things that I've never tried before.

Automotive related. Of course,

Tommy helped me through some of the difficult panel repairs.

Some I mastered some I didn't

on the Challenger Kevin shared his tricks on vinyl top installation.

Mike walked me through the glass installation

and fr taught me more than I could absorb on top notch paintings.

I think next time we'll try the vinyl job ourselves, the glass I'm still not gonna do,

but sometimes we have no choice and that's how I learned how to overhaul this confusing, scary and unavoidable part of every car. Some transmission shops get a bad rap mainly because when they're explaining to you what the problem is, it all sounds like

Yiddish. Some bad shops will take advantage of this lack of knowledge. So pay attention today and you won't get caught with your pants down

for a little added insurance. A TSG has over 100 manuals covering foreign and domestic automatic transmissions. Now I'm not going to cover this whole book, but I will hit the high points.

Our patient today is blown apart turbo 350

automatic. The first thing you wanna do is inspect the case for any cracks or damages. Always check around the bell housing because that's where it bolts to the engine.

The second thing

you wanna clean and level off this mouse maze full of balls. Don't worry, I'll explain what that does later.

The easiest way to clean it off, take a file and just file it down.

This is the governor. I'll explain what that does later on too. But for now you wanna inspect your governor board, make sure that there's no obvious scarring. And if there is, they make a tool to fix it, you can also stick the governor in wiggle it side to side. Make sure it spins freely. Good day. Governor.

A scribe releases the snap ring

because under this cap lives, the accumulator,

it stores fluid and regulates pressure for a smooth transition from first to second year.

A special tool is needed for the next item on our list.

It adds compression to remove another snap ring so we can get to the low reverse piston. A

simple blast of air pops it out

with the case totally bare. It's time to clean it up.

The outside is just for looks but like a Twinkie. It's what's on the inside that counts.

Spend some time here. You don't want any trash, chewing up your new parts. If you don't have a parts washer, your local car wash will do the trick

with it. Clean and dry. The low reverse piston can go back in

its function is simple, affected by fluid pressure. It dictates forward or reverse movement.

Before we start reassembling. There's something that you guys need to know. The turbo 350 came in a couple of different configurations. You have your short shaft, which is a six inch tail shaft housing, most of your cars utilize this, then you have your long shaft, which is a nine inch tail shaft housing full size cars and full size trucks use this. Now, our application is gonna be a long shaft and it's a good thing because somebody booger it up the shore.

This ring gear is still in good shape.

So we'll transfer it over to our long shaft

with the Torrington bearing at the bottom of the case, the long shaft can be installed and everything else gets stacked on top of this

before I start stacking, I'm gonna do my best to explain an automatic transmission in 30 seconds or less. This cut away from wild tech is gonna help us do just that.

It all starts with the

converter which converts mechanical energy to fluid energy. The fluid goes through the pump

and the valve body which controls these four clutch packs.

This pack is always engaged. Once you put it in gear

fluid pressure engages first gear spring pressure gets overridden, the clutch pack releases

giving you second gear once pressure gets too high,

it'll release giving you third gear. Hence, a three speed automatic

clutches alone won't change your gear ratio. That's where these come in. This planetary gear set spins inside of a ring gear giving you a specific gear ratio.

This set is a little bit lower than the other one. Now, you're probably wondering why there's only two in this transmission. That's because there's a, a little bit of sharing going on low, reversed 2nd and 3rd.

At this point, I'm simply rebuilding the transmission, replacing stock parts with new ones. Some of these clutches are worn out, even warped heading you to a quick tow truck bill. These new ones, they may look flimsy but there's so many of them, they share the load.

I got some new steels as well. There was nothing wrong with the old ones. So I media blast them to make a rougher surface for more bite. So let the stacking begin

even though your clutches are new, you still wanna check your stack to make sure it's nice and flat

planetary loads first

followed by the stack.

The low reverse sprag in the turbo 350 is a known weakling. So we're going to upgrade with this stock replacement from A 700 R four simply because it's beefier.

A quick test fit first.

It sits on a step in the cage stopping it slightly above the stack clearance can be checked through this window.

The thickness of one steel is all you want.

Happy with that. This retainer spring will keep it from spinning

and the thrust washer and a huge snap ring will keep it in place.

Why do they call it a sun gear in the center of this drive shell? Because all the planeta revolve around it.

More snap rings and thrust

bes before the ring gear finds its orbit

with that. We're about a third of the way there. Everything else will get done in the daylight. Now, when we come back from the break, I'm going to show you an easy way to check your handiwork before you put it in.

Hey, quit chopping on those chips. The break is over. We're about a third of the way done in our turbo 350 automatic transmission rebuild, but we've still got a lot of work to do. Some of the work has been done for us. We bought this entire rebuild kit from bowler performance transmissions, everything from new clutches, steals, pushing

Torrington bearings, even this hardened steel race and new sprag for this direct drive drum.

The old ones look fine, but for cheap insurance, we went ahead and replaced it. This next piece has been modified. It's shorter than stock and here's why

this additional space is to hold one more steel and one more clutch allowing the transmission to handle more torque.

The last part that goes in our direct drive drum is gonna require a special tool or a little bit of creative thinking. It's this spring pack. Its job is to disengage the clutches when there's a pressure change in the transmission.

The challenge here is to compress it far enough for the snap ring,

the forward drum goes together the same way. But look at what I found.

There's not supposed to be a gap in here. This is how one tranny shop can give everybody a bad name.

Here's what they did, the clearance wasn't right. So instead of taking the time and giving you a new part and fixing it properly, they took an old steel, they twisted it, put it back in, temporarily fixing it. It's wrong. It's a dirty shortcut.

Every piston gets a new set of seals. Tranny fluid is not the greatest lubricant. So adding some motor oil will help keep me from tearing them up. A feel of gauge keeps them from rolling up on you

another spring set,

the clutch and steel stack

and finally the two drums, one slightly modified share the input shaft.

The heart of the tranny is next. I clean the front pump, the gears are still good. These channels send fluid to specific locations.

Here's a few tricks I learned along the way.

Cut a cleaned up low

reverse clutch, then put it beneath the intermediate piston to tighten the clutch pack to come

and the spring pack that bolts on.

There's a lot of play in the two halves.

So a few hose clamps join together, we'll center it all up.

Here's a cool way to check how well you put those drums together,

rest them on top of the pump and with 60 P si of air force it into the correct channels. Then you can tell if the fluid to come will engage the pistons,

the forward drum, you can watch the direct drive drum. You have to listen for

if they don't move or you have an air leak start over. Ours is good.

This band stops the direct drive drum from rotating for a split second

during up and down shifts.

The intermediate clutch and steel stack is next.

This is one of two wave springs that cushion internal forward movement of the parts

and stops the knocking during shifts.

A gasket and some lube

to lock in the pump.

Guess what? We just overhauled and slightly modified our turbo 350 transmission. Now we could install the valve body and drive it, but that ain't our style. So after the break, I'm gonna show you how to firm up your shifts. And for you guys in Oklahoma, that's a hitch in your giddyup. Y'all come back now. Yeah.

This week's muscle car flashback. The 66 Impala 4, 27 Ss.

It's 1958 and a new GM legend was rolling out on the streets. It had size and style and its name and pallor

dramatic gold wing fins and headlights reminiscent of the 55 Chevy were just a couple of the features that made the early Imp Palace stand out from the crowd.

By the early sixties and Palace had lost their fins

but stayed true to their six aviation style tail lights.

They were also available with one of the most legendary engines of the sixties era.

The 409.

But by the time 66 rolled around, Chevy bombed that old design and put together an all new handsome devil.

This 66 can be found in Floyd Garrett's Muscle car museum.

It's in Sevierville, Tennessee. It's one of over 90 cars on display at this little slice of muscle car heaven

new for 66 the impaler was offered with the largest engine yet. A race inspired 427 turbojet hauls his carriage around to the tune of 425 horses, a single highly four barrel carburetor keeps all those ponies breathing,

dropped the clutch and the dragoons charged through the four speed transmission

and out to the posse before doing battle with an unsuspecting patch of

Baba.

If you want to pick a street fight, you might as well look tough doing it.

Covered

the impala's low stands and long body lines make it look more like a predator than the prey. It's named after body work. That's anything but flat. It's topped off with a streamlined trim package.

Serious badging. Lets the competition know this. Chevy ain't shy about what it's packing

a bright red paint job is hard to miss, but just in case you did these four big headlights up front along with a chrome bumper and grill should catch your eye if not do us all a favor and stay off the road out back. Impala lost their spaceship look and squared things off for a more modern appearance

trimmed for style and powered for smiles. The appellate interior was made for the guy who loves some leg room and still had enough space to bring some friends along. Even our camera guy couldn't resist trying it on for size.

Oh,

that's so good.

A dash. That's as roomy as the interior makes for easy viewing.

While a stereo along with the rumble of the exhaust keeps the ears happening

as far as climate comfort goes. Forget about it. This 427 has better things to do than spin a compressor all day.

It's a nice package all the way around. Slap a set of red wheels on it with some center caps

and you've got a complete street fight.

Watch out if you wanna lay some pinks down against this piece of muscle. If you're not careful, you might be walking home after you pull your feet out of your big mouth,

but you can practice your walking later.

Stick around. We'll be back in a few,

we're back and in case you just joined us, you missed out on the rebuild. It is Turbo 350. It's been cleaned,

checked.

New and old parts installed the right way

and a few cheap tricks along the way

for some extra oom.

But you're not too late for the biggest, most popular and inexpensive upgrade you can do to an automatic transmission.

You can do it at home with no special tools in your driveway and about the same amount of time it takes to drop the kids off at the pool. What is this miracle? You ask

a shift kin

earlier,

I showed you how the fluid is directed to specific locations by these channels.

It's the valve body that controls when and how much fluid gets released.

It's truly the brains of the transmission. It even looks like one. There are several spool valves throughout each one affecting several different functions. Gaskets and separated place play a major role as well as these confusing little check balls, especially when you remove the valve body in a fall

to your feet.

But there's tech manuals that will get you through this. You don't have to understand every part of this maze. Just accept the fact that you're going to be reading the instructions.

A shift kit simply manipulates flow and rate to alter when your transmission shifts and how hard it's going to lock in the gear. It's that simple. It all starts with the spring rates in this valve body.

They're held in by these pins that rarely fall out this easy.

Only four valves get tweaked one at a time

we got this trans go shift kit from bowler transmission, these springs control your shifts. This red one is for RV use. We don't want that. We're gonna use the orange for competition.

The difference between them. The RV spring still firms up your shift. But this one, it's like a sledgehammer. Curiosity could hurt you here. Don't take the valves apart. Leave them alone.

All you're doing is changing the spring.

How does Vaseline play a role in all of this? Well, it doesn't, but when you're laying on your back, it holds all the check balls in place temporarily.

These act as restrictors slowing down the flow in both directions.

It's pretty easy to tell where they go. But check the manual anyway,

smoothing out the new spacer plate will help for a better seal.

At

first glance, it looks like a stock one but not quite. Some of the channels are a little more restricted. Don't ask why

more Vaseline to hold the gaskets in place.

And another one for the spacer

with the main valve connected to the shifter, you just install the shift

kit. In fact, you did better than that.

You could buy a worn out 350 for about $100 200 dollars for the overhaul kit, $80 for the shifter and for under $400 you've got yourself a stout turbo 350 with some performance upgrades. A new one run you about $700 couple of closing tips. Don't forget to change the springs in your governor. That'll allow for those higher RPM shifts.

Don't use a rag to dry your parts. The lint will get inside and kill it.

Use compressed there. One last thing change your tranny fluid. Sometimes it'll help it tolerate the abuse. You're gonna put it through. You've tolerated mine enough today later.