Yeah, among all the videos I watched, I saw how the OD unit was held together with that snap ring and how it's a common failure point. However, at this point, even to take a look at that would involve dropping the OD unit out and separating it (not to mention the risk of un-aligning the splines and not being able to reinstall it without that tool). I do have a press and feel confident that, given the time, I'd be able to cobble together a rebuild on the whole thing. But there's just a few jobs that I'm comfortable paying to have done in order to preserve my sanity and work-life balance. Only so many hours in a day and I have other projects and vehicles to attend to. It really boils down to not wanting to put in all the hours for a van that's just my kayak hauler/camper/farm van. I already have three other vehicles which keeps me busy enough...not to mention the GF's car and other side hustle jobs I do turning wrenches. For about $2.5k, I'm getting a whole reman w/converter dropped off in my driveway in 5-6 weeks w/no core charge. I can probably have it swapped out in a few hours. Lots of room to work under there and having access to the top of the bell housing with the dog box off makes me think that it'll be a breeze. That sounds like a good deal to me!

 

Read the warranty carefully on that trans, they may want to have a 'qualified shop' or some such, install it, to maintain the warranty. Which you want.

 

You bring up a good point and briefly wondered about the warranty particulars. This prompted me to look into it. I'm getting it from Transmission Depot and their warranty requires, among many other requirements, for the unit to be installed by an ASE certified mechanic/shop w/in 30 days...and [size=0pt]"If No Install Receipt Provided, Warranty will be 1yr Defect Only.[/size]" Unfortunately that's not gonna happen and I'm gonna have to roll the dice on this one. I do not trust anyone but myself on any repairs these days and am unwilling to pay for labor and leaving my vehicle somewhere. I'm already taking a leap of faith on the assumption that the rebuild will be done properly before I install it. What I will do is document things during installation, to include proof of a new radiator at time of installation (since my vehicle only has the integrated cooler built into the radiator and no external/auxillary unit) and proof of proper converter installation onto input shaft. I'll also document a few other minor things like flushing the cooler lines, loctite on converter bolts, good trans mount, use of ATF+4 fluid, etc. All this in hopes that if I do somehow run into an issue, they would be reasonable and offer a good faith solution.

FWIW, I completely understand all of their warranty requirements and think it's very reasonable because there are lots of things that can go wrong that are outside the control of them once the unit leaves their shop.

 

Can you even FIND ASE certified techs these days??????

 

I'm pretty confident that I could go in cold and take the tests and pass all of them minus the HVAC one, lol. I mean, I've done some HVAC work successfully (did a complete overhaul on my Regal GS...compressor, lines, condenser, vacuum/refrigerant, etc) but not enough knowledge to pass the exam.

I work on a lot of different cars as a side-hustle/shade-tree and every time, I find some shoddy work from a prior "repair" from someone else who went before me. Don't even get me started on the "five minute oil change" places. Those places should be outlawed or subjected to some form of oversight.

 

I took the tests years ago. Passed them easily. (brakes, tune-up, engine repair, electrical, hvac) with very little actual technical training. I learned by doing, I simply couldn't afford to pay someone else to fix my cars, so, I learned to do it myself. Got a couple good jobs from simply having those certifications too. I don't think the tests have changed very much, even though the tech has changed dramatically over the years.