So I traded in my old 4L60E for a rebuilt one. I have to change the output shaft which meant I had to dig into the trans a little to make it fit my vehicle. Upon disassembly, I noticed the rebuilder used motor oil instead of ATF to lubricate everything and he also forgot to install one of the valve body gaskets.

I doubt the motor oil will cause any major issues when combined with a whole bunch of ATF. However, before I call and cuss this guy out... what would happen if I ran this transmission with no valve body gasket? I'm not planning to but just curious.

 

The oil was likely just hydraulic fluid no problem there, which gasket did he leave out?

 

It looks and smells like used engine oil. Not even fresh engine oil and definitely not brown hydraulic fluid. He tore the gasket between the valve body and separator plate and then just bolted the valve body down directly to the separator plate. The gasket remained under the accumulator though and was full of oil. He was clearly in there though bc the check ***** are slathered with some kind of green grease. Hopefully that stuff will be dissolved by ATF but at this point I have my doubts.

 

Why didn't you have the guy give you one with the right output shaft?

Sounds weird to me. Since you were in it and seen all the internals was it actually rebuilt?

I'd go shove that trans up the guys *** and get my money back, sounds like you got a core with a swapped valve body.

 

I have a custom short output shaft that used to merry up my Jeep's transfer case to this transmission. The transmission never came with these from GM.

At this point would take less money and less time to just install the valve body gasket and then install the transmission than it would to drive back to that shop. If anything is wrong after installation though, I plan on cashing in on his warranty.

 

so you traded your old 4l60e...for a rebuilt one...that you then had to rebuild again...to fit your custom output shaft?

Why not just rebuild your old 60e and change the shaft on it?

This is either a fishy story...op isn't very bright...or I'm missing something that makes this all make sense

 

I think the first two.

 

Gee thanks... Not everyday I get called an idiot by someone who won't answer my actual question. If you're giving advice on this thread I would think you'd also know that rebuilding a transmission and swapping an output shaft are vastly different levels of efforts.

To answer your question though. I took this route because no one could answer what was wrong with my last transmission that was rebuilt recently. After a full teardown, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. So replacing parts that I know are good with parts that are also good is not exactly the most productive use of time. https://ls1tech.com/forums/automatic...orrection.html

That said, I decided it would just be easier to "hit the easy button" and get a rebuilt transmission and spend 30-45 minutes swapping the output shaft. I didn't realize I would be getting a transmission from a shade tree mechanic.

 

to swap the output shaft, you're pulling the pump, reverse drum, input drum, band servo, and more than likely the valve body so you can get the band anchor pin off (hence probably how you figured out the gasket was missing.)
At that point, you pull the snap ring off of the output shaft and slide it out the rear. All that's left is the front planet, sunshell, and sun gear...then you're at the rear support and low/roller clutch.
I mean...you're prettymuch doing 80% of the work of a rebuild...so do you just not know how to disassemble clutch drums?

So I ask the question again...why not just rebuild it yourself if you are going to go that far to swap the output shaft?

P.S. I stopped following that thread when you didn't know the difference between 1st and 4th and 2nd and 4th...then you started going down a rabbit hole of diagnostics that was not getting you anywhere. Can't help those that just want to do it their own way.

 

I'll try to be polite and explain all of my rationale since we all know text can be misinterpretted.

So it took me 2 days to rebuild my transmission the first time which included lots of dimensional checks, the rear piston assembly, and the pump which you aren't addressing and all of those suck up a ton of time without a lot to show for the effort. It took me 45 minutes to change the output shaft and put everything back together minus the valve body due to the missing gasket. That's certainly not 80%. When I diagnosed the clutch packs on the first transmission after rebuilding it and having my issues, they were all perfect so replacing them doesn't make any sense to me. Even if I rebuilt the things you mentioned above, you aren't addressing the possibility of the pump or some valve body bore being worn excessively in an area I can't see causing my problem. The pressure was on the minimum end on my last transmission which could be torque converter related as well and I personally have no way to test that.

So the math of what you're suggesting is to rebuild the old transmission with roughly a $200-$250 rebuild kit and replace all of the things I know are currently good. The pump and torque converter both check good from all the checks I physically have tools to check but I have a pressure related issue in the transmission so add in another $200 for the torque converter and $200 for the pump since I don't know of any other way to restore low pressure and wasn't getting any help in my previous thread. So my math said that I'm over $600-$650 deep into rebuilding my old transmission and replacing things blindly without knowing the real problem. Without even addressing solenoids or the valve body which could be the problem as well, the simple solution in my mind was to trade in my transmission for another one with a 2 year warranty for $800.

You might ask next why I'm not just taking the transmission back and getting them to fix the issue and that's a very valid question... Mostly it's because I'm sick of tearing transmissions down and it's a 300 mile round trip. The only shops locally who do transmission work couldn't even look at my transmission for over a week and I need this vehicle for an offroad event in 3 weeks so my confidence was low that I would have a working transmission back in that timeframe.

 

You'll be back in this forum asking why it doesn't work and probably not mentioning the missing gasket.

 

Do you believe this guy is going to warranty your transmission, after he sees that you've been digging around in it?

 

How would he know if I put the original output shaft back in? I certainly wouldn't give any shop of questionable integrity a transmission with my custom output shaft in it.

 

You'd be surprised at how often things get marked in subtle ways, just to see if it's been tampered with.

 

Like sabatoging the transmission by not putting a gasket on the valve body?

 

Oddly enough at least once with a 4L60E AND A 700R4 and several times with AOD trans I have torn working units from a car to find no VB gaskets and these things had been in service for years, So while I would not suggest Trying it , It is very possible it would have worked just fine , Oddly enough .

 

I'm saying you had the parts out of the trans...at which point they're easy to rebuild.

regardless, there are about 5 different ways I can easily mark a trans as it's being put together that tells me if it's been rebuilt or at least torn apart.

I hope you find your issue, As performabuilt said, it would not surprise me if it still worked without the gasket. Not recommended but possible.
Good luck sir

 

jfw432: The "regulars" here probably were pulling their hair out (if they have any left) when they read that your "rebuilt with 2 year warranty" was missing a VB gasket, which was probably intentional to save a few bucks. Makes you wonder what else was skipped to save more bucks. Those "regulars", who are mostly/partly in the trans rebuild business, probably know what was skipped and caused them to express their frustration which was directed more at the situation than at your directly.
And those "regulars" also tried very hard to help in your other threads, as did I. We all had slightly different ideas of where the problem was and what caused the codes, and I am disappointed to not learn what the problem was. When we have different ideas, we don't care who turns out to be "right", just that we help someone get their trans and car running.

Finally, why not add your city/state to the Location field of your profile. Someones there is an expert here who lives near you and is willing to stop by and help.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress or lack thereof.