get an atsg manual online for your trans and youll be ok, pump gasket, pan gasket and tail shaft housing gasket. But i dont think you need to pull the tail shaft housing for anything, pan gasket to drain it.

 

So I ordered the snap ring...whoppin $3, and will be in possibly tomorrow, or WEDNESDAY...there's a stretch.
Anyway, I figure while I'm in there, I'm going to beef up the tranny a little.
I'm also going to take the time to tear apart the rear end, and find out what rear end I have, since the sticker is gone. I think I'm going to get taller gears there too.

I looked at Summit, didn't find much of anything for the transmission...unless I had a manual. (would LOVE to do a swap, but I know that's a nightmare and I'm not doin that.)
I checked Hughes, and same thing.

So where is a good place to find both transmission upgrade parts, as well as what's the best way to beef it up?
Also, where can I find good gear options?

Side note/thought...the 2500 transmission. I hear that they don't hunt for gears like the 1500 trans does. Can they be swapped?
I know that the '99 2500 used the 5.9L engine, and the HD trans...being my truck has the 5.9, thought maybe they would use the same controller....HMMM.....

Thanks!

 

theres not too much you can do as far as beefing up these trannys. sharadon, and a couple other places have come up with a way to strengthen/add more clutches into it, but its not something that i would want to tackle personally. you can put a shift kit into it, it will help a little.

2500 gassers, and 1500s use the same tranny. i found that after swapping to 4.56 gears in my rear end, the tranny didnt search for gears nearly as much.

 

pm me all you want. or email me oldirtyjohn@gmail.com or hit me up on AIM @ OneNutOneder1. i would be happy to help any way i can.

 

So after helping my buddy work on an expedition to get it out of his shop, today we finally got to rip into the transmission. I'm SOOOO glad I did. It wasn't the input shaft as we originally discussed. It turned out to be in the overdrive assembly. In the drum that holds a spring that is compressed to almost 700 Psi. After we got the input assembly back in the case, we popped off the transfer case, and then the rear extension of the trans that holds the OD assembly. What did we find? Another 4" section of the clip. There was less than 1/2 of the clip left holding this thing together. And the cru de gra? THAT piece was broken in two places...see attached.

The section with arrows shows the total length of what was left.
The red arrows show the ends.
The green and black arrows indicate the existing fractures.
The red and green arrows indicate the approximate distance that should normally be the gap of the "C"...YIKES!

So if that last little piece had popped and let go, almost 700 PSI of thrashing metal would have been released while driving in OD.. which would most likely happen when the torque converter is locked up.
Would have been a new trans.

So far, I'll have about $250 into this.
$3 for the WRONG ring..
$60 for the first round of fluids and filter to do the flush
$76 for the second round of fluids and filter for a full flush
$100 for the trans guy to fix the OD drum
$20 for front pump seal, rear trans seal, and I am also replacing the output shaft rear seal on the transfer case.

Good news is that all my clutches looked AWESOME!

 

How hard was it for you to break down the trans?

 

It was a lot of lessons learned. First off, learned that I have a 46RE trans, not a 45RFE.
You have to use a slide hammer to pull the front pump out. It's screwed in place, but also somewhat pressed in. Then you get the input shaft assembly out, you have to take out the front band linkage. It's a flat tab of metal called the strut, and another tiny piece called the anchor. They are a BEEYOTCH to get back incorrectly. I learned that the seal on the input shaft, no matter how good of condition they are in....will normally leak if you reuse them. So replace them every time.

All in all the process, which isn't done yet...taking that drum to the trans guy today after breakfast...the process is just time consuming. Brought the trans down with the transfer case attached. Will never do that again. Just before we had it down all the way, it rolled off the jack. Thank goodness neither of us got hurt. No damage to the trans either.

But will I ever take another auto trans apart? HIGHLY doubtful.....going to take a long time to get the fire of insanity out of my eyes.

 

I went to the trans guy yesterday around 11. Since I already had the trans extension with the OD drum separated and everything removed, he told me that instead of the $100 for the work, he would just do for me for free. "But you will have to give me some time" he says... I'm like, what does that mean?
He says, "Oh...a couple of hours." (was going to be at least a day). I was amazed. So I say, ok, then we'll go get some lunch and be back in a while. I ask the guy if he's had lunch yet, and if not would he like a burger; hey, I just saved $100, I had no problem offering a burger out of appreciation! He says heck yea! So I say no problem. He says, "it'll be done when you get back!" So now a couple of hours just turned into less than 1 hour. SWEET!

So we're back in my buddy's garage by 1 turning wrenches. It took us until MIDNIGHT last night to get it all put back together and buttoned up. But the truck is back on the road today.

I can't say is I never want to rip into another auto trans again.

 

LOL.....Ive never done a full trans either and a bit spooked to do one but I know the time will come

 

ya one of the differances is the 46re has bands and the 45rfe/545rfe, does not. but glad to here you found the problem and fixed it, plus saved about 600+, a rebuild for a 46re is 900 at a know trans shop by me. So good for you glad to hear it. How many miles on ur rig?