When did they switch from 55R5W to 55R5S (SOLVED)

[Harpua216]

i would say that is an extreme possibility, but I saw the truck, title and the have the VIN #. I bought cars off this guy before. it was a V6, but you have me thinking so im going to check the vin again....brb

its a Cologne V6 EFI. honestly, that would have been refreshing news. this project couldve gotten productive again at least.

I have 3 bolts started, 2 bottom one through the RS dowel hole, its lined up on the bottom and we can get it over and in the dowel, we just cant get the top cinched up enough up top to start a bolt. even if we manually adjust it with our hands.

 

[imp]

i would say that is an extreme possibility, but I saw the truck, title and the have the VIN #. I bought cars off this guy before. it was a V6, but you have me thinking so im going to check the vin again....brb

its a Cologne V6 EFI. honestly, that would have been refreshing news. this project couldve gotten productive again at least.

I have 3 bolts started, 2 bottom one through the RS dowel hole, its lined up on the bottom and we can get it over and in the dowel, we just cant get the top cinched up enough up top to start a bolt. even if we manually adjust it with our hands.

@Harpua216
Wish I could suggest more. Sorry to not be of help. imp

 

[Harpua216]

@imp no, you definitely helped. I may not have gotten all of what you said in an above post, but either way it pointed me where i need to go.

Will make leader bolts like you said, but will start the two top leaders before we start to line it up. we will cut them to the right size so we easily move the trans on to them. after that we will cinch it up and draw it in with the side bolts.

this transmission is a beast. very wobbly and extremely heavy. i

 

[Harpua216]

Finally got it lined up.

Made 4 leader bolts they are 10MM x 1.50.

Thankfully took @imp advice and cut some deep slits in them to draw the back out with a screwdriver though 2 came out by hand. I will never do this job again but if i did i might square the bolts to get a socket on it.

Once we lined it up we took a floor jack and put it on the back of the trans and jacked it up while adjusting knobs and drawing it in with the dowel bolts.

For anyone doing this and reading this, take the bracket for the trans line coolers off before putting the trans on. You are going to spend time on it either way, this is less annoying.

Still have to sew her up. Should be able to get the flywheel bolted to TC tomorrow at least.

Thanks @imp

 

[imp]

Finally got it lined up.
Made 4 leader bolts they are 10MM x 1.50.

Thankfully took @imp advice and cut some deep slits in them to draw the back out with a screwdriver though 2 came out by hand. I will never do this job again but if i did i might square the bolts to get a socket on it.

Once we lined it up we took a floor jack and put it on the back of the trans and jacked it up while adjusting knobs and drawing it in with the dowel bolts.

For anyone doing this and reading this, take the bracket for the trans line coolers off before putting the trans on. You are going to spend time on it either way, this is less annoying.

Still have to sew her up. Should be able to get the flywheel bolted to TC tomorrow at least.

Thanks @imp

@Harpua216
I knew you could do it, by the way you carry yourself. And, I'm glad all those many, many difficult times I've been involved with, like yours, provided many ways "out". At 74, I'm still doing this kind of ****, believe it or not! Good luck! imp

 

[imp]

Finally got it lined up.
Made 4 leader bolts they are 10MM x 1.50.

Thankfully took @imp advice and cut some deep slits in them to draw the back out with a screwdriver though 2 came out by hand. I will never do this job again but if i did i might square the bolts to get a socket on it.

Once we lined it up we took a floor jack and put it on the back of the trans and jacked it up while adjusting knobs and drawing it in with the dowel bolts.

For anyone doing this and reading this, take the bracket for the trans line coolers off before putting the trans on. You are going to spend time on it either way, this is less annoying.

Still have to sew her up. Should be able to get the flywheel bolted to TC tomorrow at least.

Thanks @imp

@Harpua216
I knew you could do it, by the way you carry yourself. And, I'm glad all those many, many difficult times I've been involved with, like yours, provided many ways "out". At 74, I'm still doing this kind of ****, believe it or not! Good luck! imp

 

[Harpua216]

@Harpua216
I knew you could do it, by the way you carry yourself. And, I'm glad all those many, many difficult times I've been involved with, like yours, provided many ways "out". At 74, I'm still doing this kind of ****, believe it or not! Good luck! imp

Thanks Buddy! I was doubting myself and envisioned me kicking it off a cliff while in flames. I will do a lot of things with a car, replacing a 3rd generation (or any 55R5) is one that i would like not to happen again.

but if it does i will always come here.

 

[Tylers02]

Wow imp I have always had respect for you and your knowledge but still doing this at 74 just raised the bar. I'm beat up from pulling a IRS 8.8 at the junkyard yesterday. Planned to go back and get a trans and transfer case but not too sure I want to tackle by myself especially since they don't allow jacks of any kind. Plus it raining. But at $99 plus 20% off it's hard to pass up. I would have them both rebuilt because I wouldn't want to do the job twice. Or you think just buying a rebuilt would work out to around the same price.

 

[imp]

Wow imp I have always had respect for you and your knowledge but still doing this at 74 just raised the bar. I'm beat up from pulling a IRS 8.8 at the junkyard yesterday. Planned to go back and get a trans and transfer case but not too sure I want to tackle by myself especially since they don't allow jacks of any kind. Plus it raining. But at $99 plus 20% off it's hard to pass up. I would have them both rebuilt because I wouldn't want to do the job twice. Or you think just buying a rebuilt would work out to around the same price.

@Tylers02
I can't imagine pulling a trans. and TC without the vehicle 4 feet off the ground! Maybe they can tip it up on it's side with a forklift? I haven't been to a boneyard in decades, so imagine some things have changed.

And believe me, doing this stuff get's much harder with each passing year! I'm itching to put a 2-post car-lift in my shop, which is pretty dumb, because the roof will have to be re-structured to gain headroom. Anyhow, an IRS 8.8 is almost nothing compared to a solid axle one! You would not believe how heavy a complete solid rear end is! The first one of those I "swung" was a Dana 44 in my '55 Mercury. That would be 57 years ago! imp

 

[Tylers02]

Basically the cars are sitting on rims welded together. Two horizontal and one vertical and the ground is all rock. My entire back is cut up and my hands are mangled/swollen. Couldn't believe how much great stuff they had though. I really wish I would have grabbed some more stuff but I wasn't prepared and it's pouring today. So much easier to have spare parts even if they need rebuilt when you only have one car. I know I could grab the t case but transmission seems impossible and it's not very much fun being under something that weights thousands of pounds sitting on a few rims welded together on uneven rocky/dirt ground.

 

[JK080]

@JK080 Are dowel location dimensions the same on both 4.0L and 4.6L engines? imp

Sorry the Tag didn't work for me...

Anyway I wouldn't know, we don't swap units around much we build the original ones.

Looks like he got it to fit.

 

[imp]

Sorry the Tag didn't work for me...

Anyway I wouldn't know, we don't swap units around much we build the original ones.

Looks like he got it to fit.

@JK080
Appreciate you taking the time to answer. The "@JK..." failed to come up again. I just wrote it in. I know the work of Admin is heavy. Happy hammering! imp

 

[Harpua216]

Sorry the Tag didn't work for me...

Anyway I wouldn't know, we don't swap units around much we build the original ones.

Looks like he got it to fit.

It did fit. having a a bit of a hard time lining up and or spinning the flywheel or TC. looks like its time to back it off a bit unless you guys have some good ideas.

thanks again.

 

[imp]

It did fit. having a a bit of a hard time lining up and or spinning the flywheel or TC. looks like its time to back it off a bit unless you guys have some good ideas.

thanks again.

@Harpua216

Put an appropriately-sized socket wrench into the front "snout" of the crankshaft, in the middle of the damper/pulleys, with extension as necessary. Turn the crankshaft with a ratchet or breaker bar while you line up the TC studs in the flywheel/flexplate. Trans. mounting bolts cannot be tight or even snug; studs will "lock up" against flexplate. Once they are inserted into their holes, snug up and tighten the bolts. imp

 

[Harpua216]

thanks @imp we actually have the bolts lined up but they are rounded and we cant get our hands or tools on the TC to cinch it forward enough to get it in place. gonna have to figure it out.

one thing to note. It is my belief that the 55R5S has a bung hole with a plastic cap on the housing underneath the transmission right under the TC and the 55R5W does not. i dont have many to check right now, but this could be a good way to decipher between the two easily.

 

[shucker1]

Before you finish pulling things together make sure you have some end play on the torque converter.
(I.E. It can move ever so slightly front to back with out the nuts attached to the flex plate) What you are looking for is to make sure the torque convert did not come out of it's drive splines during the install process of the transmission.

Also make sure the engine can rotate by hand before the final connection between the torque converter and the flex plate. This makes sure the transmission is not "Jamming" the crankshaft forward.

 

[ICoull]

@imp man. i cannot get this thing lined up. i have bolts in the bottom, one in the dowel pin but i cannot get the trans on the top close enough the thread a bolt on it. even if i jack up the back of the trans. it feels like something is hitting or stopping it.

if even when we try to push it close, we cant get it to line up on top. any ideas? thought that it may be the bracket for the cooler lines but i took it off already.

I had a similar issue with my 4.0 l to tranny assembly. I finally decided that instead of being perfectly square to each other [back of engine to front of tranny case] that because of the tiny droop by the torque converter as it hangs off the oil pump, that angle change required me to tip the tranny case slightly to the back [leaving a very slightly wider gap at the top of the case relative to the bottom] prior to moving the tranny forward . That's what seemed to work for me in terms of getting the converter/flex plate studs to line up.

 

[Harpua216]

@Harpua216

Put an appropriately-sized socket wrench into the front "snout" of the crankshaft, in the middle of the damper/pulleys, with extension as necessary. Turn the crankshaft with a ratchet or breaker bar while you line up the TC studs in the flywheel/flexplate. Trans. mounting bolts cannot be tight or even snug; studs will "lock up" against flexplate. Once they are inserted into their holes, snug up and tighten the bolts. imp

Finally had time to look at the transmission again and had a problem solver help me instead of just a parts changer. we tried for about 10 minutes and realized it needs to come out to inspect. we changed the location of the truck to my garage due to the weather and began pulling it back.

we inspected the pilot shaft? of the torque converter and it was damaged just enough to apprehend it from slipping into the center of the flywheel. we swapped the old torque converter onto the new(er) transmission and began to re assemble the truck.

it wouldnt start at first, so we jumped the starter and gave it another try. whamo. transmission shifts like butter. no OD lights blinking, no check engine. amazing actually.

the guy who helped me is a diesel mechanic for large rigs. he said not matter how this thing went in, even if someone didnt do a great job, with these it really comes down to getting a good transmission. he suggested new or rebuilt, but most times its not worth it for these cars, so choose wisely and make sure you know the difference of when a 55R5S and 55R5W is used.

and lastly. my valuable and re-learned lesson... Inspect, Inspect, Inspect. Thanks @imp and everyone else who responded.

 

[imp]

@Harpua216
Glad you got it nailed! Makes all of this seem more worthwhile! imp