well i'm a little dissapointed to say the least lol. i rebuilt my th400 tranny and installed a tci manual valve body. well i talked with one of our gm master techs here at work who is the th400 *** and he seems to think maybe i put a checkball back in a wrong spot. i followed the instructions extremely carefully and to the letter and this is my problem: reverse and low 1 work perfectly with no unusually noises ect. but when i i hit 2nd gear the tires lock up. NOT GOOD. anyone have any experience with these valve bodies? is there an error in the instructions? i'm trying to get ahold of tci right now to ask some questions. just thought i'd get some feedback here as well.

Rich

 

i should also state that the instructions say in step 4: remove valve body, sep. plate, CHECK *****, and center support bolt.

and that in step 14 it says to reinstall valve body but says nothing of putting check ***** back in. i just assumed to put the check ***** back in the same spots they came out of.

 

Gosh, I have a hard time imagining that a check ball would cause the transmission to lock up like that???

I've dealt with two full manual kits (B&M & Trans-go), but never a replacment valvebody, & never that problem.

If it's a full manual can you start off in second? If so what happens?
I don't know what kind of manual linkage the 400 has, but I had a 350 that you could acidently install upside down, and it caused all kinds of weird shifting problems.
I may be way off base but the picture below shows the two types of manual linkages. The one on the left is the one you can install upside down (and I did).

Ron

 

Ron, I can see how the early style link (on the right) can be installed wrong and it would pull the manual valve out too far,
but I thought the reason for the "S" link was to prevent that as the middle of the "S" would hit the rooster comb. I will check it out on the TH350 I am rebuilding.

 

Actually the one on the right, the deal can't come off the manual linkage, where as the one on the left the S-link can be pulled out.
The one 350 I did, there's a hole all the way through the manual linkage. So putting it in upside down can easily be achieved.

Ron

 

Fast3rdGen, you might try calling TCI and asking for Greg Friend.
He goes by MeanBuicks on the www.turbobuick.com msg.board.
Or e-mail him at meanbuicks@cs.com.

 

Ron, thanks for giving me an excuse to go out to the garage
I had to check my th350's manual valve to see if its hole went all the way through. And to turn out the lights! Fast3rdGen, I hope
your problem is cheap and easy to fix.

 

hey thanks for that guy's email addy. i sent him a message just now. i was talking to one of the gm techs at work who is known as the best th400 guy around. i showed him the instructions that came with the valve body. in step 13 they cover the second gear release spring and check ball. he says there could be enough fluid pressure to force passed the check ball. he recomended pulling out the ball and spring and plugging it up with a pipe plug. i emailed that guy with this info asking if that could be the culprit. hopefully he'll get back to me by the weekend. i tried calling tci but kept getting put on hold. thanks for the new lead again. will keep ya posted on any progress.

Rich

 

man thank you so much for puttin me in touch with that guy. he said that yeah my problem lies in that area and i should be fine plugging the hole with a pipe plug. i guess he is working on redesigning the seperator plate to do away with this problem.

thanks again.

Rich

 

well this just keeps getting better and better lol. i plugged the hole as instructed by greg at tci and the gm tech here at work. took the car for a cruise and a few hard launches. shifts flawlessly and HARD but a new problem arose. i forgot to remove one seal as per the instructions in the high clutch drum. well since i plugged that hole permanently there is absolutely no reverse engaugement. talked to the tech next door and after reading the instructions one more time he looks at me and goes....."are you absolutely sure you follwed these directions to the letter?" "yes i am pretty sure i did" "did you take the center seal ring out of the center support?" yes i am possitive we did that." "ok, did you take the center cusion seal out of the drum itself?" "center cusion seal? what center cusion seal?.......OH SH|T WHERE DID THAT STEP COME FROM!!!!!!????" "there ya go my good man.....if you do no plug that hole this is what happens....you have low 1, you have reverse and 3rd as well but you will not have second....now.....when you plug that hole you will have all of your foreward gears but unless you remove that one seal you are not getting any fluid to enguage reverse" as a matter of fact....when i must have misses that step we actually took that seal out and replaced it with a brand new one lmao!!!!!! so i get to take my tranny out......again.....and tear it apart.....again.

ok and here is the lesson for today kiddies:

when doing in depth tranny work for the first time......find a very knowledgable tranny guy and give him the instructions for any aftermarket stuff you will be installing.....have him look them over and see if there is anything that COULD go wrong and then work from there.....and be sure to read the directions more than a dozen times (as i only read them about a dozen) so you DON'T MISS ANY STEPS!!!!!!!!

and that concludes the th400 reverse manual valve body lesson for today.