I bought my winter project, a '95 F350CCDRW, in non-running condition. Once I got it running I discovered that while it would drive, there was a grinding sound coming from the bellhousing at idle. Bummer. I searched on here and came to the conclusion that my torque converter was failing. I elected to pull the trans and have a look inside. I figured driving it would just do more damage and I plan to make this my daily driver when it's done. The fluid looked a little dark and had a slightly burned smell to it. Looking at the outside, I noticed it had a Ford Reman tag on the side, the date code was late 1998. I dropped the pan and found a little clutch material in the pan, not too much. But there were several metal shavings that I presume came from the failing converter. In hindsight, I could have probably just cleaned the pan, flushed/replaced the coolers, and swapped in the new converter and ran it. But I didn't know for sure what shape the internals were in.
I'll point out here that anyone contemplating a rebuild on their transmission needs to obtain a factory service manual. I only needed to fabricate one tool so far to pull the snap ring on the int/od piston. I've only rebuilt two automatic transmissions in my life (a C4 and a C6) and this is by far the most complicated automotive part I've ever dug into. Luckily, it comes apart in sub assemblies so you can divide it up and deal with it a little bit at a time.
Factory Ford reman trannys incorporate all available updates at the time of their build. I noticed this trans already had the "good" front pump in it. It has an engineering number beginning with "F8". The truck has 135,000 showing on the odometer, so I know this trans has less mileage than that on it. The pump looks good inside, the only thing that I want to change is the bushing for the converter.
I did notice that the input shell has some damage, the lugs from the direct drum left their mark:
I ordered up the latest 4R100 hardened input shell YC3Z-7D064-AA, the notches look a little different but it retrofits the E4OD without modification:
A close examination of the clutch packs revealed little wear, they were in great shape. It doesn't appear to be overheated, I'm guessing the burned fluid is from the converter. So I ordered a new set of Ford clutches for every pack except the intermediate set. For that I'm going with the Raybestos Z-pak set. I have a customer that uses them in his builds and said they were the way to go. I posted a question one here a while ago to see if anyone else was using them but I got no responses, but he's a sharp tech and if he's had success with them I would expect the same.
While I was ordering parts I also picked up the Ford DSO E4OD trans pan, F81Z-7A194-BA. It is identical to a factory 4X4 pan (my truck's a 2WD so I need to get a 4X4 filter too), but it has a drain plug already installed and it uses the newer style elastomeric pan gasket:
Just as a note, if your pan looks like this:
it needs a cork pan gasket. The rings around the bolt holes limit compression on the cork gasket.
If your pan looks like this:
it's made for the elastomeric gasket. It doesn't use the compression stops.
I also picked up a 6 pinion forward planet carrier. It's probably overkill for my stock engine daily driver, but I got it reasonably so I'll use it. It looks a little beefier than the aluminum 4 pinion carrier:
I also got the updated forward hub that was required to be used with the newer 4 and 6 pinion planet carriers. It looked identical to the one I took out, it's entirely possible that my reman trans already had the updated part in it.
I still have a few more parts to order, more to come!
I'll point out here that anyone contemplating a rebuild on their transmission needs to obtain a factory service manual. I only needed to fabricate one tool so far to pull the snap ring on the int/od piston. I've only rebuilt two automatic transmissions in my life (a C4 and a C6) and this is by far the most complicated automotive part I've ever dug into. Luckily, it comes apart in sub assemblies so you can divide it up and deal with it a little bit at a time.
Factory Ford reman trannys incorporate all available updates at the time of their build. I noticed this trans already had the "good" front pump in it. It has an engineering number beginning with "F8". The truck has 135,000 showing on the odometer, so I know this trans has less mileage than that on it. The pump looks good inside, the only thing that I want to change is the bushing for the converter.
I did notice that the input shell has some damage, the lugs from the direct drum left their mark:
I ordered up the latest 4R100 hardened input shell YC3Z-7D064-AA, the notches look a little different but it retrofits the E4OD without modification:
A close examination of the clutch packs revealed little wear, they were in great shape. It doesn't appear to be overheated, I'm guessing the burned fluid is from the converter. So I ordered a new set of Ford clutches for every pack except the intermediate set. For that I'm going with the Raybestos Z-pak set. I have a customer that uses them in his builds and said they were the way to go. I posted a question one here a while ago to see if anyone else was using them but I got no responses, but he's a sharp tech and if he's had success with them I would expect the same.
While I was ordering parts I also picked up the Ford DSO E4OD trans pan, F81Z-7A194-BA. It is identical to a factory 4X4 pan (my truck's a 2WD so I need to get a 4X4 filter too), but it has a drain plug already installed and it uses the newer style elastomeric pan gasket:
Just as a note, if your pan looks like this:
it needs a cork pan gasket. The rings around the bolt holes limit compression on the cork gasket.
If your pan looks like this:
it's made for the elastomeric gasket. It doesn't use the compression stops.
I also picked up a 6 pinion forward planet carrier. It's probably overkill for my stock engine daily driver, but I got it reasonably so I'll use it. It looks a little beefier than the aluminum 4 pinion carrier:
I also got the updated forward hub that was required to be used with the newer 4 and 6 pinion planet carriers. It looked identical to the one I took out, it's entirely possible that my reman trans already had the updated part in it.
I still have a few more parts to order, more to come!