Thinking of trying to rebuild 2004R myself ?

[turbotaone]

Has anyone ever tackled a 2004R rebuild themselves? if so, how was it? I'm a little short on cash right now and thought maybe I could save a little by doing my own tranny. I have rebuilt engines, carbs.,and manual trannies, and I like to do new things myself and learn in the process, but those automatics look pretty intimidating. However, I see that CKPerformance has a new overhaul manual for the 2004R and it is supposed to cover a complete performance rebuild in great detail from start to finish.
I live only a few miles from Janis Transmissions and I know Vince does exellent work,but it would cost me a grand for just a standard rebuild,and I know that once I got it there I would want him to put some expensive billit stuff in it. So should I buy the parts and try to do the labor myself? or should I whip out the credit card and take it to Vince?

Thanks
James

 

[postal]

I dont know squat about trannies but Ive read that you need special tools to do a particular tranny. One post I read from a tranny guy said he had over $1000 in special tools required to rebuild a 700r4. Special tools required to do the job may be some thing you would want to ask about. Then again even if you had to buy a tool or two it might be worth it and may give you a way to make a little extra cash for your hot rod. People are always smoking these damn trannies and NO ONE that ive ever heard of does them cheap. Are they really that expensive to redo or are they price fixing the market? I have a GN sitting in my drive with a smoked tranny. I smoked it the day I bought it! Now I think I'm going to put a T400 in the TA and the built TA tranny in the gn. That will leave me with 2 smoked brf cores sitting in my garage.

Jason

 

[turbotaone]

Thanks for the reply Jason, I think that I will order the rebuild manual from CKPerformance and see if it list the tools needed to rebuild the 2004R. If the tools aren't too expensive, then I think I'll try the rebuild myself. I do have a pit in the garage,so that should make the job a little easier. I'll let you know how it turns out.

James

 

[Razor]

James,
If the tranny is stock, and your going to do a stock build, not touching the valvebody.. you stand a chance.

I personally feel.. if you have competent shops, that screw them up on a regular basis..its a special animal. And really gets tricky when you start adding Hi-Po parts..Save the money and let someone competent build it. Most shops can do a bench job, and you can save on the R&R.. just throwing this as as option.

Wish ya well..

 

[nickb]

i tried that with my 2004r in my 442. Dont bother these trannies are tricky enough for the pros to get right. I wasted so much money and time. Worst mistake ever. I rebuilt it myself once it didnt work right, I took it to a pro, it lasted 6 months and was clunking from day one, got screwed on that one, till i finally got so sick of the 2004r that i put a th400 in and called it a day.

 

[crapheap]

well ive had great luck on rebuilding the 200 even though i've only rebuilt 2 of them..one is on a car that has gone high 10's the other on my car wich has gone 11.90's...
i bought the manual ,took it all apart and then reverse engineered it back together with new clutches,steels and a band..the master rebuild kit cost me $70 bucks (raybestos clutches)plus the band and filter..its been on my car for 5 years i drive it everyday and not one flair yet (knok on wood)...
as for special tools yeah it would be great if you had them.in a perfect world we would all have them but guess what you improvise,i did... i'm not saying that you should ripp your's apart..but maybe you could do what i did..wake up real early one saturday morning go to your local u-pull it drop one and tear it apart right there..that would give you an idea of what you will go through when u rip u'rs apart and you wont break expensive stuff..like i said my rebuild cost me roughly around $100 dollars in parts $60 bucks for a shift kit $4.95 for a box af sponge bob band-aids , hidrogen peroxide(tranny really sharp inside) and a free bottle of vaseline that my mom let me have.gee i wonder what mom uses vaseline for?
whats the worse that could happen you throw away a couple hundred bucks,u'll get over it ..
well if you do decide to do it good luck and let us know

 

[postal]

and a free bottle of vaseline that my mom let me have.gee i wonder what mom uses vaseline for?

Maybe she rebuilt a tranny once.

Jason

 

[turbotaone]

Thanks for replies, I was leaning towards the advice of Razor and nickb, but now after hearing from crapheap, I'm thinking that maybe I could tackle the job. I'll have to give it some more thought.

James

 

[postal]

If we lived a little closer I would let you practice on one of mine. I got two that are smoked and just sitting here. One smoked TTA tranny and one smoked GN tranny.

Jason

 

[turbotaone]

Yes, that would be great to have one to practice on. Oh well, thanks for the offer anyway Jason.

James

 

[Razor]

If you have facilities to perform the job, and inclination, sure. But simple things like where clips go, setting the band, etc.. You probably can find someone locally to do a simple bench job for 3-4 hundred bucks. This is assumming no hard parts.

My tranny was just done a couple weeks ago by someone who does this for a living. Put it in, there was a flare issue. He came over last nite, we dropped the pan, he installed a new pump regulator assy, inspected the billet servo after locking the band, and did some mods to my filter. Bamm.. problem went away..finally a good tranny after a year of

So I was definetely glad it wasnt me doing the build. cuase when you run into trouble.. your hosed. If everyone in your area wants 1500 bucks.. then you can contemplate it. Go to pull a part and get a core tranny for 50 bucks..and play with that. See how it goes.

My .02

Now off to NOS'ing it .. while I have a warranty

 

[turbotaone]

I've pretty much given up on the idea of doing the tranny myself. I'm going to have Vince Janis rebuilt it,that way if there is a problem afterwards,then it will be his responsibility to make it right,and I know that Vince stands behind his work. Thanks for the good advice Razor.

James