I have pulled some strings and will be doing some upgrades to my truck in the next few weeks.

I had decided that I was going to order a tranmission and have a local shop do the install. Well, to make a long story short I found a transmission tech this morning that knows the 48re inside and out and has been working on Dodge transmissions for years. Although he doesn't deal with aftermarket transmissions on a daily basis, I think he knows his stuff.

I figure I could just have him build my transmission with a new TC and VB along with a kevlar band, ect and come out way ahead of what it would cost me to buy a transmission and have it shipped, installed. The extra savings would probably be enough for a new turbo.

What are your thoughts on this? SHould I be ok as long as the guy knows what he is doing or is there really a need to spend a good deal more money and just order the whole transmission pre-assembled?

 

HMMMMMMM!

What happens if it goes haywire after a short period of time? Does he fix it again at no charge?

There's an old saying............."If it's too good to be true............well you know the rest.

 

That's sort of the thing. I'm going to have to order it from someone I don't know from another state that I have never met.

I will have to have it installed by someone I don't know on top of that. So at that point, I figure if it does have problems I am going to be in for a MAJOR headache as far a logistics. I will not be doing a full blown billet tranny and my engine mods will be minor, if any. I'm just thinking that a TC and VB is pretty simple work for an experienced 48/47re tranmission tech. Even if I covered my own expenses in the event of a failure, I would still have the difference in price to play with I guess.

What else would they do at the factory/ shop for this level of transmission that would make it better off to justify the extra $1500 or so?

 

How many miles are on your current tranny? I see your sig mentions it was "once modded out...".

If you have a low mileage tranny then having someone local throw in a TC and VB is probably a better way to go.

However, if your tranny has some (hard) miles on it then just throwing in a TC and VB seems like more of a waste of money really. You might as well spend the extra bucks now and get a solid rebuild shipped in from a reputable builder. You'll have a warranty on the tranny and TC, although as you mentioned the logistics are not great. Swapping trannys is easy and any decent mechanic can handle the job.

I know Goerend dynos all his trannys twice before they go out. I would imagine the other guys dyno theirs too but someone else would have to comment on that.

 

Thanks for the help. I have 42k on the tranny. I had a TST on the truck for about 10k miles. I was never [I]really[I] hard on it and my towing has been light. I did have 35's on the truck for about 1000 miles as well. I've changed the fluid twice in 42k and there is no metal in the pan or any other sign of trouble.

I guess my question is this, for this "entry level" transmission, what else are they going to do to the internals at the shop if I were to order a new one? I know Dave said he uses new OEM shafts, but what else is the difference? I don't really see a need for new OEM shafts.

On a side note. The tranmission tech I spoke to today said that I was lucky that I had an early build 04.5 because I had a cable instead of an actuator on my transmission but I was unlucky in the fact that I have a Cummins ECU for the tranny as opposed to the DC ECM???? I don't know what all that means, but I took it that it made it easier to play with the transmission on one hand but harder on the other..

 

Kind of a tough call with that amount of mileage. If it were me and I had the money, I would probably go for the full rebuild and not have to worry about it for a very long time.

From what I've heard the OEM shafts do actually get weaker over time. If a billet shaft is $650 then I would assume a stock shaft is relatively cheap. I think it's a good thing that Dave is using new OEM shafts in his basic rebuilds instead of a used stock shaft that was "inspected".

It looks like Dave sells the basic tranny for $3250 and that includes a $1300 triple disc TC and modded VB. 3 year/100k warranty on the trans and lifetime on the TC.

Here's a link

 

Yeah, I'm familiar with Goerends. FWIW, that's who I'm leaning towards. I'm just trying to figure out what I actually need. I have only allocated so much in funds for myself. I also want to add a FASS and possibly a turbo and maybe a smarty (in that order).. I am trying to stay away from the 5k bill just for the transmission.

To be honest, it just all depends on who I'm talking to at the moment as to what I feel is best. The transmission tech I talked to today knows the 48re inside and out. He was talking about things I have never heard brought up on these forums before and it all made sense. I really think he could pull off the job, but I also know people tend to talk too highly about their skills sometimes as well and it would be taking a risk to an extent.

I'd just like to get better than what I have for as little as possible.

 

If all you are going to have done is a TC/VB then you could do it yourself, not a problem.