Vavle Body Replacement 5R55E

[xFatcatx]

Hello all back again. 99 sport with 70000miles. I had the 2-3 flare and did all updates except for superior shift kit. Flare still there. That was about about 2 months ago. I was so discouraged with everything at the time i threw my hands up. Anyways my sister has still been driving the truck and now it is worse. The truck will be parked tomorrow for good. The only think i can think of next is replaceing the entire valve body. Im thinking since my gasket was blown so bad and i didnt do a great job of cleaning when i had it the VB out that there might be gasket all through it. I was looking for a new/used VB. Any suggestions on where and how much i should pay?

 

[xFatcatx]

I have checked with Valve Body Pro-$375. Seems like a lot. And also on ebay ranging from $50 to $225. I know Ford is something like $700. I just dont know how much is to much and i dont want junk.

 

[Glacier991]

Actually a brand new FORD VB (3L5Z-7A100-CA) is about $425 full retail. You can find then at a discount often depending on where you look. Core usually runs $200 but is of course refundable. It will have the FORD TSB but none of the Sonnax upgrades or benefits of a shift improvement kit, but all the solenoids will be brand new. So I'd say about $350 out to be your "too much" point.

 

[xFatcatx]

I talked to a guy that pms our forklifts at my work and he told me to try manually shifting the truck. He said if it shifts ok like that then he would assume something in the valve body (electronic he said). He highly stressed parts of the blown gasket stuck in the valves. He's been to auto tech school so he knows a thing or two. What do you guys think about that? I tried it and it shifts fine manually. So I think I will find another VB and switch em. VB Pro has a distributor in my city but I'd hate to spend the $375 and still have the flair. Any help on finding one cheaper is appreciated......

 

[Glacier991]

You can buy them from Tranzparts (Scott) on E-bay... used... but with unknown history. Youcan pick one up there for about $75 shipped. You could swap in your EPC and use your sep plate and see if there is any improvement. If your transmission fluid is especially clean, I migth be able to loan you one to try, you pay shipping RT. Mine is KNOWN good.

 

[xFatcatx]

Appreciate the offer but I was the one that used Type F in there so I wouldn't want to ruin your VB. I will check out Tranzparts. Thanks

 

[Glacier991]

Aww did I hurt your feelings with unkind comments? Sometimes I slip out with things I later see as unkind and try and delete them. I honestly did not mean to be mean to you. Feel free to borrow this VB if you want. When I say "known good" it means NEW. BRAND NEW.

A Board member GAVE it to me, FREE!.. and I was torn what to do with it, and then I thought, maybe I could use it as a loaner to folks having VB issues! So honestly, feel free if you like. The deposit is $350. Cost of a new one. I want it to come home once you decide that was the problem. I am not in the business of selilng NEW VB's. (I do sell rebuilt ones).

And to my benefactor, I hope you approve of my choice of how to use this.

I do what I do here in hopes of helping other folks and teaching them "how to fish".

 

[xFatcatx]

Well after talking to my dad he does not want me to spend any more money until he gets down here from Montana in a couple weeks. He was suggesting tearing into the VB and completely going through it to see if we can find pieces of the VB gasket in there. Does that sound like a good idea or could the gasket have gotten into places you cannot see? Also are there any bores that I would get into wear you would not want to put the old parts back into? I'm all for tearing things apart that might already be broken.....

 

[xFatcatx]

And also Im not sure of the "unkind comments" you were reffering to? And what are these "feelings" you speak of? Maybe those are the things my wife is always complaining about.....Anyways thanks for all of your help and it is greatly appreciated. If I need another VB I like the idea of your rebuilt ones. Any reason why I couldn't ship you mine and you could just rebuild it? Also I will be subcribing just been to lazy to get the check in the mail.

 

[Glacier991]

The idea of completely disassembling the VB is a good one. Pieces of blown gasket can get in the vb and make spools stick or not operate in their full range. It can also make getting a VB apart sometimes a PITA too.

Lets talk about replacement options. The 5R55E VB is a troublesome creature. The fact that the EPC and TCC solenoids "modulate" pressures are are constantly "vibrating" as are certain spools directly controlled by them (the forward modulation spool and the TCC modulator spool to be exact) the wear associated is magnified over a more traditional design.

Often these spools and their bores wear excessively such that the fluid leakage around the spool in the bore becomes excessive and that shows up in the operation of the transmission.

Now, at discount a NEW FORD valve body can be had for under $350.

Let's look at a "simple" but complete rebuild of a VB exhibiting modulator spool syndrome (as I like to call it).

Cost of a sleeve kit to repair those bores? (which includes all parts necessary and then some) $125. The entire VB must be stripped to ream the bores to accept the new sleeves. That might take ya an hour the first time, after experience maybe 30 mins. Time to ream? Probably another 30 mins, with some set up to have constant fluid flow over the reamer for best results.

Cost of the reamers to ream the VB to accept those sleeves ? $500.

Now if you really are going to do this right, you should also ream various other bores and sleeve them as well. Cost of sleeve kits for this ? About $100. Reamer sets ? About $300.

Of course to be "stock" we should do the FORD TSB. Cost in parts about $35.

Time to do all this and reassemble? A few hours.

Assume a shop labor rate of $75 per hour.

NOW, do the math. It starts to make NEW look like the smarter choice, much as I hate to say that. I stopped short of buying the $500 reamer set. I have the other reamers and can do the TCC modulator sleeve install, but as for the rest, it didn't make sense other than for my sense of curiosity.

Now this is not to say that EVERY 5R55E VB needs all that attention. Many can just have a shift kit installed and a few sonnax upgrades not requiring maching and do fine. But for an all out, better than new... well.. the parts alone will run ya $200. Ouch.

ps. I KNOW what upgrades SONNAX makes for this VB and the cost of each. THAT is why I am skeptical when someone says they do ALL SONNAX upgrades. The rebuilders out there (Central Valve Bodies and VB Pro) are good companies and I am not denigrating their product. I look at their prices and I am certain they cannot be doing these full upgrades and selling their products at the prices they are. I admit it does appear that VB Pro does SOME upgrades, but I doubt all. Even then, the prices for VB Pro's valve bodies exceeds the price of buying new at discount. (Not to say their rebuilts might be even "better" than new stock.)

 

[Glacier991]

Oh and, in an ideal world I prefer to rebuild a customer's own VB when I do one.

 

[xFatcatx]

Well I finally had a chance to pull the VB again. I went through most of the bores but couldn't really find anything that looked bad. The only one that was kind of sticking was the bore that the sylanoid bracket (hooks) raps around but it wasnt really bad. Put it back in with new Mercon V (hopefully most of that Type F is out of there now), no change problem still there. I just ordered a new reman VB from "Central Valve Body" on Ebay. Supposedly tested on a VB machine with sonnax updates. Ill keep my new blow off valve from ford and new sep plate. Should get it later this week so I will update.

p.s. Could somebody explain exactly what the truck is doing when the OD light starts flashing and the truck takes off very slowly even when putting it to the floor (limp mode?).