Hey y'all from Alabama!

[hear]

p-trap is exactly right. I don't know why I've not been able to come up with that term to describe it prior to now. I installed the trans temp gauge as part of my rebuild, but I intentionally waited until I had the gauge for a while before plumbing in the cooler. I wanted to know by how much the cooler lowered temperatures, to know if was needed. For my tranny, it absolutely was. I was running near 220F on hot days to never breaking 160F now. I wish I had the temp gauge installed before I did the rebuild... But heat kills ATF, so I would definitely say put a cooler in.

As an aside, my Land Cruiser has a thermostat for the trans fluid aux cooler to avoid it running too cool. On cold days, I wonder if I should have something similar on my TJ.

 

[Cowbird]

p-trap is exactly right. I don't know why I've not been able to come up with that term to describe it prior to now. I installed the trans temp gauge as part of my rebuild, but I intentionally waited until I had the gauge for a while before plumbing in the cooler. I wanted to know by how much the cooler lowered temperatures, to know if was needed. For my tranny, it absolutely was. I was running near 220F on hot days to never breaking 160F now. I wish I had the temp gauge installed before I did the rebuild... But heat kills ATF, so I would definitely say put a cooler in.

As an aside, my Land Cruiser has a thermostat for the trans fluid aux cooler to avoid it running too cool. On cold days, I wonder if I should have something similar on my TJ.

What temp gauge did you use on yours? I was thinking about adding one but haven’t even looked at any yet. I’m glad you brought it up because it would’ve sucked to get it all back together and think about it later on

 

[Cowbird]

Btw, these are the 1/4” npt countersunk plugs that I have that I used on the front of the pump.

 

[hear]

Thats exactly what I used (unsure on the specific size) but like i said mine were smaller than I would have liked by a fraction.

 

[Cowbird]

Must’ve been 1/8” npt that you used. I had to use a 7/16 th bit to take make it a little bigger before I tapped it.

 

[Cowbird]

I have some questions about what I should do with the rear differential - should I make that post in general chat?

 

[hear]

I have some questions about what I should do with the rear differential - should I make that post in general chat?

Unless it's an update about your build specifically, it almost always needs it's own thread in the main forum. Especially questions.

 

[Rickyd]

I have some questions about what I should do with the rear differential - should I make that post in general chat?

We have a couple gear pro's on the site. Starting a new post in general chat talking about diff's might get their attention

 

[Cowbird]

Unless it's an update about your build specifically, it almost always needs it's own thread in the main forum. Especially questions.

Yeah, it’s about finding out what I have once I opened it up and whether I should change it up and use parts from my other differential and possibly upgrading gears. It’s a whole damn mess man

 

[Cowbird]

@hear just finished tapping and screwing in my vent connection. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. I looked back through the forums and found your guide and I’m glad I checked it out or I would have 1000% drilled the hole a little bit closer to the bell and where it would interfere with the elbow. I didn’t even notice until I was screwing mine in but the fitting I bought actually swivels, so it’s able to move as needed without backing the threads or having to tighten them more. Normally I would be hesitant at the thought of it leaking but it’s pretty sturdy (slightly stiff with no play up and down) and with it being a vent with no pressure it should get the job done well.

 

[hear]

Dude I did the exact same thing. I ended up needing to hacksaw off one layer of barb because It couldn't even complete one rotation.

 

[Cowbird]

Btw @hear , I was finishing up putting the transmission last week and I don’t know how I missed it but when I was about to put the forward drum in I realized I hadn’t replaced the clutches, so I tore it down and holy cow…. It was awful - to the point that only one of the steels was maybe able to be reused. What I learned from this rebuild is that I should’ve tore it all down and THEN ordered my rebuild kit. I ordered just the basic kit from OPT for $139 and no extras, only to find out that when I needed the steels I couldn’t find a way to order just them separately, so I had to find some online from a different place for $5 each and $20 for standard shipping . The new steels got here yesterday, so I’ll be working on that tomorrow evening because it’s supposed to rain here and it seems like a good time to get it done. I’ll keep you posted on how the valve body goes

 

[Cowbird]

Here are the steels and clutches from my 32rh

 

[hear]

Top middle & bottom middle, is that a friction with the material completely worn off???

 

[Cowbird]

Top middle & bottom middle, is that a friction with the material completely worn off???

Yes, and the steels are all super grooved - I’ll try to get a better picture when I get home. The only steel that was good was the very bottom one and the big one that goes on the very top. I have an idea of what happened but I’ll post it up after I get off work

 

[hear]

That's pretty amazing. Usually they are just darkened. I've never seen one wore bare. My kickdown band did have the friction material actually de-laminate or whatever from the band itself, maybe that's what happened here?

 

[Cowbird]

That's pretty amazing. Usually they are just darkened. I've never seen one wore bare. My kickdown band did have the friction material actually de-laminate or whatever from the band itself, maybe that's what happened here?

So when I took the pan off and took off the filter and valve body I didn’t even notice it but the TCC was not plugged up. I thought maybe I was crazy and it might not have been connected properly when someone else opened it up once upon a time and then I accidentally pulled it off somehow without even noticing, but after I opened the forward drum and saw this I suspect maybe it wasn’t me after all. I hate to sound ignorant but I haven’t looked it up or asked anyone exactly what the TCC does and if it will even operate with it being disconnected. I’d love to get your thoughts and feedback about this

 

[hear]

The TCC solenoid will apply a clutch inside the torque converter to lock the input to the output to eliminate any slippage in the fluid coupling. The slippage costs you a certain amount of power & generates heat. You'll see it kick in in 3rd gear once you get up to speed and aren't accelerating. The RPM will drop by about 150, and it will sort of feel like you have a 4th gear, but not really. Then if you hit the gas you'll see it unlock by the RPMs going back up by 150ish.

You can drive without it by disconnecting it from the back of the transmission, or by a fuse behind the glovebox (fuse 11, maybe?). You'll get a P0744 code if the PCM tries to lock up the converter but doesn't detect the RPM drop.

The plug itself is identical on both sides of the connector. It fits either way because and is held in by a metal clip. If yours was already unplugged inside the transmission, I might expect that clip to be at the bottom of the pan. Or it got up into the geartrain somehow and is now a fine powder.

 

[Cowbird]

Thanks for the education @hear - it’s always appreciated. Rebuilding this transmission has taught me several valuable lessons already and last night i figured out that there are 2 different size steels for the 32RH and I was lucky enough to get the wrong ones. They’re the same size/shape as the ones that I need, they are just a little bit thicker. I started putting the steels and clutches in and when I put the big thick one on I noticed that I didn’t have a groove for the wavy ring to lock it all in. I pulled the big one out and saw it just barely past the last clutch, so I pulled them all out and counted them (the kit I got from OPT had 5 of the clutch plates for this drum) and I had 4 steels & 4 clutch plates. So I pull out the handy dandy caliper and measure the one steel that was still alright from before and it measured just slightly under .7, then I put it on the new steels and it measures slightly under.9 so I look around on the internet and find that you can get them in .67 (or something close to that) or .88 . I emailed OPT this morning to see if I could buy the right steels from them, so hopefully I get a response tomorrow lol

 

[hear]

The front & rear clutches are also different thickness....but I can never remember which set goes where. I usually just fit them into the drum and check the clearances. If they're good, then it's good. Otherwise I flip them and re-check. I don't know that I've seen different steel widths, usually the stack height difference is accounted for with a set of selective snap rings.

FYI the big thick one is the pressure plate.