durallymax
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Well I have an 03 D-Max as listed in my sig.
The first line of tranny mods was the first part of my winter build as I needed it to keep going down the road.
Installed was a Suncoast Stage IV with a 1055 torque converter due to the fact that my truck is a pulling truck.
It was interesting and Im glad I had Mike L.s Cell number on speed dial.
Heres how it went.
Right off the bat I broke my starter when disconnect the wires from the solenoid. I barely put pressure on it but I guess they are brittle. In hindsight I didnt need to remove that wire.
Then i fought the TC bolts, disconnected everything on the tranny except the top NSBU switch harness. I fought that thing but couldnt get it to budge to save my life. After a chat with Mike L. I learned you need to apply heat to the connector to soften the glue inside it. It took about 15 minutes of heating and wiggling but I got it out.
Then crammed my hands into tight spots and got the trans out and on the floor the next night.
Started tearing it down last saturday.
I learned very quickly how to deal with the stubborn snap rings inside of the trans after fighting them for awhile.
Then I did the valvebody mods. Which were very eays and straightforward but my "A" trim valve kept popping out, no big deal just irritating until I got the hold down in place.
Then while I was torqueing the bolts down I was unfamiliar with the torque wrench i was using and had it set sorrectly but it doesnt click, it pops so I overotorqued and snapped off a valvebody bolt. I then learned that the broken off portion simply threads out with finger tips.
I also learned how much of a pain the C1/C2 housing can be as most of the components are air locked. And the snap ring that holds the C1 springs in place can be a pain, but we got it in.
Now I had my C1/C2 assembly together but went in the wrong order i went steel friction not friction steel for the C2s so I pulled that back apart and redid that.
I then proceeded to so the C3 clutches, I got them in and the snap ring went in to place perfectly. Then I looked on teh bench and realized I forgot a friction. so I pulled that back apart and put it back together.
Then flipped it over to do the C4 clutches. I fought the spiral snap ring for an hour but couldnt get it to go in correctly. Then I looked on the bench and realized I had a spring pack sitting there. we pulled out the C4s and all 3 spring packs were there. So I pulled the C3s out again and sure enough one was missing. Clipped in on and put the C3s back together.
The next night a guy from work who is my neighbor and has been a mechanic for 35 years came to help me, he has no tranny experince but has good mechanical knowledge. We fought the C4 snap ring again before I called mike. He said I probably mixed up the C3s with the C4s as they looks the same and are not labeled but one is thicker than the other. So We switched the clutches around and still couldnt get the ring in. Then I looked at my ATSG manual and found I was putting the backing plate in backwards. oops, we gained a lot from that and got it all together but as I went to check my clearences we noticed that the C3s were very loose and C4s were still very tight. Turns out I had the clutches right the first time, so apart came the trans again.
Finally it was time for the C5sand then the planetaries. I got all of them in looked over and saw a ring gear on the table, oops the C3 ring gear needed top be installed before the C4 clutches. To avoid dealing with the C4 snap rings I removed the C3 pack once again and slipped the C3 ring gear in backwards so it would be facing correctly as if installed from the rear of the trans, then reinstalled the C3s again.
I decided to take a break and to do the pump mods . I removed a vlave I mistaked for the boost modifier valve and had a hell of a time compressing the spring with a C clamp to get it back in. Only to find out later I needed to remove it anyways for some modifications and to find that the fancy little aluminum tool in the kit was for compressing this valve.
Now I proceeded to drop my C5s in, the park pawl and then the rear housing. I noticed the rear housing sat pretty high but was aware that this was normal. however it did look too high. As I was torque it down evenly crack. It bound up. I called merchant the next day and he overnighted me a used one.
I called mike again and he said My P1 planetary was probably not seated in all of the C4 frictions. Sure Enough he was right, So Apart came the tranny again and then everything was reinstalled once again. now it was nice and smooth and not too tight.
But I still had to switch everything over from the old cracked housing to the new one. In my ATSG manual I saw a nut for the output shaft that needed to be removed. But It showed it as a 6 sided hex nut which it most certainly was not. I wanted to be sure though as I didnt want anything else to go wrong so I called mike. He didnt answer so I called Guy Tripp. He was in the process of tuning one of the members trucks on here ironically so I got a call back a few minutes later. He was quick to admit that he had only ever built one tranny and that was 4 years ago, he leaves the trannies to mike. But since he wasnt answering guy was eagar to help me. He had only an Allison parts manual and after some discussion over the phone he decided to fax a few pages to me. After reviewing the pages and some more chatting we discoverd that the nuit I was looking at was the output shaft nut and is smooth sided with 4 notches. So now the out put shaft was out.
But the ball nearing was still in and needed to be pressed out, our new shop has a lack of tools so I headed to a different one of my neighbors shops and we puched it out and used his fancy bearing setting tools to put it into the new one.
Then reassembly. As I was installing the parking pawl I wlost the little spring pin suncoast sends. It went flying across the sop towards one of our employees baler which was plugges up with corn stalks and had a huge pile of them on the floor. Our shop is also 60x80 which literally made this a search for the needle in the haystack. But surprisngly not even a minute later I found it.
We got the rear all asembled and torque down and moved to the front then notcied my main shaft didnt look fully seated but we tried installing the C1/C2 assembly and the bell housing anyways. Well the bellhousing didnt sit flush so once again I called mike. He gave me instructions on how to make a jig to hold the main shaft in its seated position. I made the jig and unfortuneatly had to take the rear end apart once again. I then set the main shaft and retorque the rear housing.
Then flipped the tranny over and installed the C1/C2 assembly and the bell hosuing and torqued it down. Looked over on the bench and saw I forgot a thrust bearing. oops. So I removed the bell housing and C1/C2 assembly again and installed the bearing then retorqued everything for the last time.
A little bit of wiggling and the TC was on.
Then we got the trans lined up and bolted up. And realized we forgot to similtaniously install the dipstick at the same time, we were able to tilt the tranny and motor enough to get it in though as the Transfer case was not yet bolted up.
We couldnt get any of the TC bolts started and called it a night.
Yesterday morning we tried the TC bolts again but no luck. Another call to mike revealed I needed to stick a screwdriver in the inspection port and slide the converter forward. a little spinning of the converter to get it lined up and the first TC bolt was in. A little while later and all TC bolts we in and tight and none were dropped or broke. They are supposed to be torque to 45lb-ft and snap at 50. It is impossible to get a torque wrench in the there without a lot of extentions which give an inaccurate torque reading so mike said to get them tight but not overtight. Which I did.
Then Came time for all of the electrical brakets which all of my nuts and bolts were missing. I headed to the hardware store and cleaned them out of metric bolts and nuts. Then everything was hooked up and ready to be filled. We filled it up with 4 gallons and went to start it but it didnt start. Simple fix, turns out th NSBU switch needed to be adjusted as it rear "R" when I was in "P". Oh and then I found all of my nuts and bolts.
Got that fixed and filled the tranny full. Then I noticed a puddle on the floor, had my buddy fire up the truck and I watched fluid pour out the new/used rear housing I got from merchant. It ruined my day as it proved I would not make it to the dyno. Merchant was great to work with and is overnighting me a new one tomorrow.
So Tomorrow night out comes to trans again and tuesday night on goes the new housing, and hopefully the truck will be running by wednesday night.
It has been an intersting experience, I have learned a lot and can honestly say that I can tear down and rebuild these trannies in about 2 hours max after all of my issues.
Hopefulluy the rest goes well but you never know. More updates later.
On sunday Im going to union grove for some drag races. I really wanna see how the 2600RPM stall speed of the 1055 launches.
Well Im tired of typing for now. and if you need any help with your build let me know.
The first line of tranny mods was the first part of my winter build as I needed it to keep going down the road.
Installed was a Suncoast Stage IV with a 1055 torque converter due to the fact that my truck is a pulling truck.
It was interesting and Im glad I had Mike L.s Cell number on speed dial.
Heres how it went.
Right off the bat I broke my starter when disconnect the wires from the solenoid. I barely put pressure on it but I guess they are brittle. In hindsight I didnt need to remove that wire.
Then i fought the TC bolts, disconnected everything on the tranny except the top NSBU switch harness. I fought that thing but couldnt get it to budge to save my life. After a chat with Mike L. I learned you need to apply heat to the connector to soften the glue inside it. It took about 15 minutes of heating and wiggling but I got it out.
Then crammed my hands into tight spots and got the trans out and on the floor the next night.
Started tearing it down last saturday.
I learned very quickly how to deal with the stubborn snap rings inside of the trans after fighting them for awhile.
Then I did the valvebody mods. Which were very eays and straightforward but my "A" trim valve kept popping out, no big deal just irritating until I got the hold down in place.
Then while I was torqueing the bolts down I was unfamiliar with the torque wrench i was using and had it set sorrectly but it doesnt click, it pops so I overotorqued and snapped off a valvebody bolt. I then learned that the broken off portion simply threads out with finger tips.
I also learned how much of a pain the C1/C2 housing can be as most of the components are air locked. And the snap ring that holds the C1 springs in place can be a pain, but we got it in.
Now I had my C1/C2 assembly together but went in the wrong order i went steel friction not friction steel for the C2s so I pulled that back apart and redid that.
I then proceeded to so the C3 clutches, I got them in and the snap ring went in to place perfectly. Then I looked on teh bench and realized I forgot a friction. so I pulled that back apart and put it back together.
Then flipped it over to do the C4 clutches. I fought the spiral snap ring for an hour but couldnt get it to go in correctly. Then I looked on the bench and realized I had a spring pack sitting there. we pulled out the C4s and all 3 spring packs were there. So I pulled the C3s out again and sure enough one was missing. Clipped in on and put the C3s back together.
The next night a guy from work who is my neighbor and has been a mechanic for 35 years came to help me, he has no tranny experince but has good mechanical knowledge. We fought the C4 snap ring again before I called mike. He said I probably mixed up the C3s with the C4s as they looks the same and are not labeled but one is thicker than the other. So We switched the clutches around and still couldnt get the ring in. Then I looked at my ATSG manual and found I was putting the backing plate in backwards. oops, we gained a lot from that and got it all together but as I went to check my clearences we noticed that the C3s were very loose and C4s were still very tight. Turns out I had the clutches right the first time, so apart came the trans again.
Finally it was time for the C5sand then the planetaries. I got all of them in looked over and saw a ring gear on the table, oops the C3 ring gear needed top be installed before the C4 clutches. To avoid dealing with the C4 snap rings I removed the C3 pack once again and slipped the C3 ring gear in backwards so it would be facing correctly as if installed from the rear of the trans, then reinstalled the C3s again.
I decided to take a break and to do the pump mods . I removed a vlave I mistaked for the boost modifier valve and had a hell of a time compressing the spring with a C clamp to get it back in. Only to find out later I needed to remove it anyways for some modifications and to find that the fancy little aluminum tool in the kit was for compressing this valve.
Now I proceeded to drop my C5s in, the park pawl and then the rear housing. I noticed the rear housing sat pretty high but was aware that this was normal. however it did look too high. As I was torque it down evenly crack. It bound up. I called merchant the next day and he overnighted me a used one.
I called mike again and he said My P1 planetary was probably not seated in all of the C4 frictions. Sure Enough he was right, So Apart came the tranny again and then everything was reinstalled once again. now it was nice and smooth and not too tight.
But I still had to switch everything over from the old cracked housing to the new one. In my ATSG manual I saw a nut for the output shaft that needed to be removed. But It showed it as a 6 sided hex nut which it most certainly was not. I wanted to be sure though as I didnt want anything else to go wrong so I called mike. He didnt answer so I called Guy Tripp. He was in the process of tuning one of the members trucks on here ironically so I got a call back a few minutes later. He was quick to admit that he had only ever built one tranny and that was 4 years ago, he leaves the trannies to mike. But since he wasnt answering guy was eagar to help me. He had only an Allison parts manual and after some discussion over the phone he decided to fax a few pages to me. After reviewing the pages and some more chatting we discoverd that the nuit I was looking at was the output shaft nut and is smooth sided with 4 notches. So now the out put shaft was out.
But the ball nearing was still in and needed to be pressed out, our new shop has a lack of tools so I headed to a different one of my neighbors shops and we puched it out and used his fancy bearing setting tools to put it into the new one.
Then reassembly. As I was installing the parking pawl I wlost the little spring pin suncoast sends. It went flying across the sop towards one of our employees baler which was plugges up with corn stalks and had a huge pile of them on the floor. Our shop is also 60x80 which literally made this a search for the needle in the haystack. But surprisngly not even a minute later I found it.
We got the rear all asembled and torque down and moved to the front then notcied my main shaft didnt look fully seated but we tried installing the C1/C2 assembly and the bell housing anyways. Well the bellhousing didnt sit flush so once again I called mike. He gave me instructions on how to make a jig to hold the main shaft in its seated position. I made the jig and unfortuneatly had to take the rear end apart once again. I then set the main shaft and retorque the rear housing.
Then flipped the tranny over and installed the C1/C2 assembly and the bell hosuing and torqued it down. Looked over on the bench and saw I forgot a thrust bearing. oops. So I removed the bell housing and C1/C2 assembly again and installed the bearing then retorqued everything for the last time.
A little bit of wiggling and the TC was on.
Then we got the trans lined up and bolted up. And realized we forgot to similtaniously install the dipstick at the same time, we were able to tilt the tranny and motor enough to get it in though as the Transfer case was not yet bolted up.
We couldnt get any of the TC bolts started and called it a night.
Yesterday morning we tried the TC bolts again but no luck. Another call to mike revealed I needed to stick a screwdriver in the inspection port and slide the converter forward. a little spinning of the converter to get it lined up and the first TC bolt was in. A little while later and all TC bolts we in and tight and none were dropped or broke. They are supposed to be torque to 45lb-ft and snap at 50. It is impossible to get a torque wrench in the there without a lot of extentions which give an inaccurate torque reading so mike said to get them tight but not overtight. Which I did.
Then Came time for all of the electrical brakets which all of my nuts and bolts were missing. I headed to the hardware store and cleaned them out of metric bolts and nuts. Then everything was hooked up and ready to be filled. We filled it up with 4 gallons and went to start it but it didnt start. Simple fix, turns out th NSBU switch needed to be adjusted as it rear "R" when I was in "P". Oh and then I found all of my nuts and bolts.
Got that fixed and filled the tranny full. Then I noticed a puddle on the floor, had my buddy fire up the truck and I watched fluid pour out the new/used rear housing I got from merchant. It ruined my day as it proved I would not make it to the dyno. Merchant was great to work with and is overnighting me a new one tomorrow.
So Tomorrow night out comes to trans again and tuesday night on goes the new housing, and hopefully the truck will be running by wednesday night.
It has been an intersting experience, I have learned a lot and can honestly say that I can tear down and rebuild these trannies in about 2 hours max after all of my issues.
Hopefulluy the rest goes well but you never know. More updates later.
On sunday Im going to union grove for some drag races. I really wanna see how the 2600RPM stall speed of the 1055 launches.
Well Im tired of typing for now. and if you need any help with your build let me know.
