4R70W Rebuild kits, and possible upgrades?

[1996BLKBauer]

So next spring... Jan. 2014 I will be in my Auto Trans class and I talked to the teacher if I can bring in my own transmission to rebuild. He said it would be awesome to have a live job. I am going to a Junk Yard over the summer some time to grab a 4r70w out of another Explorer, but I am wanting to get all the parts I need now in little batches, instead of spending all of my money at once. So what quality rebuild kits exist, and what upgrades can I do? My plans for the truck are to swap in a BG4406 transfercase this summer, and slightly modify the engine, with TM headers, and possibly a tune. I may abuse the truck slightly, so I want to build a really solid transmission for it, and since I will being doing all the labor myself, I can spend a little bit more on parts to rebuild it, so any suggestions?

 

[Mrhobby100]

Try this out they have different stages of tranny's depending on your horsepower. But they now have their monster in a box so you can do the performance rebuild yourself. I think that your teacher would trip to see the in depth work involved in their monster in a box rebuild. It replaces most all of the internals its pretty crazy.


http://www.monstertrans.com/store/

 

[Mrhobby100]

Then I suggest doing a J-mod shift kit on your tranny separator plate to improve the shifting. Now that is a teachers dream the mod was done by the guy who helped ford develop the tranny and he explains what all the functions of the plate are and what holes to drill larger to increase the upshift and downshift ability. J mod is on my list I just want to do a tranny pan with it and have to wait till after mothers day to spend cash on myself again.


here is the monster in a box. I know it says from 98-03 it will work you can call them to make sure everything will work. http://www.monstertrans.com/store/

 

[1996BLKBauer]

The Monster in a box sure does seem to cover all the bases. And that J-Mod does seem to help, but almost all the things I read/saw for it are not for the Explorer, so is it not a good idea to do this to our Explorers? Since I am doing the rebuild later, as of right now I know nothing about automatic transmissions...

 

[Mrhobby100]

you can do it just fine. A few people on here are running the j mod and love it. They just never gave an in depth review on what they did so I went to the site where they do the j mod a lot and they had talked to the guy who created the j-mod and he gave them some specs on an updated version for the newer transmissions. If your transmission is from 96 then you will want to change out the 1-2 accumulator cup and the 2-3 accumulator cup because the one in your tranny was a bad design and in 97 or 98 ford updated the cups. There is a review on the site about what cups to get.

I talked to transgo and baumann engineering they make basically knock of jmod kits but its nice cause they give you some updated springs and things too. wether its a knock off j mod or the tru j mod they both work good all it is drilling holes. Both companies said that the j mod or their kits would work just fine in our vehicle. The only reason you don't see our vehicles talked about with the mods much is cause there aren't many ford explorer owners looking to mod their tranny like mustang and thunderbird or crown vic guys are. Call up monster trans and talk to them about their kit I can almost beththey are gonna say that it will fit perfectly fine. Remember a 4r70w is a 4r70w only 2 difff kinds 2wd and 4wd (AWD I should say).

I did a search on this forum a while ago and found that the j mod was working on a few explorers very well. If you want I will try and dig up the links to the j-mod walk thru's. I do know that there is a video of the newer version of the jmod being done on you tube. That is the simple j mod that was redesigned for the newer year tranny's.

 

[Mrhobby100]

REMEMBER. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE JMOD IT LOOKS A LIL CRAZY WHEN YOU FIRST START READING ABOUT IT BUT ONCE YOU READ THE INFO A FEW TIMES AND WATCH THE VIDEO IT IS REALLY SIMPLE. TRUST ME I WAS SCARED TO EVEN WANT TO ATTEMPT IT AT FIRST BUT NOW I HAVE NO ISSUES JUST NEED TO GET A TRANNY PAN. the jmod alone will really wake up the tranny. dammit stupid caps lock.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Alright guys, now that I actually got a transmission, and that my old one is on the way out, now is a perfect time to bring this thread back to life. that monster rebuild kit is quite pricey, and not really what i am after for this rebuild, sure I beat on my truck, but I don't have super high horsepower. maybe? 5hp over stock, but not really that much, so what rebuild kits have everybody used that have worked out well? I do plan on doing the j mod however, so I need to re read up on that, and do the upgrade accumulators, but other then that, is there anything else?

 

[SWIGIN]

I'm a huge fan of these trannys and have upgraded the AOD-E in my Mustang to all 4R70W internals and have learned a few things.

My favorite shift kit for these trannys is the Trannsgo H2 kit. It gives you maybe 5 or 6 new valves for the valve body and is FAR superior than just doing the J mod.

These trannys are also very strong in stock form and can handle way more HP then our 5.0 motors make even with decent mods like AFR heads, aftermarket cam, ect.

If you want it to REALLY grab when it shifts you can upgrade to Alto red clutches, they grab HARD and can be kinda violent, but that can be good.

I have a Trannsgo H2 kit for my 5.0 EX and plan on installing it over July 4th weekend if I get the 4406 swap done and the new exhaust done at the same time.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/trg-aode-hd2/overview/