Need to know EXACT differences between 4R55E & 5R55E

[BrooklynBay]

You could rebuild your old valve body, and get experience from it. It could be a spare.

 

[Glacier991]

That is an excellent price, though I doubt they really do sleeve any bores, as the sleeving is VERY expensive. Anyway, I would add the superior kit and the FORD mod at this time if I was you. If you don;t want to do it, I can do it for you maybe work out some kind of swap for the old VB.

 

[pj8847]

You could rebuild your old valve body, and get experience from it. It could be a spare.

That is an excellent price, though I doubt they really do sleeve any bores, as the sleeving is VERY expensive. Anyway, I would add the superior kit and the FORD mod at this time if I was you. If you don;t want to do it, I can do it for you maybe work out some kind of swap for the old VB.

Unfortunately, the old VB has to go back for a core, or I have to fork over another Ben Frank, which would hurt at the moment (until monday anyways, supposed to be getting a SMALL check from my insurance to "keep me going" I have plenty in the bank, but that's for the family, not the truck...)

I definitely want to do the superior kit and the ford mod, (although i believe they said the VB has the Ford updates) any place I can get all I need at the same time in one order? would make it alot easier.

I appreciate the offer Glacier, and if I wasn't so time constrained and stretched for funds on the repairs, I would eat the core, and gladly send it your way, as i know it would get done right.

 

[Glacier991]

You can do it right, yourself. Follow the Diary, take your time, and if you have any Q's PM me. Or post here. There is a growing list of folks who have done it on the board and each and every one can help you.

ps IF it has the FORD MOD's, all you need is the superior kit. You can find lots of stuff, including the superior kit, at www.transmissionpartsusa.com

 

[BrooklynBay]

Glacier, I was thinking about something for a while. Nobody really knew about TransmissionPartsUSA before this site (and James of course) told us about it. If somebody like Rick contacts them to become a site sponsor, do you think they would agree?

 

[pj8847]

Mornin' All. (OK, afternoon now) Well, I spoke to THEE guy (Donny) about the VB. Extremely nice guy, willing to answer all questions and not try to rush you off the phone (as most others would) Great personality, excellent phone "etiquette". (ok to many big words, I'm getting a headache)

Confirmed the VB's do get sleeved if bores are out of spec (sonnax parts used) and that most VB's come with the ford updates.

I also told him about the forum, and let him know I'll be doing a "review" of the VB here, he said that would be great!

I FOUND MY CAMERA! (again) so I'll be taking pictures of the VB when it gets here and noting what all appears to be done to it.

As I speak it should be getting boxed up and sent out the door for me to get Tues. or Wed. (depending on how lazy my local UPS guy is feeling)

I'm on the wall about throwing the superior shift kit into this just yet. Maybe give it a few weeks and see how it functions and holds up, THEN add the kit.

P.S. I broke my in/lb torque wrench this morning I was checking it's accuracy and my knee went out from under me, causing my weight to shift onto what i was holding at the time... Now to find the damn Snap-On guy...:fire:

 

[BrooklynBay]

Harbor Freight has a nice 1/4" in/lb wrench for about $20 when it's on sale, $29 regular price.

 

[pj8847]

Short update:

It's been 24hrs. and my payment for the VB went through, and was accepted (pretty much immediately). According to paypay and ebay, the transaction is complete. (I know it is since I'm $300+ lighter in my account)

Unfortunately, Nothing, No email confirming my purchase, no shipping info, no tracking, nothing. I was told it would ship as soon as i ordered it. ( I ordered it while I was on the phone with the guy.)

Since it's only been 24hrs. I'm not sweating it, but I did expect to get at least a confirmation and a tracking no. (Since my money was already graciously taken)

This is one of the reasons I LOATHE ebay & ordering anything online. I'll give it till Monday, if nothing by then, I'll start the ball rolling to get my $$$ back.

P.S. Found the snap-on guy, he replaced my T-wrench no questions asked... gotta love Snap-On, I wish everything was that easy.

EDIT: 36 hours later + an email and still no answer, nothing, wouldn't even answer the phone earlier when I tried to call. That and my internet connection keeps going up and down, damn trees took down some lines, now it takes forever if I post something (about 5 mins for the page to come up and refresh) when it rains, it pours...

 

[pj8847]

OK, 53 hours later, still no replies, STILL no order confirmation/tracking info. Nothing...

The Email I sent WAS read (got the read receipt back) but not responded to. I've already contacted my bank, as well as ebay & paypal letting them all know I may be filling a claim come tomorrow afternoon. (Figure I'll give it another 24hrs. Although it's already not looking to good. Even they said it's been long enough to receive such information.)

I don't think I'm wrong or jumping the gun in this situation. My money was already taken, and I'm left with nothing to go on after being told it would be taken care of same day. My communications were received, but not responded to, the yellow flag has come out on this lap now.

This whole ordeal is starting to become more trouble than it's worth...

 

[Glacier991]

Sorry to hear of your troubles... I find a little patience goes a long way on the net for purchases. In literally hundreds of buys, I have only had two that ended up as issues. One was a pieece of heavy equpiment that did not get shipped for almost 2 mos, but it ended up well.... turns out they never realized they had to palletize it for a trucking line.... the 2nd was a purchase from England, and I was flat ripped off. Cost me $60.

I use paypal, but their "guarantee" is a joke. Protect yourself. I use a credit card for JUST that purpose, even on PayPal. They "urge" you to use your debit card. DON'T ! You can stop a payment with yoru credit card.

Meanwhile, relax a little.... I think you are a little jumpy here, though you are right to keep the yellow flag up!

 

[pj8847]

I'm hanging in there, although I'm starting to get an uneasy feeling since my email was read and ignored. No matter, at 1pm today (exactly 73 hours later, more than enough time for the seller to straighten this out) I file with paypal and ebay if I have no communication from the seller by then, my bank has already been alerted to a possible dispute, and is ready to reverse or credit the transaction back to me, and deal with the issue without needing me to do anything. ( I WILL leave a nice fat NEGATIVE for the seller if it goes that far, at that point they will deserve it.)

I agree, paypal is a joke, I did in fact pay with my credit card (it is my primary source of funds for my purchases using paypal), but for some reason they did an instant transfer from my backup funds source, which is my bank account, so it's on them to explain why they did it this way. IDIOTS (I know my CC is ok, 0 balance due, all paid up... wife don't know about this one... it's mine... ALL MINE!!!)

P.S. I just found a nice piece from Sonnax. Wish I would have known it was available. I had to sleeve my reverse servo bore (did it differently then sonnax, My machining consisted of honing out the bore itself while leaving the servo the same size. Hey, my basement hack is holding true... )

Nice to know they have a fix to address a common problem though.

 

[pj8847]

UPDATE: As I was about to call my bank this morning, I figured I'd check my mail one more time. Sure enough, the seller emailed me. Apologized for not contacting me earlier, and confirmed my suspicion...

My VB was in fact NOT shipped! I was told it was because "We got covered up Friday"... WTF does that mean? (I'm assuming it might mean really busy, or slammed with work? I have no f'in idea... then again, I really think it was just an excuse)

Anyways, the seller assured me that the VB WILL be sent today, and that it would be sent 2 day delivery (Since I had payed for 3 day Friday morn', but it was never sent.) and that I would be receiving my tracking info later on in the early evening...

As pissed as I was, I replied very nicely, thanking the seller for getting in touch with me, and taking care of the situation, and that I would be awaiting my tracking info...

It's now well after MIDNIGHT, and I got NOTHING, yet again! :fire: This AFTER I was guaranteed to have my tracking info TODAY. Either the seller is absentminded, or they are jerking me around, either way, my bank has the go ahead on my claim as of 2 hours ago, (gotta love that 24hr. support and protection) and I have an appointment in the morning with my branch manager. (bringing in all ebay/paypal payment confirmations and printouts, as well as the emails, read receipts, etc... they are taking care of it 100% for me. I already have the funds credited back to me temporarily, if the VB happens to show up... which i doubt, they just reverse the credit, and void the claim, although I'm unsure how ebay/paypal will handle that.)

This is the exact reason I HATE ebay/paypal... never again... I don't have the time/patience for this crap... 4 days & $300+ and nothing to show for it... unacceptable!

now to go sleep on what to say in my feedback for this guy... this should be good. Actually, it's going to be pretty bad... (and they will probably leave me one back, but at this point, I don't give a damn, as i won't be "ebaying" again any time soon.)

 

[Booger666]

Just as a note, I've dealt with Donny and he is very helpfull with problems that may arise, be assured you will get your VB they are just slow shipping and even slower answering emails . I would go ahead and order the updated seperator plate and gaskets with the ford kit because the VB I bought from them didn't have the updates in it. I just figured I would save you some time since Ford had to order mine and it took a day to get.

Booger

 

[pj8847]

Thanks for the input booger ( heh heh, love the name that's what I call my 6yr old daughter...lol) I had every faith in the guy, as I said, he was very nice on the phone, and was very helpful, but... (btw, my local ford dealer won't order the parts for me, they "claim" my part #'s are wrong, but I know they aren't, since i copied them all from the VB rebuild thread)

He personally told me my VB was going to ship on 10/27... and it never did, to fix it, said it would get shipped yesterday (10/30... 4 days AFTER my order) and that he would email my tracking info. Again, got nothing to show it was on it's way... I have been nice about it with him, but it being ebay, you gotta cover your ass. I never stepped out of line at all, check this out...

here are the emails that have been exchanged, note the LAST one, which I got this morning...

first email to him:

I'm trying to find out what is the status of my order. I was on the phone with you Fri. morning. and was told the valvebody would ship same day.
(in fact I ordered it while i was talking to you, I'm the guy from Explorerforum.com)
Since then, (36 hours ago) I have not received any communication such as confirmation of order and/or tracking information of my package, even though payment was made, confirmed and accepted by both ebay and paypal. (transaction was completed and confirmed within minutes) A quick response would be much appreciated.

Below you will find the information to correctly ID my order, this is a direct copy and paste of my transaction details (with personal information omitted, of course)

Thanks in advance!

---
His reply:

I apologize for lack of response. We typically do not send an order confirmation. Your vavle body will be shipping today. We got covered up Friday. It will be sent on UPS 2-day since you paid for 3-day on Friday. I will email you tracking # this evening.
Thanks,
Donny Lester
Central Valve Bodies

---
my response:

Fantastic! I appreciate the response. I'm used to getting some form of confirmation when I buy online, in the past when I haven't, it usually wasn't a good thing. Thanks for upgrading the shipping, I appreciate your effort to get the VB here on time, others would have just claimed "processing" time or some other excuse, and disregarded package arriving at a later date.

Thanks again!

---
my email to him last night (after not getting anything yet again):

Hi, I am inquiring a second time as to the status of my order. I have not yet received any tracking information on the merchandise I have already paid for. I was assured it would be sent/shipped yesterday, 10/30/06 (after failing to ship it on 10/27/06, when it was ordered and paid for) and that I would be given the tracking information. At this point I am not happy that my merchandise was not shipped when it was supposed to be, and I am not happy with the lack of communication as to where my merchandise is.

I hope this situation can be resolved A.S.A.P.

Thanks.

---

his response (this morning, imagine that...)

We shipped your valve body like I said we would. I do not appreciate the lack of trust and understanding. We are a top notch remanufacturing company and do as we say(a little swamped with work, yes). If I tell someone I am going to get them their product by a certain date, it gets done.
Your tracking # *********************


Thank you,

----
**EDIT**
sent this reply after I posted this:

Thank You for the tracking info. I was by no means trying to be offensive or rude. I was concerned as to the staus of my order. (since it was done through ebay, I'm sure you understand my concerns once I was informed it did not ship when expected) I have no hard feelings on the issue, as i hope there are none towards me. Again, thank you for the tracking info, that is all I wanted (sometimes an order confirmation and tracking information is important). If all is well, I will have no problems recommending you to others i know who are/maybe in need of your products and/or services.

Thanks again, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My lack of trust and understanding? I wonder where that comes from? (BTW, apparently, he must be following this thread? seeing he cleared up the statement "coverd up"...)

After 4 days of not hearing anything, and then finding out my VB never shipped, and then being promised I would get my tracking info for it later that day, and never did... again... It's a no brainer why the trust was gone. I wasn't a dick about anything, I was nice, but also concerned as to what happened to MY money. All I did was hold the seller to their word, I stood by mine by paying immediately.

At this point, the tracking # is good, and it's on the way (in Texas at the moment, that should get it here by Thurs... so much for my 3day shipping) That is all I wanted. I'm understandably pissed, and I could have been a ##### and went to my bank (I was supposed to be there right now) and escalated the matter, but I called them up immediately and suspended my request once I got the tracking. I don't play games when it comes to ebay... If i buy something, i pay immediately, if i sell something, I ship it immediately, regardless of anything else I may have to do.

This in no way will affect my review of the VB and it's workmanship. if it's good, my opinions will reflect that, if it sucks, again, my opinions will reflect that as well. I'm a fair person and am true to my word, and I hold people to theirs. I have no hard feelings on the issue, I just wanted to know where my money went. Now I wait for the UPS guy, I'll add to this once the box is in my hands and I open it. (pics. to come as well!)

Now I'm off to go get my kids ready to go trick or treat-ing... HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

[Booger666]

PJ8847 my ford dealer didn't want to order the parts I needed either, he said they had a red star next to them which usually means they are obsolete. I printed out the Ford TSB and brought it to him. He reluctantly ordered it and told me if it wasn't right he would not refund my money, I said go fer it and I got the right part Just something to think about. Remember, don't eat any candy that looks weird, just put it to the side for next holloween for you to give out

Booger

 

[pj8847]

OK, it's the 2nd of November, and I still don't have my VB.

NOW, let me clear some things up...

The seller was true to his word, and shipped it 2 day air at his expense, so he is not responsible. Actually, as I said in the first post mentioning the seller he is in fact a great person to deal with and I would definitely do business with him again. THANK YOU DONNY! AGAIN, I"M SORRY IF I CAME OFF AS AN ASS, was never my intention. AGAIN, great guy to deal with!

He also now knows the reason why I was so demanding on getting tracking information, because now I'm dealing with a nightmare from UPS.

Apparently, they LOST the package (even though as of last night, it WAS on the truck to be delivered... it was supposed to be delivered 11/01/06, and was scheduled for early morning, before 12pm... you guessed it, never got here) After about 2 dozen calls to UPS and a guarantee I would have my delivery by 10AM THIS MORNING (by a supervisor in the UPS CORPORATE headquarters) now all of a sudden, the package is nowhere to be found, and that they NEVER HAD POSSESSION of said package to begin with... even though it was MANUALLY scanned onto the truck for my route... (and the driver who normally runs this route was in fact driving said truck)

Needless to say, the MASPETH, QUEENS, UPS facility is staffed by incompetent, retaliatory MORONS!

I have already contacted the seller (Donny) and made him aware of the situation, I have already been in contact with the supervisor @ the corporate office again and demanded the seller get a full refund of his shipping costs (I don't need a refund, Donny is aware of that, it isn't his fault AT ALL) and I have also demanded the termination of the scumbag driver on my route (which was supposedly effected today at 3pm. as he has NUMEROUS complaints about his lazy, thief ass already. Myself and other neighbors have had nothing but problems with him, well, not anymore...)

At this point in time, I have the facility supervisor, as well as the driver coordinator/whatever the hell he's referred to, searching the facility and every truck that went out today for my package. I have several representatives calling me up throughout the process every few hours (to see if I'm being updated by the facility staff, as ordered) AND, my formal complaint is being directed to, what I believe they called the "district manager of operations" (probably another f'in retard) in which I will be escalating not only this instance of incompetence, but the several others that I have already on record, (thus the need for tracking info WHENEVER something is sent to me UPS) with hopes there will be a major staffing change at the local facility. (It helps allot to also have dozens of complaints from neighbors as well, but they never knew who to call, I DID! Guess it was a good thing I used to drive seasonally for them in the past, and made a few contacts...)

Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper, I know the driver is definitely pissed (makes me feel a little better) and still nothing as to where the hell my package is... (scumbag probably "tossed" it off his truck, it's happened before. one example... $2000+ worth of computer parts I ordered for a new system build, mysteriously vanished, had to be reshipped at the expense of the merchant, but they were reimbursed. Gotta luv NEWEGG! Driver should have been fired then... and that original shipment, was NEVER found... even though it WAS scanned onto his truck, but never made it off...)

I'll update once this is resolved...

 

[BrooklynBay]

Your situation reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago. I ordered some business related forms from a company out of town when UPS went on strike. They held the package for 10 days, then sent it back to the company because 10 days is the limit. Basically every package that was in their facility was sent back after their 10 day strike. Every time I called during the 10 day strike, a clerk answered the phone to assure me that every package in their possession would be sent out to whoever is waiting for a delivery. The bottom line was that I never got the package, or a refund from the company. After making long distance phone calls for several months, the company denied ever getting the package back. UPS said that they returned the package since it was "undeliverable after 10 days". When you have to deal with 2 companies, both blame each other, and don't take any responsibility for mistakes on their part.

 

[pj8847]

UPS just plain sucks, I'm completely fed up with their BS, that's why I have pushed this so far, speaking of which...

I received a call at about 8pm from a guy "bill" (some low level supervisor at the maspeth facility who obviously hates his job). This is what he had to say: "tough luck on your package, it appears to have disappeared, we've searched and can't find a thing. Go call you shipper and tell them to send you another one, and don't call us again!" and hung up... :fire:

So off I went on an f'in rampage, (veins popping out of my forehead, face blood red, eyes bloodshot...) picked up the phone, called back to the supervisor I was speaking to earlier, and explained what I was told, they informed me to calm down, and to give them 15 mins. and they would call me back.

20 mins later the phone rings, apparently I finally got the attention of the district supervisor, (who was VERY serious on the phone). He told me to give him exactly another 15 mins. and he would call me back, that he was going to look into this for himself.

Exactly 15 mins later, he calls me back and informs me that due to the unusual circumstances, that the waiting period is being waived for a trace on the package, and that he would be personally contacting the shipper to inform him that he would be getting a full credit/reimbursement for the shipping and cost of the package. He told me that he would be launching a full investigation into this incident, and past ones that involved this particular facility, and he assured me come Monday morning, I would be seeing all new drivers in my area, and that he hoped I would not be afraid to use their services in the future. He then apologized for how I was treated over the past few days, admitted it was totally unacceptable, and that he would be personally taking care of the situation. He then proceeded to tell me he was going to call the shipper, and would call me back when he was done, and hung up.

5 mins later he calls me back and tells me he left Donny (the shipper) a message detailing what he already told me about the full refund on shipping costs, and package value. He again apologized and repeated he was going to take care of the problem, and hung up.

Shortly thereafter, I called the local facility back up to speak to this "bill" person...(basically to let him know he was an #######, etc...) the person who answered sounded very pissed, and said "bill" was not there. I asked when he would be back, they replied, "he won't be coming back", and hung up! Apparently, the guy I talked to wasn't kidding, and has already started taking care of the situation...

Now, THAT'S what I call "Gettin' **** done"! Now I just have to call Donny in the AM, he offered to ship me another VB overnight with Fed-Ex earlier today, but I told him to hold off, I wanted to be sure he didn't get screwed by UPS as well, and I'd call him to let him know what was going on.

So, my truck sits waiting still...BTW, reverse is now dead again (to weak to move truck), and so is 3rd... won't shift from second to 3rd on it's own UNLESS I reach a speed that is over TC lockup for 3rd, then 3rd grabs fine, if I'm going to slow, it goes from second to neutral, and i have to come to a stop to get first back, but all manual gears work fine with engine braking... although engagement takes forever in all gears now... I'm thinking EPC took a dump, and VB is toast.. no codes...

 

[BrooklynBay]

Is UPS refunding Donny for a core since he will be losing out on a core (on the replacement VB)? Did you mail him your old one yet? You might want to mail your old one with another carrier.

 

[pj8847]

They will be refunding whatever value he puts on the package (I'm sure the core will be included) As far as I'm concerned, a reman from ford is $800, so he would be well within his right to claim up to that amount, I don't care... UPS severely screwed up on this one, they need to pay!

I made it a point to call them up again this morning to make sure THEY called Donny to fix the problem (gave me a problem, was on phone all day till about hour ago, finally got through to the right person again, who pulled up the entire complaint/resolution in the system, they called up Donny right then and there while I was on the phone with them and took care of it)

I haven't sent him the old one, the core return shipping label was in the now determined "unrecoverable" package.

Donny and I already agreed that another shipper (Fed-Ex or DHL) will be used to send the new one, I'm sure the return will be with whomever it's shipped with, though I'm not sure.

Everything as of now is confirmed by UPS, As I said, they already contacted Donny to verify his account info, values placed on package contents, etc..., now they just have to call him back and finalize everything, and he'll call me to let me know when it's done (was told withing next hour or so.)

P.S. Heh heh, I met one of the new UPS drivers in my area a few hours ago, I played stupid and asked what happened to the normal driver, the new guy told me he didn't know, but that this route was now assigned to him, and another new guy...Sweeeeeet... I also gave all the #'s I've collected the past few days (mostly direct #,s for the local facility that UPS refuses to give out normally) to several neighbors who have claims that aren't resolved as of yet ...some as long as 2 months! Hope it helps them. I told them just keep calling and annoy the hell out of them, it will get escalated when they realize your not going to go away...LOL

One neighbor has a similar situation to yours Brooklyn, they were shipped a package, ups "claimed" to attempt to deliver it 3 times, (even though all 3 supposed times, my neighbor was home, he's retired) then sent it back to the shipper, the shipper claims they never got it back, but UPS refuses to do anything blaming the shipper. So now he has some #'s to start calling up to fix it.