Hey all,
I just finished putting in an HTS valve body this last week. I've had a little chance to drive it now and here's what I've noticed. Before I bought the thing I talked to dusty and told him that I was replacing my stock valve body in the hopes that an aftermarket one would help extend the life of my tranny pieces and maybe even get me some more mileage with a little less slippage of my stock TC. He assured me that I could expect these things out of it. He also told me that with the 48re's some trucks do a weird 2-3-2 shift hunting thing around 30 mph. Well, naturally, with my luck my truck turns out to be one of these. I've only put about 200 miles on it this weekend but this shifting back and forth thing is VERY annoying. According to Dusty all aftermarket valve bodies have a chance of doing this regardless of brand. Any input from anyone on this? Anyways, I do like the newfound firm shifts... and I can tell and increase in the power making it through the driveline. Unfortunately, I've also noticed that when operating the gears manually (I.E. me shifting 1-2-D) that the transmission will not shift gears under throttle. I have to let of throttle for it to change into the next gear. This is probably some kind of adjustment I need to make.
Unrelated to the performance of the valve body is that my new valve body arrived damaged to me. The package was shipped UPS and the UPS guys must just throw everything they get around. Somehow the box was tossed with enough force that it bend the throttle shaft so much so that it would not fit into my neutral safety switch. That meant that I had to end up sawing through the throttle shaft and replacing the one HTS sent me with the piece off of my stock VB.
Overall the whole ordeal has left me somewhat less than satisfied. I'm left wondering now if I should have just left in my stock VB and replaced my TC with a lower stall higher rated one. Either way, I don't think I want to tolerate this gear hunting ignorance for the next 100,000 miles.

 

Suncoast has a new valve body out that's supposed to stop that. It's more expensive than your average VB though. I'm thinking I might try it out. I want to go with Goerend stuff, but the Suncoast VB might be the ticket.

 

DTT has a new "shift controller"....it's supposed to cure the 1-2-1-2-1-2 and the 3rd gear flare (think this is what you're talking about).....give them a call and discuss...works with any trans / vb / .... $250.

JG

 

The DTT controller is not for what he is talking about. It is for the trucks that no longer have a kickdown cable and are regulated by the electronics. This is mostly an 06 problem. When you start changing springs in the VB, it confuses the truck and it thinks it's time to shift based on pressure rather than speed or throttle position. Works great from what I hear.

The problem that toupee is referring to is something that can happen on all the 48re trannys and is not an electronic problem.

I remember having a discussion about this with Dave Goerend but can't remember the details so I don't want to give partial information. I would call and talk to him. He will talk to you about it even though you got your VB from Dusty. For what it's worth, I have never heard of anyone with one of Dave's VB that has this problem.

 

I don't know if there is any way to fix the hunting problem, but I am surely not going to spend more money (let alone $250) to "fix" a valve body that I just payed $400 for. What's truely annoying about all this is that I did not go blindly into this. I have read tons of posts on VB's, shift kits, and tranny stuff in general. It just seems to me that you can never read enough
I don't mean to seem as though I'm knocking HTS. Actually, I've never read ANYTHING bad about them before. I think I am going to see what the policy is on returns. I live in a rural area and I can't imagine driving this truck with it permanantly going 2-3-2-3-2-3 as I drive around my little town..... let alone if I lived in the city. (Oh, and before anyone says anything, yes I know I could just put it in second and drive in town... but that would kind of defeat the purpose of having an automatic in the first place!)
I do wish that the packing would have been better as now I have the burden of having already told them that the throttle shaft was bent in shipping (which I'm sure sounds fishy to them).... and then calling and saying "hey, this just isn't working out". I feel like I'm pesky or something. Though the other part of me says they should stand behind their product.

 

It's funny....I've had this tranny built for 2 years and 100k and it did that 3-2-3-2-3 thing for the first time last week....along with losing first gear....turning the truck off and shopping for 10 minutes.....all gone...I don't know if it is an ECM thing or a warm tranny fluid thing.... anyway...if it did it every day....I'd be PO'd.
I'm going to slip in my electronic controlled valve body if it happens again.

KS

 

Mine does it on occasion and it is totally stock (tranny and motor that is). Don't like it either. Pay this much for a truck and it does this. Been thinking of the allison conversion. Would like 2 more gears.

 

My stock tranny used to do it also. Now I have a Goerend and for about one month now I haven't seen the tranny do it yet. Like omaharam said call Dave and talk to him about it, I know his valve body doesn't do it, or at least on mine it doesn't. I know what you mean about UPS I used to work there when in college and after seeing the things I saw I will never ship anything UPS, especially from Thanksgiving through the new year. Good luck.

 

The only time my VB from Dave had issues was with running the current Smarty Wild TM program. It was caused by the power coming on earlier due to the extremely sensitive throttle (ie. all power is in the first half of throttle travel). To prevent the 2-3 flare issue he made my VB hold 2nd gear longer than normal.

With the new Beta 4.4 all that is fixed because the throttle range is much more linear. Mine did the 2-3-2-3 hunting when stock but hasn't really done it since Dave built the tranny. It sounds like the hunting issue may be different from the 2-3 flare issue?

 

Guess I didn't mention that mine did it stock as well. So that's three of us so far that had it stock and Dave's VB has corrected it.

 

I can't comment on the gear hunting thing, but I hope you get it worked out. I just put in a Suncoast VB, and it has made a positive difference. Maybe some kind of adjustment can be made. You sure don't want to have buy another VB.

 

I don't intend to buy another VB. I would think someone else running a HTS tranny or VB could chime in here.... I know they sell enough stuff to have a couple customers on this board. By the way, my truck never hunted for gears before the addition of this VB. If it had, maybe this wouldn't be so annoying to me. They said they knew this was an issue on some trucks, so hopefully they will be understanding when I talk to them. A little voice in my head says "no" though.
It seems like this stuff always happens to me! Argh! Anyone else identify with that feeling?

 

Don't blame us UPS drivers! The last thing we have time to do is throw peoples packages around for fun. I'd say it was one of the 19 yr old crack heads they have loading or unloading the big trucks that is your culprit.

My advice, use FedEx Express for the more delicate items. They deal mainly in small, lightweight stuff that is less likely to fall on or crush you item during transit.

BTW- I'm in the market for a new VB, so I'm curious as to how your situation unfolds. Good luck.

 

I'll tell Dusty and Marianne about it tomorrow. We are at IRP...

I had that problem until I got my hts vb. Lol!

Don't worry, he'll get you fixed up.

 

i have thought bout putting a vb on my truck its only got 16,000 on it you think thats to soon.i plan on put some big mod in a few months.and how does that effect your warranty is that out the door..