Jefe's 700R4 swap

I got tired of the computer deciding when my 5R55E transmission should shift, since it hadn't a clue with all the mods I've done so I decided It was time for a change. The two choices were a manual, or a 700R4 for a lower crawl ratio. I love having an auto in LA traffic (and Its grown on me wheeling) so I figured I'd be the first to put a 700R4 in a 2nd gen.

All my pics are here, and I'll link the important ones to the thread.

I grabbed the two Advance Adapters parts (4.0 to 700R4, 700R4 to t-case) back in Feb for a great deal, and waited for some more cash to come around to buy the 700R4. I got the 700R4 (Level II) from Bowtie Overdrives, along with their TV system, 1800 rpm stall torque converter, dip stick, and install kit.

The trans arrives:

A few weeks before I put the trans in i decided to install the TV linkage. Somewhere between '91-'94 and 2000 the throttle body linkage changed size, so I got to modify it to fit Bowtie's TV setup. I figured since was modifying anyway I mine as well upgrade and so I threw in a BBK TB.

You can see where i ground the linkage down:

On another weekend I hacked up my center console and installed the B&M Hammer shifter. It sat a little low sitting on the floor, so I welded up a sub-frame for it out of 1" sq. tube. I plan to glass the cover in with the center console so it looks factory. (anyone want to show me how to glass?)

Part way installed:

The next step was to throw in the transmission in a weekend and hope everything else went smoothly since this is still my daily driver.

Friday night (5 hrs):
The first job was to get the control arms from the SFA out of the way, along with its bracketry:

Next, getting ready to take the t-case and transmission out:

Saturday (15 hrs):
With help, and a very tall floor jack (or a bunch of bricks ) remove t-case and transmission. Compare transmisions (AA tailshaft housing was installed previously, and the 700R4 was built with the AA output shaft):

Bolt AA adapter to engine:

Bolt adapter to torque converter and install:
I had to grind down the three bolts in order to get them flush w/ the adapter. Not sure if AA dropped the ball or what.

Bolt up trans:

Bolt up t-case:

Connect TV linkage:

Reroute cooler lines. I used rubber for now. I plan to replace with either braided stainless or hard lines. I had ordered the Bowtie overdrives lines, but they aren't long enough to reach the drivers side tank of the stock radiator, nor are they the right fittings for the radiator.

Sunday (10 hrs):
Wire up shifter. I brought the wires that went to the shift position switch on the 5R through the same hole as the shift cable. By rewraping the wire harness correctly, i didn't have to extend any wires, which was nice.
Wire up torque converter harness. I got bowties harness w/ manual lockup switch, and replaced my shifter handle with one that has a switch. so now I can lock the converter up when i'm climbing in 3rd gear. It works great.

Connect shifter, fill trans and start engine w/o exhaust Y-pipe to get neighbors attention

Modify exhaust. I had to crush the pre-cat on the passenger side in order to get the Y-pipe to fit. The O2 sensor on that side is fine. The O2 sensor on the other side clears the adapter plate by a 1/32", so others may need to grind the adapter to get it to fit. I figured I'd then drive it to an exhaust shop and have them remake my Y-pipe to fit better. However I found out that for such a new vehicle the O2 sensors and pre-cats have to be exact stock distances down the pipe to follow guidlines so no one wanted to help me there. I even talked with the local guy for a good 30 mins coming up with crazy ideas to get it to work, like remoting the oil filter and taking the exhaust around the outside of the frame rail. I ended up just using the tube that AA suplies to extend the Y-pipe so that the cats would bolt up sqaure and clear the trans. I may get to have fun when I need to smog this thing

exhaust pics:

I know I've left out many details, so if anyone has any questions, ask away.

 

[Jefe]

How do you expect compression braking to be with the 700r4 to be offroading?

While manual shifting it should be awesome Even on-road + manual shifting it brakes very well. I can go from 3rd gear @ 50 mph to 1st @ 10 mph in a few hundred feet w/o using the brakes.

 

[Diff Whack Daddy]

Hey Jefe,
Did your dust cover for the bottom of the bell housing seal everything pretty good or did you have to modify it at all. The reason I ask, is I noticed your engine to tranny mount goes all the way arround. Mine, being the prototype does not and had to have a little sheet metal added to cover the hole. However, the back end of the starter is still exposed.

 

[jobunn]

This is one swap I'd love to make at some point.

And now that you've wheeled it pretty hard how about some driving impressions on and off road. Compared to the 5r55e too.

 

[Jefe]

Hey Jefe,
Did your dust cover for the bottom of the bell housing seal everything pretty good or did you have to modify it at all. The reason I ask, is I noticed your engine to tranny mount goes all the way arround. Mine, being the prototype does not and had to have a little sheet metal added to cover the hole. However, the back end of the starter is still exposed.

I threw that piece-of-crap sheet metal cover away as soon as I pulled it out of the box. I know the first few kits were hard to cover because the adapter was a U shape, so I'm glad they went to a full ring. Bowtie OD sent me an aluminum cover with my trans, so I modified that and it covers everything up pretty well. The edge of the starter just peeks out, but the gear and flex plate are protected. Of course my starter mounts differently, so any pre 98 won't be as protected.

 

[Jefe]

This is one swap I'd love to make at some point.

And now that you've wheeled it pretty hard how about some driving impressions on and off road. Compared to the 5r55e too.

I love it
The low first gear wasn't as much of a difference as I expected, but it was still nice. Most of the stuff at T-haven I was locked in 1st gear and crawling at ~2500 rpm. Engine brakeing in 1st was great. Even on the steepest decents I was only lightly using the brakes to control the decent. Overall there was much more control while crawling, due to the low 1st gear and low stall torque converter.
The one negative is that 2nd doesn't lock it in 2nd gear like the Ford trans, so a fast climb required accelerating to 2nd gear before climbing. (I was surprised by this, anybody know if this is normal for the 700R4?)
I aslo had to get used to the large difference between 1st and 2nd. 2nd was faster than I wanted to go through the T-haven ditches, so I ended up following Stic-o (stock gearing) at 3500+ rpm in 1st which was a noisy ride.
I found it more difficult to shift the Atlas. Seems that with the trans in N and the T-case in N the trans output shaft still spins, so you've gotta play with it to get it to sync. Never had that problem with the 5R.

T-haven also provided a good testing ground for cooling. It was in the 90's and I never had the trans go over 180 deg F while crawling or driving too from T-haven. In fact many times I was sitting at 160 deg while crawling which is better than I see at highway speeds.

 

[Jefe]

I'll also update on my CEL situation. I found a computer for a 2000 V6 OHV w/ manual trans, so that I don't end up with the Trans control throwing codes. However I forgot about the PATS system, so while I don't get codes thrown in KOEO, I can't start it either. I'll have to get someone that has a PATS programmer set my keys as the master keys in the PCM, or get another computer from a 97 and see if it will work with the 2000 harness.

EDIT:
And fuel mileage: My highway mileage has gone up about 1mpg, but my city mileage has gone down ~4mpg.

 

[Jeeps&Fords]

The one negative is that 2nd doesn't lock it in 2nd gear like the Ford trans, so a fast climb required accelerating to 2nd gear before climbing. (I was surprised by this, anybody know if this is normal for the 700R4?)

Check the forums over at the Bowtie Overdrives site - that topic has been covered. There are 4 pins in the connector on the trans - one is not used, one is a ground, one will lock 3/4 and the other will lock 2.

Cool swap, BTW.

 

[Jefe]

Check the forums over at the Bowtie Overdrives site - that topic has been covered. There are 4 pins in the connector on the trans - one is not used, one is a ground, one will lock 3/4 and the other will lock 2.

Cool swap, BTW.

Sorry, I didn't word that well. I know about how the converter lockup works, and its working great. Thanks though.

I was refering to the fact that my 5R (and every other ford I've driven), when you manually shift it to 2nd gear on the column, the truck will start in 2nd gear and stay in 2nd until you tell it otherwise. My 700R4 still starts in 1st gear when I have the selector in 2nd.

 

[Yomie]

All of our work trucks are Chevys, some 1/2 ton some 1 ton, reguardless, every single one starts in 1st when the selector is in 2nd, i think it may be a chevy thing.

Hopefully you may find a way around this, and thanks for the writeup and pics Jefe, i may be doing this soon

 

[Jefe]

All of our work trucks are Chevys, some 1/2 ton some 1 ton, reguardless, every single one starts in 1st when the selector is in 2nd, i think it may be a chevy thing.

Thats kinda what I figured. Only Chevy I've ever driven was a manual though.

Thanks

 

[Jeeps&Fords]

Jefe - my mistake. That is a design issue with the GM transmissions.

 

[Ronin8002]

Jefe, I looked on your website and noticed that you were attempting to install a new, deeper tranny fluid pan and you mentioned in one of the captions that it didn't fit. Did you ever get it to work properly?

Also, I was curious as to how you have your cooling system for the trans set up. Right now I am running the fluid through the radiator cooler, through a huge Permacool tube and fin type cooler in front of the radiator (no fan), and then back into the trans.

I will get up to 180 on a 70 degree day on the highway, but when I took it on the beach and was going slow I was over 200. Part of this I can attribute to my cats being so close to the pan (which I've wrapped with header wrap until my new exhaust system relocates the cats further to the rear). I have been thinking about either adding a fan to my aux cooler or switching to a stacked plate type cooler with a fan (I've been told the stacked plate type cool more effectively).

James

 

[Jefe]

Jefe, I looked on your website and noticed that you were attempting to install a new, deeper tranny fluid pan and you mentioned in one of the captions that it didn't fit. Did you ever get it to work properly?

Also, I was curious as to how you have your cooling system for the trans set up. Right now I am running the fluid through the radiator cooler, through a huge Permacool tube and fin type cooler in front of the radiator (no fan), and then back into the trans.

I will get up to 180 on a 70 degree day on the highway, but when I took it on the beach and was going slow I was over 200. Part of this I can attribute to my cats being so close to the pan (which I've wrapped with header wrap until my new exhaust system relocates the cats further to the rear). I have been thinking about either adding a fan to my aux cooler or switching to a stacked plate type cooler with a fan (I've been told the stacked plate type cool more effectively).

James

The problem with the deep PML pan is that it would physically fit on the transmission, but because the valve body hangs down below the mounting surface I can't get the pan on to the transmission w/o unbolting my SAS crossmember. PML has another pan that is shallower to the rear, which should work, but I never traded it in.

My cooling goes from trans, through radiator, to 12x14" HD Hayden trans cooler (staked plate design) in front of radiator, no fan, and back to trans. My cat is also inches from the pan.

 

[xmodster3o3]

Ok jefe so tell us how much did this all cost, I really want to do this and already got the trans I need, got it for free. But I just need to know about how much it's going to run me so I can start saving. Thanks.

 

[Jefe]

Ok jefe so tell us how much did this all cost, I really want to do this and already got the trans I need, got it for free. But I just need to know about how much it's going to run me so I can start saving. Thanks.

If you've got a complete transmission, then you'll need the AA Adapters, install the AA output shaft, a shifter, the TV linkage from Bowtie, and some misc parts (dip stick, etc).

 

[Dignan]

Молодец ты. У тебя крутая тачка.

 

[Hokie]

I'll also update on my CEL situation. I found a computer for a 2000 V6 OHV w/ manual trans, so that I don't end up with the Trans control throwing codes. However I forgot about the PATS system, so while I don't get codes thrown in KOEO, I can't start it either. I'll have to get someone that has a PATS programmer set my keys as the master keys in the PCM, or get another computer from a 97 and see if it will work with the 2000 harness.

EDIT:
And fuel mileage: My highway mileage has gone up about 1mpg, but my city mileage has gone down ~4mpg.

Crap, so the computer can't be reprogramed to think that the 5R is still there? (That means I'd have to do a complete motor/tranny/pcm/pats swap from an '01+ Ranger to get a manual behind my SOHC)

 

[Jefe]

Crap, so the computer can't be reprogramed to think that the 5R is still there? (That means I'd have to do a complete motor/tranny/pcm/pats swap from an '01+ Ranger to get a manual behind my SOHC)

Whoa there. . its not that difficult. I just tried swaping out pcm's, and you'd have to swap out the PATS module from the same vehicle (or convince Ford to reprogram the PCM/PATS to work together) which is why it didn't work. I would think you could get a pre-PATS '97 PCM to work. OR you can get a chip/tuner to make your PCM think it is a manual, which is what I'm doing. I had Apten burn me a chip and it successfullly convinced my PCM that it was a manual (and no CEL codes) but they screwed up elsewhere. So I am now having Doug (Bama chips) program a tuner for me. We'll see how that works.

 

[Hokie]

Whoa there. . its not that difficult. I just tried swaping out pcm's, and you'd have to swap out the PATS module from the same vehicle (or convince Ford to reprogram the PCM/PATS to work together) which is why it didn't work. I would think you could get a pre-PATS '97 PCM to work. OR you can get a chip/tuner to make your PCM think it is a manual, which is what I'm doing. I had Apten burn me a chip and it successfullly convinced my PCM that it was a manual (and no CEL codes) but they screwed up elsewhere. So I am now having Doug (Bama chips) program a tuner for me. We'll see how that works.

Hmm.. the problem with my truck is that there were no SOHC Explorers offered with a manual tranny until '01 (when they started putting them in Rangers) so I can't use a different PCM. Maybe Bama works would be the ticket... I've already found a few wrecked SOHC Rangers I could pull the tranny from

 

[Texan01]

all GM RWD trannys and I think all FWD trannys do a 1-2 shift in manual 2nd. Chrysler RWD (A904/998/and OD variants) do the same thing. Ford is the only one of the big 3 that does the 2nd gear start. Some GM cars can start in second but it's a computer controlled thing. so you'd have to wire up some switch.