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So I decided to overhaul my E4OD....

35K views 117 replies 18 participants last post by  old Smokey 
#1 ·
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!
 
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#2 ·
Oh, and if you need your laugh for the day:

I wanted to get this truck in my standard two car garage for the winter to work on it. The problem? The truck is 22' long and my garage is only 21' 7" plus it has an electrical disconnect on the back wall. It fit, though, once I pulled both bumpers, the grille, the hitch, and the tailgate!




Taking all that off got me down to 21' 5". Luckily, the electrical box fit in the opening where I removed the grille and the frame horns straddled the conduit on the back wall so I had room to spare!
 
#3 ·
I'll be watching to see how this goes. I have never been inside an automatic transmission. I hope one day to have a BTS but my bet, I'll be attempting to do the build myself.
 
#5 ·
I'm tired of hearing about the whole "pull your tranny and send it to us with $5000 so it can be built" mentality.

Kudos to you for doing this and double kudos for posting it up.

I can sympathize on the garage. We have a 24x24 and I can't walk around my 08 CC LB when its parked inside. I have to open the door first. I have to park it with the front bumper touching the wall to close the garage door.

Subscribed.
 
#6 ·
I'm tired of hearing about the whole "pull your tranny and send it to us with $5000 so it can be built" mentality.
It does seem like the standard response is "Get a BTS!". I think that says a lot about their reputation. I'm not here to knock BTS or JW (or any other quality custom trans builder for that matter), they build a great product and have great customer service from what I've read on here. And if you have a built truck and want to beat on it, you're probably better off dropping the money with them. But for my truck, with a stock 7.3, I can't justify spending that kind of money on just the transmission. This Ford reman lasted about 100k and would probably still be going if the torque converter hadn't failed so I expect to get comparable service out of it with the updated converter.

That being said, as I find useful info that's not already in the shop manual, I'll post it here for future reference. Like this:

Every separator plate (the steel plate between the valve body and the trans case has an ID on it.

See it? This one is Diamond, Semi-circle, Diamond. Knowing that and using Ford TSB 98-16-8 you can match it to the engineering number on the valve body and the two valve body gaskets to make sure:
#1. That you have a separator plate that matches your valve body
and
#2. That you have the right gaskets to go with your separator plate.

I'm working on fabbing the tools to disassemble the clutch drums now. I'll post more later.
 
#7 ·
Good to see someone else building there own trans! I had a similar situation with my truck, drug it out of the weeds and got it running. previous owner said trans was recent ford reman. Drove it for a couple weeks and I started to hear some bad grinding and popping. I am too cheap to pay someone else 2000 in labor so I pulled it out, got some manuals and had at it.

Mine is a 95 as well and I found that the aluminum 4 pinion intermediate planet was on the verge of explosion. I was lucky that it was still moving. At that time I wasnt really planning on any mods so I got the 6 pinion steel setup, some new friction and a tugger kit and ran it that way for 30k.

In that time I started adding bigger injectors and bigger turbo and all that stuff so I got a new billet lid low stall converter, alto power packs, 6 pinion steel rear planet and a bushing kit. When I tore it down again I was surprised to find only a few burnt clutches in the intermediate pack and a bit of wear on the direct pack.

I also built my own tools, one of the best ones is the tool that holds the shell so you can drop the whole gear train in already assembled.
 
#10 ·
Cool tool Dave186! I'll be making one of those before I start the assembly.

I had about an hour before work yesterday so I made the compressor for the drums. I used a piece of scrap 3/4" Birch I had leftover in the wood shop, a 4" PVC pipe coupler, a 12" long piece of 5/8" threaded rod, and some nuts and flat washers. Got about $6 in it.


And here it is with the forward drum in it. You only need to tighten the nut until the pressure is released from the retaining ring, then you can remove the ring with a small screwdriver.
 
#12 ·
I bought one of these but I know they are probably a bit more money than the average DIY would want to spend.


I also have this one too, handy for the low/reverse piston springs.


The OD piston snap ring is tricky, I didnt buy or make a tool for it. I just work it around with some screwdrivers.
 
#13 ·
I had some free time today so I made the tool like Dave186 did to lower the input shell into the case. I still might need to curve the legs of the tool to match the diameter of the shell but I'm not ready to go for a trial fit just yet. I'm leaving the case empty until the exhaust comes in so I can put it back in the truck for a test fit of the downpipe since just about everybody said they needed to tweak the firewall for clearance. I'm sure that would be easier to do with the trans out of the way and the empty case is easier to get in and out. I worked today also on removing the up pipes to fix an exhaust leak I heard. I managed to break off a bolt at the turbo adapter so I'm going to remove the Y to fix that. Actually, I broke five bolts altogether but four were at the manifolds and the broken pieces just fell out.

Here's some pics of the tool:
I made one half of it 1/8" longer to keep it level at the bottom while the top overlaps:

The tabs at the bottom are 3/8" tall, 7/8" wide, with 1/8" square notches cut on the one side to fit the shell:

I put an 89* bend in each leg to add a little preload to hold it in place when it's installed. I also bent up a piece of 3/4" flat that helps lock the tool in place:

Then I drilled for a 5/16" bolt:

And just one shot of the tool I made to remove the snap ring on the overdrive pressure plate:

This is the side that faces into the case.
It's used with another piece of 1x2 oak cut to fit the piston and another block used as a spacer. I had to use a steel washer for the bolt to bear on otherwise the bolt just drove into the wood.
 
#14 ·
This is what I am saying. I paid this bastard to rebuild my trans and do shift kit. I paid 2700 just cuz he new he could get it. I mean I think the parts where 500 my cost and I am not a trans guy. I pulled it an I put it back into truck and I thought it was so junky. Thoughts how they are. I just did a transgo tugger kit into my truck and am in love with this shift kit. I am done this was my final trusting on a trans guy. I did all my work but auto trans. I did manual trans rebuilds . It's on like donkey Kong. Ima rebuild me a trans for my truck. I found a couple on cl for 150 needing rebuild. Wonder how much a core is worth.? Btw good luck I am sure you can do it. I got to learn how to set rears soon got 7 fears to rebuild an do gears an lockers. Lol I did one in my Dana70 in cummins dodge turned out well. Trans stink is my prob with them .
 
#16 ·
well i bought them off a tool truck so im sure you could get them online for cheaper than I did. I think the snapress was 200 and the KD compressor was 150.

I have had good luck with the Transgo Tugger kit. I have it in my trans and put one in a buddys trans as well. Its really intended to be installed during a rebuild, otherwise I would just go with a shift kit or valvebody.
 
#17 ·
Here is another thing I havent seen mentioned, the low/reverse planet. The best one offered in an E4OD was a 4 pinion aluminum. I havent heard of many failing but the 4R100 in later models came with a 6 pinion steel. Unfortunately they switched to a stamped reverse drum which is weaker than the cast drum in the e4od and so those planets wont interchange. There is an aftermarket 6 pinion steel for the e4od cast drum, which would be the strongest combination of parts. my local supplier could not locate me one and said it was on backorder, could not get any date when it would be available. Found one place that had one left and wanted a fortune for it then finally stumbled across this on ebay.

E4OD FORD OVERDRIVE TRANSMISSION REAR PLANET 6 PINION | eBay

they list it as used but the one I got sure looked brand new to me.
 
#19 ·
Dave186,
I had looked at that one as well as this one:

C6 E4OD 4R100 NEW 6-PINION 12 LUG STEEL REAR PLANET | eBay

I don't know why this one is so high, I think my local Transtar was way less expensive. Actually, I think it was about the price of the "used" one you listed. I had heard that the iron E4OD drum was stronger, I also read that (John Wood in particular) has a steel ring machined to fit the 4R100 drum and tig welded on to reinforce it. But if I used that 12 lug planet carrier that would probably save me some time. The only thing I was concerned about was that I believe that carrier is made in Taiwan. I would prefer to source a US made product but I haven't found one to fit the iron drum yet.
 
#20 ·
From what I came up with the import steel planet in the stock cast drum was the best bang for your buck. Because to run the stamped 4R drum you will also need to buy different clutches, the pinion and one way (i think thats all). I have seen all of that sold as a kit for about $300, then you would have the price of the reinforced drum.

Here are a couple links I still have saved that have some good info in them.

http://peoplestransmission.com/articles/2009_5_20%20Ford%20Fixes.pdf

http://www.sonnax.com/system/instructions/SC-E4OD-IN.pdf

E4OD rebuild
 
#22 ·
From what I came up with the import steel planet in the stock cast drum was the best bang for your buck. Because to run the stamped 4R drum you will also need to buy different clutches, the pinion and one way (i think thats all). I have seen all of that sold as a kit for about $300, then you would have the price of the reinforced drum
I believe you have to change the inner hub (the race that bolts to the back of the case) because it is a different diameter.

Thanks for the links! I had read the thread on fourdoorbronco before, but I've never heard of the people's transmission page. I was planning to use the Sonnax seal kit #36424-24K, which looks like it does the same job as that fellow's rubber hose seals. The Sonnax kit comes with a pair of metal tubes to maintain the i.d. of the passageways though. I'd hate to have one of those hose pieces collapse down and restrict the flow.

The 45 element intermediate sprag I think is a must. It's already on my shopping list.

I'm also planning on going with the Sonnax Sure Cure, but using the 4R100 kit. It's basically the same parts as what comes in the E4OD kit, but it has a slightly larger line pressure modulator valve kit and also includes the line to lube pressure regulator valve that I was going to buy anyway. I have heard the the combination of the larger modulator valve and the accumulator springs in the 4R100 kit might make for a harsh shift, so I'm going to go with stock springs first and then swap the Sonnax springs in if I need to firm it up.

***Note that the 4R100 Sure Cure kit includes a torque converter clutch control valve assembly that isn't used on the E4OD, it's for the PWM clutch in the 4R100 only.***
 
#23 ·
I have a Transgo Tugger kit in mine which comes with most of the stuff the sure cure kit does but I added the .427 line mod valve from sonnax to firm things up even more. The nice thing with the tugger kit is you have the plate between accumulator so all you need is a drill bit to adjust the individual shifts.
 
#24 ·
Been collecting parts to reassemble this trans. Only thing I can't locate so far is a 12 lug 6 pinion steel rear planet to fit my iron drum. There's one on ebay but they're asking $340!! I still need to spend some time putting the up pipes back in and changing ujoints and the center bearing in the driveshaft while it's out, so I have some time to look. I may end up just going with the 24 lug planet and the matching steel low/rev drum.
 
#26 ·
Yep, they show three available. But when I emailed them they said they don't have any 12 lug planets. And my local supplier has none and says he doesn't know when or if he'll get any more. I do have all the parts if I wanted to use the 4R100 steel low/rev drum but like you said, the iron drum is regarded as being a bit stronger. It would probably be ok, there's tons of 4R100's running them pulling more weight than I ever will. Probably end up getting the 24 lug and getting on with it.
Stephen
 
#27 ·
Sent a few emails out to trans parts suppliers. Heard back from RacerX. They have the 12 lug planet I need. And at a good price too! Ordered!
 
#28 ·
Thats interesting. I went back and looked at my email to them and it did say "the one I have here is 12 lug" so maybe I got the last one. Getting hard to find, hopefully they become available again. Glad you found one.

Have you thought about converting to 3/8ths cooler lines and adding the bypass line from a 4R100? I wanted to do it to mine but mainly to help keep it warm in the winter. I have only been seeing 125 degrees while towing.
 
#29 ·
Funny you should mention about the cooler lines. I was planning on putting the 4R100 line fittings in but use a pair of machined spacers in place of the bypass tube setup. I wasn't sure if the threads in the case were the same between the E4OD and the 4R100 so I picked up some used fittings to check it out this weekend.

I was under the impression that the tube on the 4R100 was a bypass in case the cooler was restricted. Does it bypass when the fluid is cold and thick also? If that's the case, I wonder how it's affected by the boost in line pressure from my Sonnax parts. I'll probably just go with the spacers instead of the bypass tube. I can always remove the spacers and add the bypass later if I need to.

I already have a big plate style cooler I was going to add in front of the radiator. Our trans tech at work suggested I should plumb it in series to the two coolers already on the truck. I wasn't sure how much it would help adding larger cooling lines since I'll need to reduce down to couple with the cooler in the radiator but I had to cut one of the factory lines already since the nut had rounded off.
 
#31 ·
Funny you should mention about the cooler lines. I was planning on putting the 4R100 line fittings in but use a pair of machined spacers in place of the bypass tube setup. I wasn't sure if the threads in the case were the same between the E4OD and the 4R100 so I picked up some used fittings to check it out this weekend.
I had a little time to look at it this weekend. The 4R100 bypass fit the E4OD without modification and has the right size fittings to run 3/8" cooler lines. I'm still searching for info as to whether the bypass is a good thing to have or if I should just fab the spacers.
Stephen
 
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