- Jul 22, 2015
- 2,724
Got my new battery (100% warranty), and installed it. Yes, I lost the vent actuator again - hopefully, it comes back like it did last time.
Let the vehicle warm up for about 10min before starting out, and I shifted into all gear ranges beforehand. No funny noises either at startup, or moving the trans through the gears, which was good.
Almost immediately, I noticed the harsh 1-2 shift - which is what I put the kit in for - was gone!
Surprised me, as I really didn't see much in the way of wear on the valve body / parts on teardown. No broken springs, cracked accumulators, etc. So I thought I'd still have the issue, and be looking at a throttle position sensor next.
For the first 10-15 minutes, it did shift a little funny - I noticed it would flare / surge on the 2-3, 3-4, and in lockup. Figured that was the TransJel I used to lube the various parts, and it just needed to melt away.
All of the flare / surging eventually went away - *except* the flare in lockup. It seems to do this pretty constantly. I'll notice it varying anywhere between 200-500 RPM, perhaps slightly more. I can tell that it hits 4th and lockup earlier than it used to. It's still ever so slightly 'late' on the 1-2, but shifts at about 20mph now with light throttle - it was about 24mph before the kit.
Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
I did make a couple of alterations to how I put the kit in (nothing to do with the corrected TCC / PWM valve, however). If anyone's interested, I'll post what I changed.
If I were to give re-assembly tips, they would be:
- The wire spacer appears to be a bit long for the EPC screen, as it extends past the open end of the screen. However, the 'extra length' is designed to sit on the bottom of the VB, helping hold it in. For that reason, wait until you've got the separator plate w/ it's gaskets back in, then apply some Jel / Vaseline to the wire spacer, and set it inside the EPC screen, to be followed up by the VB. That's where you'll see how it fits together. I also drilled the relief holes in the top of the EPC, as I originally thought I was going to skip the wire spacer altogether.
It helps to put a (very) thin coat of Gel on the mating surfaces of the separator plate gaskets - this helps hold them in place while you attach the plate to the case. You don't need it all over - just in a few spots where there aren't any hole cutouts, etc. I didn't really have wear in my separator plate, but since I got the new TransGo plate with the kit, I used it. Yes, I enlarged two holes to .093, as I have the V8. All the other holes were already at the sizes indicated in the spring kit.
- Some of the VB valve internals are a bit tricky to get out, even with a pick. Keep at it, and do your best not to scratch the internals. Some of the passages can be gotten to from both sides. Air helps, too, if you have a compressor.
- There is one spring for the 1-2 accumulator bushing valve which isn't in the same bag with the other ones (they give you a variety of them to choose from, depending on the codes stamped on both the valve and your 1-2 servo). That's the white one. Because of that, I used that smaller white spring in the wrong area ('Step 3', where you add the spring to the valve behind the force motor). Thankfully, when i got to the 1-2 accumulator bushing, I realized what happened, and went back and replaced that white spring with the correct one. IIRC, this happened to another member, but he didn't catch it before his test drive, and wound up tearing it down again. So be careful. I got lucky catching this.
BTW - the correct spring that pairs up with the 'DX' stamping on the accumulator bushing - is the yellow one. That's likely what will be stamped on your bushing as well, but make sure you examine it and verify for yourself!
- If you leave the ECC solenoid valve out when you put the VB back in, it makes it easy to tighten the bolts for the harness which are right above it. If you put it back in, and then realized it was in the way, you can maneuver the valve to get the clip facing you - then pull the clip and remove the valve. Then you can tighten the 2 solenoid bolts easily. Don't forget the dipstick guard attaches in this area as well, before you put the pan back on.
The VB gets tightened / torqued from the center outward, working counter-clockwise. If you take a look at the bolt arrangement, you can 'see' the spiral pattern. Tighten them in at least 2 passes - because when you get to the second pass on the first bolts, you'll see they're not as tight as when you first tightened them. Also, the VB (and the case) is made of aluminum, so you don't want to torque in one pass, or starting on an edge.
When removing and re-installing the VB, it helps to take out the center VB bolt last / install first - this allows you to free up both hands once you get that bolt started.
I found the pan much easier to put on, for some reason, than I did taking it off. This was probably due to being familiar with it on reassembly. I also decided to replace my stock pan with the Dorman (get the nylon washer for the drain bolt, if you buy it). Put it in front to back, then toward the linkage side, just past the bolt holes, and it will then pop in the other side, which has the shield (I did not have to remove the exhaust crossover pipe - although in a way, I wish I had - I snapped off the pan bolt in the back corner, closest to that crossover pipe - which made it an absolute b!tch to try and extract that bolt
Before you put the pan on, loosen the drain bolt if you purchase the Dorman pan - they seem to have tightened it the same as the GM pan / bolt - which I had to use an extractor for when I took it off. Thankfully, I have an impact gun, which loosened the Dorman bolt right up.
When tightening the pan bolts, do this in at least two passes, in a alternating criss-cross fashion. This gives you the best chance for a leak proof seal. 120 in/lbs (or 9-10 ft/lbs) for the pan bolts - no more. I replaced the OEM zinc bolts with stainless steel ones - and used anti-seize on them as well. I ended up with a leak-free seal (left the vehicle lifted up overnight to check for fluid leaks - still need to check after the pan / case has expanded from being heated up).
I figure (outside of the broken pan bolt I spent so much time trying to get out), it took about 1 day to take everything apart, a day to install the kit parts in the VB, and a 3rd day to put everything back together. This was taking my time and not rushing. Now that I've done one, I could probably decrease the time by 1/3, if I ever do this again.
While I'll be working to figure out the flare issue in lockup, I'm happy with the result - the issue I put the kit in for is gone - and I won't need to worry about the stock PWM valve enlarging the bore it's in and causing problems.
Let the vehicle warm up for about 10min before starting out, and I shifted into all gear ranges beforehand. No funny noises either at startup, or moving the trans through the gears, which was good.
Almost immediately, I noticed the harsh 1-2 shift - which is what I put the kit in for - was gone!
Surprised me, as I really didn't see much in the way of wear on the valve body / parts on teardown. No broken springs, cracked accumulators, etc. So I thought I'd still have the issue, and be looking at a throttle position sensor next.For the first 10-15 minutes, it did shift a little funny - I noticed it would flare / surge on the 2-3, 3-4, and in lockup. Figured that was the TransJel I used to lube the various parts, and it just needed to melt away.
All of the flare / surging eventually went away - *except* the flare in lockup. It seems to do this pretty constantly. I'll notice it varying anywhere between 200-500 RPM, perhaps slightly more. I can tell that it hits 4th and lockup earlier than it used to. It's still ever so slightly 'late' on the 1-2, but shifts at about 20mph now with light throttle - it was about 24mph before the kit.
Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
I did make a couple of alterations to how I put the kit in (nothing to do with the corrected TCC / PWM valve, however). If anyone's interested, I'll post what I changed.
If I were to give re-assembly tips, they would be:
- The wire spacer appears to be a bit long for the EPC screen, as it extends past the open end of the screen. However, the 'extra length' is designed to sit on the bottom of the VB, helping hold it in. For that reason, wait until you've got the separator plate w/ it's gaskets back in, then apply some Jel / Vaseline to the wire spacer, and set it inside the EPC screen, to be followed up by the VB. That's where you'll see how it fits together. I also drilled the relief holes in the top of the EPC, as I originally thought I was going to skip the wire spacer altogether.
It helps to put a (very) thin coat of Gel on the mating surfaces of the separator plate gaskets - this helps hold them in place while you attach the plate to the case. You don't need it all over - just in a few spots where there aren't any hole cutouts, etc. I didn't really have wear in my separator plate, but since I got the new TransGo plate with the kit, I used it. Yes, I enlarged two holes to .093, as I have the V8. All the other holes were already at the sizes indicated in the spring kit.
- Some of the VB valve internals are a bit tricky to get out, even with a pick. Keep at it, and do your best not to scratch the internals. Some of the passages can be gotten to from both sides. Air helps, too, if you have a compressor.
- There is one spring for the 1-2 accumulator bushing valve which isn't in the same bag with the other ones (they give you a variety of them to choose from, depending on the codes stamped on both the valve and your 1-2 servo). That's the white one. Because of that, I used that smaller white spring in the wrong area ('Step 3', where you add the spring to the valve behind the force motor). Thankfully, when i got to the 1-2 accumulator bushing, I realized what happened, and went back and replaced that white spring with the correct one. IIRC, this happened to another member, but he didn't catch it before his test drive, and wound up tearing it down again. So be careful. I got lucky catching this.
BTW - the correct spring that pairs up with the 'DX' stamping on the accumulator bushing - is the yellow one. That's likely what will be stamped on your bushing as well, but make sure you examine it and verify for yourself!
- If you leave the ECC solenoid valve out when you put the VB back in, it makes it easy to tighten the bolts for the harness which are right above it. If you put it back in, and then realized it was in the way, you can maneuver the valve to get the clip facing you - then pull the clip and remove the valve. Then you can tighten the 2 solenoid bolts easily. Don't forget the dipstick guard attaches in this area as well, before you put the pan back on.
The VB gets tightened / torqued from the center outward, working counter-clockwise. If you take a look at the bolt arrangement, you can 'see' the spiral pattern. Tighten them in at least 2 passes - because when you get to the second pass on the first bolts, you'll see they're not as tight as when you first tightened them. Also, the VB (and the case) is made of aluminum, so you don't want to torque in one pass, or starting on an edge.
When removing and re-installing the VB, it helps to take out the center VB bolt last / install first - this allows you to free up both hands once you get that bolt started.
I found the pan much easier to put on, for some reason, than I did taking it off. This was probably due to being familiar with it on reassembly. I also decided to replace my stock pan with the Dorman (get the nylon washer for the drain bolt, if you buy it). Put it in front to back, then toward the linkage side, just past the bolt holes, and it will then pop in the other side, which has the shield (I did not have to remove the exhaust crossover pipe - although in a way, I wish I had - I snapped off the pan bolt in the back corner, closest to that crossover pipe - which made it an absolute b!tch to try and extract that bolt
Before you put the pan on, loosen the drain bolt if you purchase the Dorman pan - they seem to have tightened it the same as the GM pan / bolt - which I had to use an extractor for when I took it off. Thankfully, I have an impact gun, which loosened the Dorman bolt right up.
When tightening the pan bolts, do this in at least two passes, in a alternating criss-cross fashion. This gives you the best chance for a leak proof seal. 120 in/lbs (or 9-10 ft/lbs) for the pan bolts - no more. I replaced the OEM zinc bolts with stainless steel ones - and used anti-seize on them as well. I ended up with a leak-free seal (left the vehicle lifted up overnight to check for fluid leaks - still need to check after the pan / case has expanded from being heated up).
I figure (outside of the broken pan bolt I spent so much time trying to get out), it took about 1 day to take everything apart, a day to install the kit parts in the VB, and a 3rd day to put everything back together. This was taking my time and not rushing. Now that I've done one, I could probably decrease the time by 1/3, if I ever do this again.
While I'll be working to figure out the flare issue in lockup, I'm happy with the result - the issue I put the kit in for is gone - and I won't need to worry about the stock PWM valve enlarging the bore it's in and causing problems.
