Im planning to rebuild my 4L. Second gear is out, but all other gears are fine. No one has given any insight as to what is wrong, so Ill just rebuild the thing. My budget is very tight... $250.. so I difinetly will have to build it my self. I plan to have the TQ flushed at a tranny shop.

Now a few questions.. Should I bypass the stock cooler and just use an aftermarket one?

If I rebuild this tranny, what specialy tools will I need? Ive rebuilt 4T60E's back in techschool, but we had all the fancy tools. I dont wanna have to buy any tools I dont have to, if there are any tricks to get this thing apart with common tools, Im all ears!

Last, what rebuild kit is affordable and worth the dough? I plan to get a different servo, maybe the corvette servo? And I would like to install a shift kit while its apart, thanks for the answers!

 

well you are not going to get it done with $250 getting the rebuild kit alone is about $500. You can get by without any special tools but it does make the job a loooooot easier. Seeing that you did do a rebuild before you should have a good idea. I suggest getting the ATSG tech manual and go by what it says. The cooler can go either way I like used the stock cooler into a aftermarket only because it keeps a little more tranny fluid in the system, downside is if anything happens you get either coolant or atf in either system. A rebuild kit is always good especially if you get the improved frictions. Yes the corvette servo is worth it. A shift kit is about $70+ but I am not sure I have talked a builder here in town and he says that doing it by tune is better so if someone can chime in on this one to clarify for everyone would be appreciated.

 

250$............LOLOL........if you find a kit for that price...........be afraid

 

a stock master kit is only 98.00 my cost lol. I should say that but who cares lol. add 15 bucks for a band. I can build a stock unit all day long for 250.00 bucks in parts and a stock converter as long as there are no hard parts damage. anyway if all you have lost is second gear i would look at the servo seals or the accumualtor piston possibly cracked or a bad seal. but if you have 4th then the band is working its just not being applied in 2nd. you may not need a rebuild

 

Yeah i was about to say a stock rebuild kit is usually 100ish
You will need to buy a snapring plier set , cheap at a parts store
Also 90% of the time 4l60e's already have a corvette style servo in them unless its behind a v6.
Do you know if you have 3rd and 4th? if you do , then you have a good chance of a acc piston cracked or not sealing as mentioned above. Also make sure ya dont have a checkball stuck in the valvebody plate. Stockers are cheap , and you can also pick up some billet pinless ones for reasonable prices . Best of luck.

 

i cant remember the exact price.......but when i did my 700r.....parts were over 1k......including converter

 

i usually spend around 700 bucks on a full modified unit rebuild and up to 900 on a performance unit however at my cost on parts for a stock do nothing trans I will spend about 300 to 400 bucks. but it also depends on what kind of account you have also

 

i removed the pan, changed the filter, added some Lucas No slip (supposedly swells the seals), installed a new servo assembly and checked the accumulator.. what else could there be? its been a few hours and have driving the car about 10 miles and still no second gear.. everything else works fine. The trans fluid is brown, but i found no metal particles in the pan, just the basic friction sludge on the magnet

 

forgot to mention.. when i put the car in manual second, i have no engine braking and it acts like its in neutral until around 4k RPM's then it seems to grab.. what is up with that?

 

I just took the car for a drive and did a final test... WOT through 2nd. Loud banging and now 2nd dosent even grab and 4th slips under any load. So at least i know its the band!

 

you need a reuild

 

I know I'm replying to a late post but I wanted to let you guys know a little bit about my first experience rebuilding my 4l60e. 145k miles on my 05 avalanche and my transmission started slipping. Was on the freeway and all the sudden my transmission was slipping in and out of gear 1st and 2nd gear with no 3, or 4 gear. Was able to limp it home and few miles away. Tore apart the trans and found my 3, 4 clutches were completely burnt, actually one of the frictions was completely broke! Such a common problem on these transmissions. After a ton of research I was able to compile a list of replacement parts. Went for a complete rebuild. Started with new clutches and steels from raybestos with a slightly modified 3 4 pack that gave me 8 frictions instead of the stock 6. In order to get 8 clutches you loose the ability to install the 3 4 return springs and use slightly smaller steels and a smaller pressure plate. Also replaced all bushings, gaskets, seals, and o rings of course, along with new rear planetary, ring gear, hardened sun shell, stator support, complete pump rebuild including slide, vanes and rotor. Also went with a Borg Warner dual cage sprag, new 3 4 band, reverse input drum, added trans go shift kit, corvette servo, pinless 1 2 accumulator piston, check valve spacer plate, Torlon check *****, higher stall torque converter, and I know I'm forgetting a few parts but that's pretty close. After disassembly, I washed every part, case, bell housing, and tail shaft. Every flat surface was deburred, and sanded until flat with 180, 220 , 320 down to 400. I used mineral spirits on all aluminum parts, and just a degreaser on all metal parts. After cleaning a few time's I was ready to reassemble. To me the hardest part was cleaning. Making sure it was spotless was a daunting task. It all went together pretty smooth as I had both atsg manuals and even a DVD. I had a few home made tools like the spring compressor, and band clamp for the pump halves. Other than that is was a breeze. After reading all the forums everywhere and hearing about horror stories it was pretty discouraging. I was super pleased with the way it came out. My advice is to take your time, label and bag all parts and hardware for easy assembly, make sure it's clean, plenty of space to work and be organized. I can't stress enough how organized you must be. Upon installation of the trans I finally started it up on jack stands and went thru the gears manually before traction control took over, then it was time for as road test. For the first ten miles I manually shifted only at 1/3 throttle. Next ten bumped it up to 1/2 throttle again manually shifting, before putting it into overdrive with 3/4 throttle. Took it on the freeway finally and gave it 100%! Shifts were smooth, firm and fast. Been over 5k since the rebuild and still loving it. Just a little insight on my experience. By the way I'm not a mechanic by any means. I'm a 26 year old auto body technician. Always been good with my hands though. Thanks for reading hope this encourages some of you to do the so-called impossible.

 

Cool success story...