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After a few more test runs, there was a loud groan from the transmission followed by a vibration which traveled through the truck. This might have been the planetary sun gear grinding against the center support's bearing (if it was, it was somewhat avoidable because there was already minor evidence of wear, but it looked/felt insignificant and I thought it might have been a momentary heat flash...so putting them back in was a judgement call based on parts expense and rarity). I dropped the pan and there was a small cloud of glitter around and on the magnet, which also suggests fragments might have traveled back through the system. Doh. So I took the valve body out and reattached the pan so I could get started evaluating the "easier" part.

The valve body's been fully cleaned and re-rebuilt. The gaskets had only seen brief use, so I put those between shop towels to absorb excess fluid and they went back in nicely. There's one enclosed checkball that sticks despite seemingly-effective cleaning during the last rebuild, so that will definitely be replaced. Everything else in the valve body seems kosher.

However, based on the noise and fragments at the pan magnet, some new subassemblies will be unavoidable. Though infrequent on eBay, A43D subassemblies usually price at $80+ (USD). Just a couple weeks ago I was lucky to find a 2001 Tacoma at a local junkyard. Look how picked clean it was after only a month:



Despite nearly everything of value being ripped out of the abandoned truck, the transmission was left intact. Couldn't believe it. Two days later after finding it, I took some leave at work, crawled under the cab, laid down on a blue tarp, and wrenched away as several rainstorms curtained the open space around it. Price of the entire transmission with torque convertor? $70.



-Jeff

More transmission porn:



^ The recent junkyard pull undergoes inspection.




^ A new PowerTorque filter gets torqued. These are the easiest to find over here and come with the pan gasket for about $10. As you can see from the photo, the valve body is incredibly clean.




^ Here's what the pan magnets looked like at first glance. Though my primary transmission didn't have ANY noticeable buildup after 120k miles and had also never been serviced, this one did and had clearly been maintained (based on the cork pan gasket). So this was kind of a surprise, but it's good to see that the magnetic residue looked and spread like butter as opposed to being a collection of fragments. The bubbles are exactly that--bubbles--and not particulate.


-Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K5SCg1pU3s
^ For some reason it always rained when it was time to get work done.

Out with the old and pretty...


In with the "new" and ugly...


I'm starting to get so good at this that even installing the new one was a solitary activity.

Unfortunately, I'm so bad at this that I broke a cardinal rule and didn't secure the transmission (as seen in the second photo) or its jack. It needed to be lowered a little to fit the ATF-filled torque converter and the added weight teetered the trans' front forward, rolled the unbraked scissor-jack backwards, and down everything went. What makes this install so hard is that the rear needs to be raised up and over a horizontal, undetachable, crossmember before the front can be lifted (hence my attempt to fit the torque convertor after lifting). Not fun.

In the process, ATF went everywhere: down my arms, all over the trans, on the impact gun, etc. It made everything so slippery that it took a while and a lot of adrenaline to get things back into position.

Anyway...


-Jeff

I spent a couple nights ago "mostly torquing" the finals screws into the junkyard transmission. Despite the stellar job me and my friend did with the original transmission, this time I wanted to be sure that the latest replacement would even work before investing too much time into finishing up. So torquing will need to be revisited.

At lunch yesterday, I went home, replaced the power steering pressure sensor connector, raised the rear of the truck, and gave it a test run. A few observations:

• The truck has a bit a of vibration coming from the trans, but nothing unsettling enough to get paranoid.
• Shifting into reverse immediately jumped the wheels into a fast rotation even without gas applied. I do know there's a bit of push in 1st gear (forward/reverse), but wasn't expecting that much without any effort on my part.
• Shifting into drive was also much higher than I expected: without applying pressure to the gas pedal, the odometer showed 30-40mph.
• Braking the vehicle never entirely stopped the wheels--they sputtered ever so little from a complete stop.

That last one I'm going to blame on ageing drum brakes that haven't even been used in a year. I took the beast for a road test with low expectations only to find that it drove perfectly. Perhaps all of the above is natural for this transmission while it's off it's haunches and has no resistance...?

Here's a video of my return drive with the first song I could find on the radio (and clearly holding the iPhone the wrong way):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYf7YXnnHss



-Jeff

Drove the lil' bastard across town tonight to my apartment after picking up some McDonald's.

Hopefully it'll pass inspection later today and I can spend the weekend testing it out more thoroughly. Right now it has a tank of year-old gas, 15(?) year old 10W-30 from my parents' storage room, an oil pan leak thanks to the crap Permatex sealant that didn't want to spread easily, hand-tightened bolts that could use torquing, and a bit too much ATF that should be leveled out before any long trips.

Off to the side: a spare ECU and Jaguar board on the way.

Stoked.

-Jeff

Awesome news, Jeff! :-)

New toys:


^ All Pro bumpers


^ Trail-Gear weld-on parts for an axle flip & some Gorilla nuts


^ Flippity flip!


^ Fabtech spindles.


^ Pro Comp alloys (this is swampland, not high sierra, so no steelies).


^ Obligatory "Badlands" winch.


^ Gator head for the dash. Adds +5HP at the wheels.


-Jeff

got milk?

ToxicGumbo wrote:New toys:


^ Gator head for the dash. Adds +5HP at the wheels.

-Jeff

Place it in the hood. So you look like like Crocodile Dundee