You know how many times I've run into cases where we shadetree guys know more than "trained" people at shops...
Agreed! I've run into that, myself.
I'll grant you that transmission overhaul / repair is beyond the scope of many (if not most) 'general repair' garages - those who accept the work almost certainly farm it out to their contacts who
are specialists. But in the case of the person / facility actually *doing* the work - it's not like the 4L60e is some exotic new whiz-bang (no pun intended) slushbox.
The basic concept / design goes all the way back to the TH350 - which I had in a '70 Monte Carlo, for cryin' out loud (and it had a factory drain plug, believe it or not... ::laughing:: ) Thing ran strong, too. But those units were overbuilt, before CAD came along and told the engineers / accountants what / where to remove costs & materials to make it last 'just long enough' for their customers, relative to usage / conditions.
In fact, as I think of it...of all of us kids running around with leftover '60s-'70s GM cars back in the early '80s - almost all of them had a Turbo 350 (except for one kid whose parents passed him down a Vega - a 2-door wagon - in yellow, no less. But at least he could fit his entire Gretsch double kick drum kit into it, cymbals, hardware & all (sorta like Neil Peart with his Pinto when he auditioned for Alex & Geddy, I suppose?))
I owned only one car with a TH400 - a '73 Chevelle Laguna (with swivel buckets!) that originally had a 454 (by the time I got it, that was long gone, and a 350 in its place (5.7L, for you young'ins). ALL of us, being young, dumb and...(oops...family website!) ran the hell out of those cars, and very few of us had any trans issues, much less outright failures. But I digress (as usual...lol).
Back on topic - there's only 3-4 areas of the 4L60e regarded as 'weak', and needing to be addressed. One of them (and I'd posit the one that happens *most* often, with accumulated mileage) is the TCC valve wearing in its bore. After all, TransGo made a special kit to deal specifically with this, right?
IMO, it's inexcusable that a shop / builder / reman would charge $2900 (-? IIRC) and not address that in some fashion.
I'd even allow them a new stock VB / TCC valve (because, to be honest, who is going to drive their rebuild *another* 150-200K miles before something else happens to the vehicle to take it out of that owner's hands?) But that would be the *minimum* allowable fix, as long as they didn't represent they did something different, like an oversized Sonnax valve / boring job, where they could claim 'labor' costs - and even then, the cost of the reamer tool was paid for on the prior job(s).
PS: I know you already know all of this (as do most of the 'hardcore' owners on this board, not that I'm hardcore.) So I'm not arguing with you. Just expressing my frustration at people who would charge a lot of money for bad / negligent / shoddy / wrong / missing work. Yes, I know, the world isn't a perfect place, and sh!t happens - we all have to deal with it. So don't call me 'Pollyanna'...lol.
And to
@Drec - I'm *not* suggesting your builder did
any of those things - we're just discussing 'what if' scenarios, if you will.
I wish I knew a bit more about fluid dynamics - I could probably make a nice side income as an A/T rebuilder (specializing in GMs...all other mfg trannys are (even worse) crap...ROFLMAO) I could even see myself actually 'enjoying' doing it (till the 1st one came back...LMAO)