Of course. Not flushing the coolers would be just plain stupid. With this much $$$ invested in the rebuild, I'm not about to trash it by running a bunch of crud through it right off the bat.

Trans is all reassembled minus the valve body... I'll be putting that on today. The weather has turned pretty crappy here and I have to do the installation into the truck in the driveway, so that may have to wait a few days. Problem with that is I have to leave for a conference on Saturday and won't be back until Thursday of next week. So, it might have to wait until next weekend.

Now that I know just what I'm up against, I'm sure I could do the next one (not that that's going to be needed anytime soon) in a fraction of the time. Oh, I did have some hard parts damage and needed to replace two thrust washers in the planetary geartrain and the OD piston retainer. I also needed to go up one size in the intermdiate shaft spacer and up one size on the OD thrust bearing spacer. It turned out that bearing spacer from my trans was one size up from what I calculated as necessary for the rebuild, so I was all good there. I was told to get the planetary thrust washer from Chrysler and not use aftermarkets so I called the dealer. One dealer had the piston retianer, another dealer had one of the thrust washers and a third dealer had the other thrust washer.... none of them had all the parts. So I had to drive all over town and hit three different dealers and along the way, I stopped at the tranny parts shop for the new intermediate shaft spacer. . I guess what I'm getting at is I spent several hours yesterday ******** parts.

 

OK just checking. So how are you going to go about doing this? i dont have a place of my own to do my tranny so it will more than likely be a friends house and need to minimize down time and have all my parts pretty much. How do the tranny coolers lines come apart, when I changed the tranny fluid a way back, I couldn't get them apart.

 

So I have been watching this thread and am very interested! In the end, what did it cost? Was it worth it in your opinion? Also can you list your parts sources all in one place if possible?

Thanks Bob

 

Bob,

When I did my father's truck over X-mas--the total cost was 1590.That includes all the tranny parts from Dave G, a new T/C V/B the, new stock input shaft, 48RE drum with a hardened lever, (billet accululator, apply piston from TCS), seals, etc, etc. New fluid ATF+3 (16 QTS) and all new seals and gaskets for the DHD 241 transfer case. Those were $150.00 from quad 4X4.

 

Well, I spent $2500 on the major rebuild parts:

• Master rebuilt kit
• Front clutch update kit
• Billet front servo, HD front servo spring, 4.4 servo arm, HD band strut, HD band anchor
• Billet accumulator
• OD clutch update kit
• Towing valve body
• Voltage regulator
• Torque convertor (built to match my profile)
• Mag-Hytec double deep tranny pan

Things I also bought but not factored into the rebuild price above:

• New oil cooler tube with temp sender port welded in
• Isspro tranny temp gauge
• Braided SS hose to replace the short rubber hose on the new factory oil cooler tube mentioned above.

These were not a MUST have for the rebuild so I don't included them.... I consider them "extras".

I also ran across some hard parts damage:

• OD piston retainer
• 2 of the planetary gear thrust washers

I also bought some tools that I needed, but I never include tools into the price of a project. I just expand my 'library' and someday, they will come in handy.

• Shop press (I've been wanting one of these for a long time, but always managed to work around the issue of not having one. Finally, a good reason to get it.... and it was on sale.)
• OD unit gauge bar and gauge block (one of the most critical elements in a happy healthy OD is the correct intermediate shaft spacer and OD thrust bearing spacer selection. These are selective fit items, so accurate measuring tools are a essential.)
• OD unit spring compressor tool (I didn't actually buy this one....I fabricated one out of scrap steel I had laying around the shop. I have less than $4 in it and it works perfectly.)

What is worth it? It was to me... or should I say is will be to me. I have the tranny rebuilt, but not yet reinstalled into my truck so I don't have the full factor yet. I do take great pride in doing things myself. It was explianed to me that what I have built is essentially a full DTT tranny.

As for a list of parts sources.... that's easy. I got all my rebuild parts from DTT. The replacement hard parts I bought from local Dodge dealers, and the intermediate shaft spacer and specialty gauge tools I bought from a local tranny parts shop. I will have to say that DTT's customer service & customer assistance as well as their product support were unparalleled by any other outfit I've dealt with.

 

I made a "pressure vessel" out of 4" PVC pipe with a cap on one end and threaded cap on the other. Stand the pipe vertically, near the bottom of pipe I have a hose barb threaded into the side of the pipe. Near the top of the pipe I have a quick connect air hose coupling threaded into the pipe. I connect a hose from the hose barb to one of the cooler lines and another hose from the end of the other cooler line to a drain pan. Pour some flushing fluid into the 4" pipe, screw the lid on, attach air hose from compressor to the quick connect fitting MAKING SURE THE AIR PRESSURE IS REGULATED DOWN TO ABOUT 5 PSI, and open the valve on the air tank. The air pressure forces the fluid out of the pipe and through the cooler circuit.

 

Didnt you buy a billet input shaft also? Is that in your cost?

 

I was going to, but when I called to order it, they were currently out of stock. They weren't going to get another batch in until a day or so before the weekend I set aside to do the rebuild. I couldn't wait for it, so I had to pass on the billet input.... at least for now. If I ever do get one, I will have to pull the tranny again to put it in. I'm sure that will influence my decision greatly...

The billet input would have added another $700 to the bill.

EDIT: Well I've been sitting here thinking tonight.... the weather kinda turned on me during my rebuild so I haven't gotten it reinstalled yet. I may not get a chance to do it now until the weekend. However, I have to go to a business conference on Sat. and won't get back until Thursday of next week, so I most likely won't get a chance to do the reinstall until next weekend. Think I'll call DTT in the morning and see if they have the next batch of billet inputs and see how soon they can get one to me. If they can get it to me by the time I get back next week, I might just go ahead and order one.... it won't take very much effort to pop the pump back out, remove the front & rear clutch drums, swap the input shafts and put it all back together again. I hate it when I start thinking......

 

Interesting thing is that with all the stock and mildly bombed trucks I've seen over the years I have yet to see a broken input shaft. Is this a prob mostly with the race crowd?

 

It's a problem with the racing crowds and people who use lock up switches in transmissions not DESIGNED to run locked to locked shifts.


























BigBlue claims no responsibility if a tranny war starts. The views expressed in this post are HIS and HIS only and are in no way meant to be taken as the gospel truth.

 

As stated elsewhere within the 13 pages of this post, I use my truck for DD and a tow vechicle to pull my trail rig around. After a trip from Missouri to California and back (via Utah and Colorado) I encountered several places where I would really have liked to have had an exhaust brake. It was explained to me that the stock input shaft may or may not be up to the task of handling the increased stresses imposed on it by an exhaust brake (there seems to be some inconsistency in the stock shafts... some may handle it, some may not). If I roll the dice and decide to see if my stock input can handle it, and it doesn't, it's going to cost a lot more later to fix all the damage.

The future addition of an exhaust brake is the only reason I'm considering adding a billet input shaft.

 

That is the reason why a billet input is in my plans as well

 

Well, crap. I was hoping that I could just order an input shaft today and it would be shipped to me while I was away this weekend and early next week and have by the following weekend. Turns out that the batch of inputs DTT got on the 15th are already gone and if I want one, I'll have to wait about a week or so before they get another batch in. That means that I'd have to wait on shipping after that date or pay for faster shipping. I need to call back tomorrow to find out exactly what kind of time frame I'm looking at, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to be without the truck that long.....

I guess the billet inputs are selling like hotcakes.

 

There are other vendors!!!

 

Cool, i was thinking of a small electric fuel pump or a drill driven pump and gallon of tranny fluid to back flush the system.