4R100 rebuild

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I finally have my F250 on the road, runs great but had to take care of a few maintenance items first. One is the leaking transmission pan, which i know is just the gasket, the other is the rattling torque converter, the early years of the 7.3 super duty were known for it. Its more of an annoyance than anything, the truck shifts and drives fine down the road. It does have 224k miles, and I know the tranny was not serviced regularly over the past 18 years. I'd like to rebuild it myself along with a new torque converter, with the help of an ATSG manual. I'd like to beef it up a bit, I'll post a link to the kit I'd like to buy. this would be my first tranny rebuild, do you guys recommend it even though I'll have it step by step in the manual or should I leave it to someone who has done it before? I'd like to do it myself but of course I'd liek to get some opinions first.

https://www.alligatorperformance.com/per...ford-super-duty

this is the kit I would use
 
As long as you have the instructions, special tools, patience, pay attention to detail, and organizational skills you will do fine. I have torn down and built a few different kinds of automatic transmissions. Most important is keeping everything organized and clean. Paying attention to details like putting check balls back in proper locations and remembering all the proper order things came apart will make your life easy. My group in school had the only trans that shifted perfectly on the dyno the first go around. The teacher looked shocked and asked what we did. We said "um read the book" and he said "that's cheating" jokingly but was happy we paid attention.
 
It's a doable job for sure patience and cleanliness are paramount. Lots of videos to reference as well. One other suggestion I have is to add a quality shift kit (reprogramming kit), I personally only trust one brand (TransGo) because of their focus on fixing problems that exist within factory designs. I've used 3 of their 4R100-HD2 reprogramming kits, one in a diesel F250, one in a Bronco with a 302 and one in a Lightning with a 351W. The kit truly transformed that transmission from a slushy sloppy shifting transmission to a top notch transmission.

Here's a link for the source.

4R100-HD2 Tugger reprogramming kit
 
i would recommend going through this thread on FTE:

4r100-mechanical-diode-fun

the guy who did the rebuild had never done it before and was completely successful mostly due to his attention to detail. If he hadn't checked the clearances and ordered the right snap-rings ect. the way he did it might have failed right out of the gate.

the tugger kit above is highly regarded and I would also recommend looking into that.
 
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Thanks for the link meborder. I was considering buying a John wood valvebody to go along with the rebuild, he is highly regarded as one of if not the best when it comes to these transmissions. I'm assuming with the Tugger kit I wont need a John Wood valvebody as the tugger kit takes care of it? I talked to someone at Alligator Diesel and he recommended that I dont try to rebuild it myself if I have no prior experience, he says the ATSG manual is more of a guide than anything. But I'm a stickler for details and I'll buy the necessary tools, I'm confident in my ability and looking forward to it. I will also upgrade the tranny cooler with a 6.0 Powerstroke cooler, larger and more surface area.
 
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Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
Thanks for the link meborder. I was considering buying a John wood valvebody to go along with the rebuild, he is highly regarded as one of if not the best when it comes to these transmissions. I'm assuming with the Tugger kit I wont need a John Wood valvebody as the tugger kit takes care of it? I talked to someone at Alligator Diesel and he recommended that I dont try to rebuild it myself if I have no prior experience, he says the ATSG manual is more of a guide than anything. But I'm a stickler for details and I'll buy the necessary tools, I'm confident in my ability and looking forward to it. I will also upgrade the tranny cooler with a 6.0 Powerstroke cooler, larger and more surface area.
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I think the new VB will take care of most what you need. often times there are worn piston bores and people will get the fix-it kits from sonnax to correct that, but the new VB should take care of that.

the transgo kit comes with a different accumulator plate and a spiral snap ring to replace one of the standard snap rings that is prone to breaking. so you would want to look for a rebuild kit that has the spiral snap ring, or find that separately. (Sonnax may have that too, but I didn't look).

the transgo kit is probably cheaper than the new VB, but I bet both will get you where you want to be.

JMO
 
As has been said, but can't be stressed enough, IMO, are Cleanliness, Patience and the ability to follow instructions to the letter.
 
The Tugger kit is more than just a shift kit as some have mentioned. It involves more than just valve body tuning as well to include heavy duty snap rings cooling and fluid flow revisions and some modifications to the front pump pressure relief as well. In addition to all that it allows the installer to fine tune the shift firmness to their liking. I really cant praise this kit enough.
 
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