Abused my trans a little too much, Gambler 500's and 3400 mile round trips with a trailer... so yeah, tiny roller bearings and shavings in the oil pan, lost all gears and shes done



Picked up another 4l60e (was told it was out of a 100k truck that was wrecked)


turns out the oil was dirty and burnt, took the valve body off and one of the ball bearings had gotten stuck (I'm told the 1/2 shift) and 2 were starting to mushroom the plate...so that's gonna get replaced

Before I even realized this I had ordered a vette servo, shift kit, and forward accumulator piston, 1/2 piston, 3/4 piston, sonnax boost valve and spring, oil filter, and gasket...


Planning on ditching the stock cooler, flushing the lines, installing a cooler that's about twice the size with an inline magnetic filter and adding an oil temp guage


Now with what I have found I have to do a full fricken rebuild, so looking into buying a full rebuild kit and going with HEG frictions and a new band, everything else inside looks pretty good, no pitting on the gears or issues with the various metal parts...


This will be a first for me, seems pretty straight forward but still open to tips






PS: Got a new gambler car, 254k mile Chrysler Imperial and its sexy

I want videos of that tank going through the woods and shit.

As for the 4l60, I wont be as much help as some others in here but... Build a bracket to mount it to an engine stand if possible. This makes life so much better...

A GOOD set of snap ring pliers and O ring picks. Lots of rags & brake clean, and assembly goop if you are doing this alone.

Just be really detailed and make sure everything is nice and clean going back in and you'll be fine. Not a hard job, just time consuming to do it right.

Somehow there happened to be a wood frame in the house my mom bought, just the right size for the trans...a thick sheet of Styrofoam for it to sit on and a ratchet to hold it upright and that's been pretty fricken solid!

I do have a set of snap ring pliers, but I may look into getting a set with a longer snout

Also had a buddy mention he has one of the nicer trans hoists, so I'm hoping I can borrow that for removal and reinstall, would make my life a ton easier



For the gambler car, its in shockingly nice condition for the $340 I paid, leather is in good condition, no weird smells, oil looks and smells like oil, same with the rad fluid, trans fluid is bright red and squeaky clean, it shifts better than any vehicle I have ever owned or driven...AC bearing is going tits up, power steering pump is totally fucked, as is the driver side window actuator, brakes booster is fucked, but its under lifetime warranty on the piston and seals (recall!) and it has the usual slow leaks of a 27-year old 250k+ car, but its pretty damn nice!

ditch the 4l60 and take that money and find a good 4l80 and quit worrying about breaking it

Nah, the 60 is perfectly find for the 1500 burb, it was my own fault for abusing the fuck out of it, it last 160k miles and made the trip from WA to WY, then to ND, then to IA, plus the 2 gambler events before it shit the bed...it had a hard life with me

New HEG frictions, plus the above listed mods should make this trans quite a bit upgraded from a stock 4l60e...I'm also looking at a 1998 6.5 diesel K3500 to be a long haul/tow rig, that WILL have the 4l80e and the 1-ton rear end, but even so I will probably be doing a shift kit, boost valve, and corvette servo to it as well, plus the same thing with a bigger or secondary trans cooler, inline filter, drain bung, and temp sensor should make them both last a lot, lot longer

This post was edited by Ice98 on Sep 29 2018 12:07am

well if you decided you dont want to rebuild it yourself or have some1 local you trust. I know these guys do a good job for not to bad of a price
https://www.performabuilt.com/product/level-1-street-cruiser-4l60e/

or if you want a good heavy duty hauling trans

https://www.performabuilt.com/product/the-performabuilt-heavy-hauler-4l60e/

This post was edited by night_throne on Sep 29 2018 07:51pm

When this is all said and done I should be into this trans for less than 700, including the core, and I still have my old one to tear apart and see if its core parts are good

Buy from fti

Still working on it, hindsight being 20/20 I should have brought the trans up to my house to work on it, having it be at the same location as my suburban (parked up at my mom's house, 160 miles away) hasn't been the most convenient

I have to pull the last set of clutch packs back out and replace the seals (again) since I knocked them during installation the first time, then I can align the pump halves and reinstall that, and rebuild the valve body...once that's done I should be much closer to finished...Have 2 bungs to weld into the oil pan, one for a temp probe, one for a drain to make servicing easier in the future

So far, so good

Got all the core parts put back together, water pump reinstalled, valve body rebuild with new shift kit, new valve plate and gaskets, new solenoids, broke one of the solenoids so I ordered a new one and once that is done the pan can go back on, servo is reinstalled, drain bung and temp sensor port drilled and welded into the pan, pan is painted...ordered a torque converter and once it is here I will be ready to swap it for the broken trans and should be back up and running


Also have an inline magnefine filter, an external/aux cooler for the loop and the temp gauge installed