I received this transmission today as a "fresh rebuild" th400 capable of holding 1000 hp. Is this amount of wear normal?








Yes thats smeared metal powder all over the filter. The fluid that came out of the transmission was also very noticeably metallic.

 

This is not a fresh rebuild IMO this is not even a fresh rebuild that has been tested. Looks like its been run awhile and the metal is a sure sign of some sort of failure in progress. Ouch on the case breakage but at least its not a stress area.

 

I cannot see any wear, but I do see an inordinate amount of debris in the pan.

A little background would help me to form a more in depth opinion though. Was this unit hurt and sent back for repairs, or just an end of the season freshen up?

Ordinarilly I cut the ears off of any Drag Race unit I build for ease of installation, the busted case is not that big of a deal to me.... unless there are other cracks of course.

g

 

Its supposedly a fresh rebuild with a few track passes. The owner said it was making 9 second passes but it was blowing through the converter. It does have track passes on it

 

Blowing through the converter or blew up the converter? Sorry man just had to say it! Looks like there is definitely some **** in it. Either it came out of the trans, converter, or the cooler from what is obvious on the filter and in the pan. I would ask the guy you bought it from what had failed before it was freshen up. See what he has to say and then show him the photo's that you got. Might want to have somebody go through it for you just to make sure it's alright to install. Good luck. Vince

 

Crack it open and go through it while is out. If there is a problem you will catch it now and beat on it all season without worry. Just my O.

Mec

 

Thanks for the additional information. It helps to know that it is a unit that was freshened up, went in a car, made some track passes and came back out.

The metallic material can easily be from the converter that was used after the recent build. You should find out if the seller had his converter cleaned or not. If not, then there is not much wonder that it is holding debris. If it was a fresh converter, then like Vince stated it could have come from the cooler or the unit itself.

Either way, you owe it to yourself to have it disassembled and inspected at this point.

g

 

This was my transmission that I had professionally built by a company we use all the time. We used it with a new Vigilante torque converter and a new trans cooler. We broke in the engine, trans, rear on my dyno then took the car to our local dragstrip in Muncie, Indiana. The car ran in the high nines, and we could tell the converter was not holding the power.
The LSX Shootout was a week away, and we had a Powerglide with a Coan converter from a big block drag car that we could borrow, so we threw it in place of the turbo 400.
The Coan converter was not holding the power either. We had to swap out the converter at the Shootout, as our friends at Coan thought we would. Coan thought we would be making too much power for the converter we had installed. Coan told us that BED was going to be at the shootout, so we called them ahead of time to see if they could take a converter there for us in case we needed it. They did, and we needed it... The BED was slipping as well. 3.70 gear/28.00 tire/7200 rpm through the traps...
I was sold on the Powerglide though as we cut a 1.29 60ft on M/T dot drag radials on our second outing with the car. Not needing the turbo 400, I decided to sell it. We never took the pan off of it, no reason to suspect any damage. The tranny oil was red and did not smell burnt. Bob

 

Thanks for the additional info Bob. Just as you know we rarely have the luxury of getting both sides of a story like this. And all in all at the end of the day, it is a used transmission, a few track passes does make it a used unit. And as we all know when buying used assemblies it is "buyer beware".

And of course it also boils down to expectations... how was the unit represented vs what condition is it in and so on. Sounds to me like you and the OP have a fair deal. My opinion is if the unit was represented as a unit with having a fresh rebuild on it and having a few hard passes on it then it was properly represented.

Based on it's condition as shown here I would spend a few bucks on it just for peace of mind it it were mine.

Good Luck guys!

g

 

Thank all of you guys for actually responding to the post. It was never my intention to get Bob involved in a bickering arguement. I contacted bob first through pm's and then posted this without mentioning his name or EPP at all. Im actually impressed that he came into the thread personally and claimed the transmission as well as gave a full history. That goes a long way in my book. I was merely looking for professional opinions and I got just that!



On a side not, can any of you identify the make of the valvebody/transbrake just from seeing it here?

 

It cannot be identified by looking at the Valve Body... maybe the plate, but even those can be redundant.

The solenoid is not an ATI, I suspect B&M. But that is a guess. I think you would do good to identify the solenoid and go from there. I'll look through some catalogs I have here later and see what I can come up with.

g

 

lf the builder used "allison clutches" they will give off a grit that is normal. the allison trans has an external filter to remove the grit from the oil. clean the pan as best you can install a regular filter run for about 2 mins, drain oil clean pan. now install an allison screen. you now have to service the trans often. l don't think anyone tried to cheat you. jk ps the problem with allison clutches is that the trans runs at 200lbs.and your trans runs about 160-170psi

 

Yeah ive been looking everywhere to find a solenoid like this, but none of them match. I am used to the solenoids with the external plungers like TCI's


Thanks guys!