Whats the better route.I see the reman. units from like summit etc are around 1300.Is there any benifit to these or should I just rebuild and upgrade the 700 r4 I have?I have had two rebuilds before and both failed I assume do to bad work.Trans shops around here are just your basic national chains.

 

I've had good luck withBowtie Overdrives. If you don't have the skills to rebuild a transmission look in to a good local shop or a good company.

There are a lot of thing sthat can cause a transmission to fail. The main enemy of an automatic transmission is heat. It's smart to run an auxiliary fluid cooler dedicated to the transmission fluid. This will help keep the trans fluid temperature down, especially if you install a high stall torque converter.

Especially with our 700r4's it's critical that the throttle-valve cable (T/V cable) be adjusted properly.That component controls the line pressure in the transmission. If it's not setup and adjusted properly that will

What are your goals for your car? Are you going to be road racing, drag racing,and/or street performance? Your goals for your car also play a big role with respect to matching your car with a good transmission and converter set up.

 

When I hear people say things like that, I think they just aren't looking hard enough.

If your community is large enough to support "national chains," there are surely smaller shops too. Smaller shops don't advertise, because they stay in business by doing good work, for less money (sometimes), and without all the overhead of the chains.

The chains have lots of turnover in their personnel for all the usual reasons. The personnel who can leave those chain-shop jobs, and make it on their own, are the ones you want working on your car. They know a crap-part from a good part, and you can usually talk to the actual mechanic.

As gear-heads (or semi-gear-heads), we really value being able to have that talk. The customer who just had his nails done, and who is blabbering on the phone about some inane personal matter at the same time they are talking to the service-writer at the chain-shop is not going to appreciate having access to the mechanic. They are the ones who SHOULD be stuck with the "this is what it will cost" type of customer service.

You need to talk to some of the older blue-collar type folks in your area. Find them at all the usual places. VFW's, volunteer fire departments, even the old guy nursing a cup of coffee at McDonalds. They are the ones who can tell you where THEY get their car worked on. You might be shocked at the hole-in-the-wall 2-3 man shops that are right in your midst, and that do good work.

The catch is, the GOOD SHOPS usually have plenty of work, and will NOT be able to take your job the mornng you walk in. Prepare to make an appointment. Othewise you can take it to a chain-shop, and they can pull a guy off a broom to start slapping "a kit" on your transmission. You don't want that.

You MIGHT be in the right shop when you walk in, and you find only one administrative person, and on the wall over his shoulder, you see this sign:

 

I have had my transmissions built by a good local shop in the past. They stood behind their work and I believe they did the best they could with what they had to work with at the time. This time I will be building my own. I have in depth experience with most areas of automotive repair but not with transmissions. I decided that it was time to get into this. I worked with a great trans builder for some time and learned alot more than I realized. I built only a few units then and struggled with them. Today, I realize that I actually gained a fairly decent understanding of how these things work. Plus, today the internet is a huge resource. There are several tear down and assembly videos on youtube of the 700R4. While the methods used vary from backyard to professional. Each video is worth watching just to see how thnigs come apart and go together. I would say that if you are a fairly good wrench, you can probably handle the 700R4 rebuild. Be sure to spend alot of time studying to familiarize yourself with the unit. Purchase and read an ATSG book on the unit. Then if you feel ready go for it. If you don't feel comfortable with the job, find a good clean local shop and talk to them about what you want and see what they say.

There are also companies like Pro Built Automatics(who is a member on this forum) that will build you a custom unit for a fair price. This would be better than most any prebuilt reman. The problem with something like a transmission is that unless you talk to the builder yourself, you have no idea what has really been done to it or what parts were used. The range of possibilities today is vast.

 

So I gather just buying one done and bolting it in is not worth the money?Car betweeen 230- 280hp and just a once,twice a week driver,no racing but do like the auto/manual valve body.Something reliable is all I need really

 

I'm not saying that a pre built unit can't be a good value. Only that, unless you speak with the builder, it's almost impossible to know what's been done to the unit. Another issue with mail order pre built is that if there is an issue, it's pretty hard to get the unit repaired or to have tuning changes made. The possible variations in shift quality and overall behavior are limitless.
A builder will tune a given unit to behave a certain way in order to work in a certain range of applications. This tune may not behave the way you expect it to in your vehicle. Changing the units tune is as easy as swapping springs on a few valves in the valve body or maybe switching valves. If your trans was done by a local builder who is good with the 700r4, making these changes is a simple matter.