Transmission topics seem to be lacking, so I'll contribute. This will be more of a "how to take it apart & put it back together" guide. There's not much to fix in a valve body, if anything is broken in any way you're probably just replacing either the whole thing or the individual springs & valves if you can even source them. But if you have a sticking valve or are doing a shift kit, this will probably be relevant. Full disclosure, this is pretty much exactly what the FSM says. If you're like me, the FSM is intimidating. I like seeing the instructions written in somebody else's words to give me the confidence to tackle a project.
And I'll apologize up front for the camera work from my 10 yr old boy. I was just glad he wanted to be in the garage with me. He's shaky in places, but hopefully it's not so bad you can't power through it.
If you don't like to read, here is a video of the teardown process:
Difficulty: 2/5, only because it's going to drip fluid on you as you remove the unit, and reinstallation is done while on your back).
Time commitment: under 2 hours
Tools:
The bags will help you turn this:
into this, which you'll be grateful for when you go to reassemble everything.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
This video shows the valve body removal (watch between 0:56 and 2:05)
There are several sections of the valve body. It's best to tackle them one piece at a time, taking care to put the components into labeled bags. All the screws are T-25, but there are a few places where the screws are different lengths. If I don't specify anything about the screws, assume them to be one of the many short T-25 screws. There are two main sections: the transfer plate which is the wider, thinner sections which appears to be machined aluminum. The other section is the valve body itself which is made of cast iron. They are separated by a thin piece of steel called the separator plate.
Right side of the paper towel is the filter, torque converter clutch module, its 2 valves, and the module connecting tube (pictured below, disassembled, on the lower right of the blue paper towel)
From here you'll want to start being careful. There are 7 check balls in various channels of the valve body, and they sit in there loose. If you turn the valve body over, they will fall out. Don't do that. Note the locations, although you can also easily find them in the FSM. If you happen to have an aftermarket shift kit, your check ball scene may vary from the factory configuration. Note that one is noticeably bigger than the others and goes in a bigger "bathtub" than the rest.
7. Remove the check balls and bag them up.
8. Remove the remaining 2 screws from the separator plate, exposing the fully glory of the transfer plate. Note there are 2 more check balls here. Note the locations, and put them in the bag with the rest of the check balls.
This is most easily explained visually, as disassembly is literally the exact reverse of assembly. Remember to shoot some ATF into the valve bores and lightly coat the valves themselves with ATF before installing. The valves should go in pretty smoothly. If you have to fight them, stop, and back up. Usually it just takes a little bit of wiggling and they drop right in. For cleanup, once I had it entirely disassembled I sprayed the fire out of it with brake cleaner & hit it with the blower attachment on my air compressor. I did this on ALL the parts. I've seen transmission shops. They're not exactly building hard drives in clean rooms....the goal here is to be as clean as possible. But I don't think perfection is required.
As I broke down each of these sub-assemblies, I put those parts in a ziplock bag. I can't stress this enough. I had everything laid out on my work table but I quickly realized that it didn't take much to make the springs roll & get mixed up with the other sections.
(apologies for the background noise)
(this is pictured above, on the right)
(please watch this one on the youtube site, not as an embedded video here)
Forgive me, as I have pulled a fast one here. I show the valve install with the selector shaft assembly removed. I don't have the removal on video, but it consists of removing one E clip and sliding the shaft out. Oh, and making sure the detent ball doesn't shoot across the room. Install is a bit of a bear, and all I have is a lousy video clip showing what I did ex post facto. They make a tool to simplify the install but it's an expensive single-use tool. I was able to get'r done with a flathead screwdriver and the 0.025" strip from my feeler gauge.
NOTE: FIg. 68 below contains a corrected re-arrangement of the kickdown valve & sleeve; the FSM is incorrect and will result in super early shifts and no kickdown. If you watch the embedded video above you may not see the CC edits I added to correct my own re-assebly procedure. Please watch in Youtube proper to see the full details & corrections.
Hopefully this gives you the confidence to tackle your own valve body maintenance or shift kit or whatever it is you want to do. I still have no real clue how these things work, but fortunately we don't need to know that. We just need to know how to take it apart and get it back together. I hate seeing people spend good money on things they can easily do themselves, and automatic transmission work is one of those things that people assume is beyond their comprehension. I don't think that is the case for the 32RH (or any older transmission, actually) and as these units become more rare it becomes more important that we're able to service them ourselves.
NOTE: the FSM (at least for the 97) is wrong with respect to how the kickdown valve/spring/sleeve goes together. My photo shows it as per the FSM, and I'm leaving this photo here because it also shows the correct orientation of the pressure regulator valve. The kickdown valve should be constructed as per this modified diagram.
And I'll apologize up front for the camera work from my 10 yr old boy. I was just glad he wanted to be in the garage with me. He's shaky in places, but hopefully it's not so bad you can't power through it.
If you don't like to read, here is a video of the teardown process:
Difficulty: 2/5, only because it's going to drip fluid on you as you remove the unit, and reinstallation is done while on your back).
Time commitment: under 2 hours
Tools:
- T-25 torx driver
- T-25 socket
- Inch-pound torque wrench
- Brake cleaner or other solvent
- air compressor (to blow out the solvent & debris)
- ATF to pre-lube on re-assembly
- Safety glasses (if you're going to be doing this while the transmission is in the car....you will get ATF in the face)
- zip lock baggies to keep all the parts organized. This is not just for the OCD Type A personalities out there. You're going to have 8 different valves & springs that all look reasonably similar. The valves are pictured in the FSM but the springs need to match the valve and I don't know how to identify which spring is which if they're all just laying on a table.
The bags will help you turn this:
into this, which you'll be grateful for when you go to reassemble everything.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Phase I: Removing the valve body from the transmission
- Drain the transmission
- Disconnect the shifter & throttle linkages from the selector shaft
- remove the pan
- unplug and remove the neutral safety switch
- unplug the torque converter lockup solenoid from the inside of the case
- Remove the nine 11mm bolts (FSM says 5/16", I did not find this to be the case, ymmv)
- torque on these is 105 in-lbs
- Pull the valve body away from the transmission housing
This video shows the valve body removal (watch between 0:56 and 2:05)
Phase II: Disassembling the sections
There are several sections of the valve body. It's best to tackle them one piece at a time, taking care to put the components into labeled bags. All the screws are T-25, but there are a few places where the screws are different lengths. If I don't specify anything about the screws, assume them to be one of the many short T-25 screws. There are two main sections: the transfer plate which is the wider, thinner sections which appears to be machined aluminum. The other section is the valve body itself which is made of cast iron. They are separated by a thin piece of steel called the separator plate.
Right side of the paper towel is the filter, torque converter clutch module, its 2 valves, and the module connecting tube (pictured below, disassembled, on the lower right of the blue paper towel)
- Remove the Torque converter clutch module. This involves removing 3 screws and lifting the module away from the valve body. There's a small pipe that just slides out of either end. Put those components & screws in a bag. These screws are of specific lengths so keep them with this assembly.
- Remove the screw holding the torque converter clutch solenoid and pull the solenoid out of the valve body. There is an o-ring holding it in but it shouldn't be overly tight. Make sure the o-ring comes out with the solenoid.
- Turn the whole valve body over and remove all the T-25 screws from the back of the transfer plate.
- torque spec on these screws (and all the other similar screws) is 35 in-lbs.
- Slightly separate the two pieces to see the filter in the transfer plate. You just need to have a handle on where this is.
- Carefully rotate the transfer plate counter clockwise, pivoting around the filter. Just rotate it enough for the transfer plate to clear the shift selector bracket.
- Once it's clear of the shift selector bracket, just lift & separate the two sections. BE CAREFUL NOT TO TURN OVER THE VALVE BODY DURING THIS STEP.
From here you'll want to start being careful. There are 7 check balls in various channels of the valve body, and they sit in there loose. If you turn the valve body over, they will fall out. Don't do that. Note the locations, although you can also easily find them in the FSM. If you happen to have an aftermarket shift kit, your check ball scene may vary from the factory configuration. Note that one is noticeably bigger than the others and goes in a bigger "bathtub" than the rest.
7. Remove the check balls and bag them up.
8. Remove the remaining 2 screws from the separator plate, exposing the fully glory of the transfer plate. Note there are 2 more check balls here. Note the locations, and put them in the bag with the rest of the check balls.
Phase III: removing/reinstalling the valves
This is most easily explained visually, as disassembly is literally the exact reverse of assembly. Remember to shoot some ATF into the valve bores and lightly coat the valves themselves with ATF before installing. The valves should go in pretty smoothly. If you have to fight them, stop, and back up. Usually it just takes a little bit of wiggling and they drop right in. For cleanup, once I had it entirely disassembled I sprayed the fire out of it with brake cleaner & hit it with the blower attachment on my air compressor. I did this on ALL the parts. I've seen transmission shops. They're not exactly building hard drives in clean rooms....the goal here is to be as clean as possible. But I don't think perfection is required.
As I broke down each of these sub-assemblies, I put those parts in a ziplock bag. I can't stress this enough. I had everything laid out on my work table but I quickly realized that it didn't take much to make the springs roll & get mixed up with the other sections.
(this is pictured above, on the right)
(please watch this one on the youtube site, not as an embedded video here)
Forgive me, as I have pulled a fast one here. I show the valve install with the selector shaft assembly removed. I don't have the removal on video, but it consists of removing one E clip and sliding the shaft out. Oh, and making sure the detent ball doesn't shoot across the room. Install is a bit of a bear, and all I have is a lousy video clip showing what I did ex post facto. They make a tool to simplify the install but it's an expensive single-use tool. I was able to get'r done with a flathead screwdriver and the 0.025" strip from my feeler gauge.
NOTE: FIg. 68 below contains a corrected re-arrangement of the kickdown valve & sleeve; the FSM is incorrect and will result in super early shifts and no kickdown. If you watch the embedded video above you may not see the CC edits I added to correct my own re-assebly procedure. Please watch in Youtube proper to see the full details & corrections.
Hopefully this gives you the confidence to tackle your own valve body maintenance or shift kit or whatever it is you want to do. I still have no real clue how these things work, but fortunately we don't need to know that. We just need to know how to take it apart and get it back together. I hate seeing people spend good money on things they can easily do themselves, and automatic transmission work is one of those things that people assume is beyond their comprehension. I don't think that is the case for the 32RH (or any older transmission, actually) and as these units become more rare it becomes more important that we're able to service them ourselves.
NOTE: the FSM (at least for the 97) is wrong with respect to how the kickdown valve/spring/sleeve goes together. My photo shows it as per the FSM, and I'm leaving this photo here because it also shows the correct orientation of the pressure regulator valve. The kickdown valve should be constructed as per this modified diagram.
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