you may or may not know i am having trouble with my transmission. My truck is currently out of commission until i finish the work and refill with atf4 and hope it solves my issues (or delays them until i get more money towards a rebuild) It is my daily driver, yesterday i had to get a ride in and a ride home from work. I am not someone who likes to impose upon another person, or make a habit of it for that matter. Ive decided to take today off from work and do all i can to wrap this up. I NEED MY TRUCK!
i have to remove the valve body, yet having some trouble with what exactly to do. I know that there are six bolts three on each side that need to be removed. ive watched a couple videos and read the service manual and also the haynes not much luck. what im looking for is do i have to remove anything else besides those bolts? ive heard you have to remove the manual lever on the side by the throttle cable that goes down there. is this true? if so anything else i have to remove? all the videos ive watched already had the tranny out of the truck and all the springs and lever on the driver side removed. so they are no help as to what has to be removed to get the valve body out while still in the truck. The haynes doesnt even touch that topic. any help on this would truly be appreciated. Thank you

 

You pretty much have it except there are more than six bolts..All the bolts with 7/16 heads must be removed and watch closely because they are different lenghts ....Also the throttle lever indeed must be removed and under it is the shift lever that also must be removed......However the fun part is this, when valve body is lowered somewhat it must be pulled forward to release the parking rod that is on top of valve body.....sometimes you have to slightly push or pull vehicle to get it to release....One other note is that the 1-2 accumulator will fall out of case,thats ok though because it self evident how it goes....i am curious on why you need to remove it?

brian

 

It is believed that the strut,that sits atop the adj. Lever has fallon out of place. Its not in the pan so,it must be on top valve body. My tranny had a bit of metal on the magnet and wasnt xhanging gears so besides looking for strut that maybe missing i figured i clean the valve body and see if theres debris in the passeges as well

 

Here is a pretty good description of removal process here
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...t-46rh-re.html.
The one thing he doesn't mention and that i had problems with mine was that
the 8 eight pin connector can stick in the transmission case. It is screwed to top of valve body.
You may have to take a handle of a hammer and tap on it gently to free it up,
or you could end up breaking it you just try pulling down valve body.

Dave

 

If you have all the other gears, i doubt there is anything wrong in the VB, but if you want to save some time,remove the three torx bolts that hold the solenoid assembly in place, if there is any debri it will find its way into the screens behind the solenoid plate...one other note on removal, unplug the 8 pin connector located near the rear cooling line...

 

I actually did this in my jeep, its the same just a little smaller. I was intimidated a bit at first but it was alot easier than I thought. Yes the kick down and selector levers must be removed from the case, when you get the vb down and start trying to get the parking rod out you may feel like you're gonna break it. Just make sure you pull on the rod itself cause it's only a little e clip that holds it on the vb. Just make sure everything stays clean and like mentioned before the bolts are all different lengths. I just use a cardboard box and push the bolts into it like they come out.

 

Anybody know what size attachment to get to tighten the bands 10 mm to big 9mm too small

 

So ive driven to 4 different stores to find something to fit the band screw and my torque wrench. No luck getting frustrated any body got ideas

 

3/8's??

 

IIRC, I believe you need to use a 5/16" combo wrench and a 5/16" allen 3/8th's drive socket to connect to the torque wrench. And adjust the band according to the FSM spec when using the special tool/adapter as described in the FSM. Had the same problem with my 98. They changed the screw head for some (as usual) unknown reason. You can adjust the other band with no problem with normal sockets. You can do what I suggested, or find a 5/16th's square drive socket. Or an E-13 8 point. IIRC. All I know, is it's ridiculous why that one screw is different on a 98. Kind of like how it's unknown why the key trick doesn't work on a 98. Her's a pic of how i did it on my 98, and since that's tranny is in my 2000 now, it's also the way I'll obviously have to do it again eventually.