1980 lockup unit, my first rebuild.

Taking it apart was easy, cleaning went ok, got all the seals, bushings & parts replaced. Installed a TF-2 shift kit while I was there.

Assembled everything back into respective sub-units, and stopped. I have a few questions before proceeding, don't want to mess it up and have to do it all over again in a month. I'm using the Munroe book and the YouTube vids by Southwest Automatics.

I had *no* endplay on the input side when I started taking things apart. It wouldn't budge at all. This seems weird. The output shaft gave me 0.17mm endplay.

My front clutch pack has a huge amount of clearance. Didn't have a feeler gauge handy, but using a ruler I measure 4.5mm from top of pressure plate to upper part of waved snap ring. That's 177 thou! The front clutch pack has 11 springs against the piston, 4 frictions and 4 steels. The pressure plate is the thickest available. I've been told I can add an additional steel to the bottom of the stack, but that will still leave me with too big a clearance. What else can I do? Can I simply add an additional friction and steel, or would that change things?

The rear pack's clearance is also on the largish side, but is close to spec. I might leave it, unless an additional steel is recommended there as well (4 frictions and 3 steels in the rear pack).

Other than that I just wanted to know of any gotcha's I might want to look out for when putting everything back in the casing.

Hope the knowledgeable people here can give me a virtual hand.

John

 

On the input are you trying to turn the big shaft or the small center shaft ?? Big one will not move

 

I not a tranny guy what so ever but mine has five clutches in the front pack, my tranny builder used some thinner steels to get those five clutches in there.

 

Good question. You know, I'm not sure now, it was a few months ago (this has been a "spare weekend" project...). But I can see how that would result in no movement, the big one is the end of the stator and bolted to the oil pump.

I guess I'll double check on reassembly. I have 2 different thickness washers in order to adjust.

What should I do about the clutch pack clearances? I'm using stock steels & frictions and still have much too much space. There were 4 of each when I took it apart (and 4/3 in the rear).

The other (rather frustrating) thing is that everyone I talk to gives me a different answer. Transmission specialist dealers/shops say I should have around 0.050 - 0.070 thou max clearance, while the Munroe book states 0.082 - 0.151 thou (which isn't that far off from 0.177 at the far end of the scale, and an extra stock steel at 0.068 thou should adjust perfectly).

Who's right?

 

Finally got back to working on the car, and installed all the subassemblies back into the casing. Everything went in really smoothly and it's amazing how nicely everything fits together. Very slick. I fixed the clutch pack clearance issue by adding an extra steel on the bottom of the stack of frictions and steels. That brought it to 0.100", which is right in the middle of the factory specs.

We called it a day when we got as far as installing the valve body, because we were having problems getting the parking rod from the valve body into the parking sprag in the extension housing. Munroe shows it as being disconnected from the valve body, then re-attached afterwards, while the YouTube series from Southwest shows it being installed before the extension housing is in place. My extension housing is already in place...

So 4 questions:

1. Can the valve body be installed with the extension housing in place without removing the parking rod and installing it on it's own first? If so, how?

2. The band adjust screws are square. I wasn't able to find a socket that fit them, so I adjusted 'by feel' using a regular wrench. Is there a special socket for this screw so that I can use a torque wrench? I'd rather get it right now, even though they can be adjusted later.

3. End play on the input side - I started with the thickest fibre washer on the stator when I installed the oil pump, but when we screwed the oil pump in and tried to measure end play (by pulling/pushing on the input shaft with the casing lying on the bench) it wouldn't budge. Thinking it might simply be too tight, we removed the oil pump and replaced the fibre washer with a thinner one. This time we go just a tiny bit of movement, but it's still more or less immovable. I'm thinking that we're doing this wrong, and there must be a better and/or easier way to measure end play. There isn't a whole lot of metal to grab onto, everything is oily and slippery, and there is a lot of weight in the casing on the input shaft. Can anyone give a few pointers here? I want to get it right the first time!

4. I've asked several sources where I can find the little rubber grommets that fit in the shift linkage between the shifter in the car and the valve body gear selector, but no one seems to carry them. Does anyone here know where I might find them?

The plan is that next time I visit the car, we will actually manage to put the transmission back in the car and drive it out of the shop. Looking forward to that day!

 

Yes it can be installed You just need to find the sweet spot and push hard and it will pop into place.You may need to turn the drive shaft. It can be done hooked to the valve body or loose. As assembled do it with the valve body loose

 

Got the parking rod installed, you just need to fiddle and coax it a little. No real pressure needed, it all fell into place when I got it right.

Band adjust screws are 5/12" 8-point (double square).

Checked end play with the tranny resting on the output shaft end. Barely moves, 1mm should be fine.

Got it all buttoned up today, hoping to get it all back into the car tomorrow.

 

Got everything back in the car, connected, torqued down to spec and ready to test. It turned out to go a lot more smoothly than I had feared.

Turned the key one click, got check lights and buzzer as expected, turned another click to start engine and got...

nothing.

It won't turn over in any shift position, let alone in P/N. All the check lights light up (which I don't recall from before), but the starter doesn't run.

Ugh.

Spent the next 4 hours trying to figure out the problem. Found after pulling the pan that the plastic wiper that meets the neutral starter switch makes contact in N, but not in P, so we adjusted the shifter to give proper contact in both positions. We also checked for continuity from the metal part of the wiper to ground (ok) as well as from the NSS to ground when in P or N (ok) and that the outer pins (this is a 3 pin NSS) show continuity when either the central plastic part is depressed (ok) or the central metal sensor is shorted to the housing (ok).

The starter motor is wired correctly (2 cables, one thick, one thin, on two connectors on the starter: one thick, one thin). Checked all ground straps on vehicle, they measure fine.

At this point I'm at a loss as to what the problem might be.

This is a 1980 Torqueflite with standard console shifter & linkage, 3 pin neutral safety switch. It all worked fine when I took it apart to rebuild it, and nothing's changed except that I replaced worn parts and an installed TransGo shift kit (no changes to the rooster comb or wiper though).

Suggestions?