cdmc1984

Ok so I did my first transmission rebuild A-500 42 RE and ended up with a wast of money so fair. I followed the ASTG manual and when I removed anything from the trans I rebuild it as it came out and set it to the side in the order it came out in so that it would go back into the transmission in the same order. long store short I ended up with a hole in my ceiling but I got it done and back in and felt very confident in my work. we reinstalled the transmission in the jeep and the motor had seized up over winter so we replace it with a 95. So got everything going again and No drive but we had reverse matter a fact we had reverse in all gears at one point after messing with the bands we kinda had drive at a point but it would just slip out back into neutral lots of vibration but no drive. I though we maybe the transmission sucked up all the fluid so I check the fluid again and it was PINK Then I though well just well maybe just moisture from winter so we flushed it we ended up flushing it three times then I just wanted to the thing so we took it to the shop.

Now the shop says because of water the transmission has to be rebuilt again allover again and to take the radiator completely out and replace it. So I am going to bypass the radiator all together just take it right out of the equation so this never happens again by installing a 2ftx3ft tras cooler. But the parts dealer is arguing that the bands and clutches should be fine even with water in the fluid and that the shop is just trying to take me for a ride. An this is how the shop explained it to me the water cause the glue on the clutches and band to be compromised and caused the slippage which caused the entire transmission to over heat and self destruct. the parts dealer says that the bands and clutches should be fine. I have no clue about the glue they us to make these things and am stuck in the middle and am about ready to just say forget it but I really need a good new rebuilt transmission not a swap from a junk yard with the work load we do. So it comes down to it who is right the parts dealer or the shop?

Rambler65

I would think that the major cost in that job is labor, so they might as well put in new friction materials while in there just to be on the safe side.

cdmc1984

So the guy at the shop is on the up and up and the water did destroy the clutches and bands?

Rambler65

From their perspective they have to guarantee the job and I can understand why they might not want to work with potentially damaged parts. The water certainly would not have done the clutches and bands any good. They're designed to be immersed in transmission fluid, not water.

Why chance a bad rebuild? Cost of those parts is probably a relatively small part of the total cost of the job.

cdmc1984

Everything said and done the shop did me really good he did the rebuild for $300 plus let me buy my own parts! The parts distributor did really well also they offered to resale me the kit at cost plus a discount on the shipping. they all did awesome. Still stressed over the fact it could happen again though!

Rambler65

cdmc1984

Back to square one we got the transmission in and we had reverse but no driver so we took it back out and back down to the shop. the guy took it apart and we all thought it was going to be the front clutch but turned out to be the rear band it roasted it self is what the shop said.
So how does this happen? Why would a brand new rebuilt transmission roast the rear band what are we missing?

Rambler65

50+ years ago, Ramblers with the Borg-Warner automatic transmission used to do this. The problem was due to a commonly-occurring internal leak causing the reverse band piston to be partly applied when in Drive. This would cause the band to burn up. (The recommended "fix" at the time was to drill a small hole in the piston to bleed off the unwanted hydraulic pressure.) The XJ obviously uses a way different transmission but it may be a similar type of problem.