8588ranger
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- Joined
- April 20, 2004
- Messages
- 28
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- City, State
- Big Island,Hawaii
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1996
What bore number is the reverse modulator bore?
What bore number is the reverse modulator bore?
pj8847 said:well, Thankfully I fixed the tranny. Couldn't stand looking at it anymore, and I couldn't wait for anything to be shipped, so I improvised.
I had some parts laying around from a few GM trannies, ( micellaneous o-rings and crap) and I went to the dealer and got the separator plate gaskets, (I wanted the gaskets, the plate, and the o-rings for the reverse servo as well... but... according to them, the separator plate and the reverse servo are DISCONTINUED and can't be ordered, although I gave them the #'s and they claimed they were the wrong ones, and refused to sell them to me. the system they were running looked as if it were from 10 yrs ago...), they also told me they ONLY came WITH the VB if I bought one.. I asked how much....$800 friggin BUCKS!!! I told him just gimme the damn gaskets and piss off. Came back home and dropped the VB, only to find every single bolt wasn't torqed down AT ALL, several I spun out with my fingers and the rest just needed a slight tweak and out they popped. (I should have checked them when I was in there last time... DOHHHH!)
When I dropped the reverse servo cover I found i could not move the piston at all. Finally got it out to find a nasty gouge in it (the upper smaller diameter part with the smaller o-ring) and in the bore itself.
Apparently this WAS NOT a NEW tranny that I paid for, and got from ford (I'm looking into what I can do to recover some of what I paid for it starting monday, I think they owe me roughly $800 - $900, and the place that put it in WAS a ford stealership... I asked the dealer how much a rebuild is today, and was told $2100, without install, new, $3000, just tranny) it was a rebuild, and the gaskets were not OEM and definitely screwed. One good point about it which I was shocked to find, a shift kit apparently was ALREADY installed, (plate was definitely drilled), and it already had an upgraded boost valve?! Definitely wasn't the stocker! looked almost like the sonnax, Might have been and older version or another company? and looking up into the openings for the bands, everything I could see seemed to be in great shape. One thing I was curious about, what color are the bands normally? from what i could see, (not much, but enough) mine appear to be green. I thought they are supossed to be red/brown or black?
Anyways, Nice huh, ok, so not so bad, I ripped it all apart (the VB) down to the bare body, parts everywhere...lol and painstakingly cleaned and inspected every bore, valve, solenoid, retainer, o-ring, spring... you get the picture, ( mind you, getting some of the bores empty was a real pain in the ass!) after finding a small piece of o-ring lodged within the reverse modulator valve bore (yup, reverse was out because of TWO problems, I have no idea where this piece of o-ring came from, probably last rebuild) I reassembled the whole thing and got to work on the reverse servo and bore.
Since it was gouged to ****, bad enough that the smaller o-ring was wrecked from it, I inspected the bore to find bits of casting towards the top where the rod goes in to engage the band. Apparently the case wasn't machined perfectly and a small piece broke off and wedged itself between the servo piston and the bore, doing its damage. (I got the piece) great I thought, now what, that is when I realized, I'll attempt to sleeve it! So I broke out my small hone that is used for wheel cylinders and went to work taking about .010-.015 ( I'm estimating, everything was by eye and feel, it may have been more) out of the bore all around, nice and slow. Took forever... I also removed any loose casting material that was left. (I didn't measure it before, although it was probably stock dimensions) I went into my basement where I had (this is where i improvised) closet rod ( I think it was a closet rod, it may have been from a table as well, not sure)... steel, whatever it was, to be exact. Of course it was hollow, and the walls were fairly thin, perfect for my needs. I had honed enough out of the bore that it fit in VERY tight (had to be popped in with a makeshift installer and mallet, ok, it was very tight! and I guess I was one lucky ****) I then had to hone the sleeve itself a little bit to get the piston to slide up in nice and snug, ( which took even longer than the bore itself!) then finished it off with 1000 grit wet sandpaper wrapped around the heads of the hone (what a pain in the ass!) and finalized it with my dremel, a small polishing wheel, and some polishing compound. Looked like brand new! I even ground down and polished the edge CAREFULLY so that it matched the chamfer (spelling?) of the bore.
I already had done the servo and lightly touched up the spots where it was gouged to remove the burrs and smooth it out. Once that was done I dug into my box of parts and found a nice fat o-ring that fit the job nicely. (never get rid of anything!... heh heh)
With that done, i slapped the VB up, torqed it down, installed the servo piston/rod, went up very smooth, had fluid movement, but needed firm pressure, it was like butter... (BTW, the rod on the servo piston had A single band around it, that makes it the shortest of three if I remember correctly? AND, there was NO spring installed... but I remedied that, IDIOTS!)
Bolted up the servo cover and installed the filter (FYI, PUROLATOR has a filter IDENTICAL to the fram microfiber one, I wouldn't settle for anything less, but no one by me had any frams in stock...so I started going through all the boxes at the autoparts, drove the chick behind the counter MAD... but I gave her $5 for the hassle and she was cool...heh heh. the purolator also comes with BOTH o-rings, the bolt/spacer AND a new RE-USABLE pan gasket, all for 16 clams... Not bad at all! (I think she may have given me a discount, not sure...)
With the pan bolted up I dropped in 4 quarts and prayed to the automotive gods that it would work while giving the truck the sign of the cross... Started her up, let her run for 5 mins at idle, then tried her out....ummmm...no gears at ALL! thats when i realized, The nose of the truck was way up in the air on ramps (old steel ramps, with some Serious height to them, so, I pulled my cripple ass out of the truck, half in the door,half out, pushed with my good leg, while barely holding the brake with my bad one (that was painful) and got the truck down off the ramps. Checked the fluid, nothing showing on the stick, thats when i realized alot more than 4 quarts had drained out, so I added one. The fifth quart got forward to just barely engage, but no reverse, I was like...oh crap... checked again, still nothing on the stick, so i dropped in 2 more, and the level finally showed, but a bit to high, got back in the truck and put her in D, she engaged the second the shifter clicked onto D, I then tried reverse...
UREKA!!! friggin reverse kicked in with such a hard lock I almost wet myself...LOL I'll be damned, it's working! So I went back and forth through all the gears with not one bit of delay at all, SWEET! Solid, positive engagment in all gears! I checked the level again and it had settled down to a perfect level.. I was DONE! So, one orphan o-ring, a cut off piece of hollow steel closet rod/table leg/patio umbrella rod?( still don't know what the hell it was too, hope the wife didn't need it...), a wheel cylinder hone, dremel, some well spent time and 7 quarts of fluid later, I'm back up and runnin... WAY better that it ever was before! And on FRIDAY THE 13th, My lucky day! ( I usually find money, never fails, guess today I found a savings of $2000+...lol I'm not complaining!) Took her out and gave her a good drive, it's like i have a new tranny in it!
THANKS for the help guys! and thanks to those who write extreamly well diaries and logs of there work. I hope to go elite within the week to show my appreciation. I was a staight up GM tranny guy, but now My knowledge has expanded thanks to many here, and I can add ford to the list. (DL-ing the ford cd from the link provided ^^^ in the stickies didn't hurt either!)
THANKS AGAIN!
P.S. I wanted to snap pictures of the "machining" work I did, but I couldn't find my damn camera, after squawking at the wife about it ( she usually takes my stuff and puts it where i can't find it) and it was all done and working, I went into my glove box to grab a pack of smokes, (I keep an extra pack there, and I needed one!) guess what I find? the damn CAMERA! DAMNIT! (I may pull the pan in a few weeks, to check out the servo "fix" and make sure its ok, not sure how the heat/pressure is going to affect it, if i do, i'll snap a few then.) G'NITE!
What bore number is the reverse modulator bore?
I told him he was just a bit to late... AND, I found my original receipts, tranny was supposed to be NEW, not REBUILT... lets see what ford is willing to do to remedy this... since there is a DRAMATIC difference in the price from one to the other... and mine definitely was not a new tranny.
