Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

tbauer03

tbauer03

TRBOBOX
I have talked to my dad about making this a summer project for the typhoon and we both think it would be fun to try and rebuild the tranny ourselves to save some coin. I tried searching but this board is very congested with info and I am looking for responses from people who have experience with this transmission.
Few questions
1) Is this endeavor to much to attempt for a couple of amateurs in their garage? We have rebuilt manual trannys before but never automatics. We probably lack some specialized tools to do the job.
2) Can anybody refer good rebuild books that are very informative and comprehensive about the 4l80e?
3) How many weekends would you guesstimate this would take or how much time did you spend on the rebuild alone? 1 weekend for teardown/inspection, another weekend for cleaning, then two weekends for reassembly?
4) After your personal rebuild was complete were you glad you did it yourself instead of paying a shop to it? I.E. if you could do it over again what you do differently?
Sorry if this as been discussed in detail before but like i said before i searched and read many articles dating back many years but most were focused solely on swap details i am interested in rebuild information.
Thanks
 
jwaller

jwaller

Evil Genius/SyTy Guru
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

if your feeling frisky do it yourself. An 80e is a good tranny and you don't need to be nearly as good as you'd need to be if you were doing a 700.
 
blk00z28

blk00z28

Forced to by choice
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

jwaller said:
if your feeling frisky do it yourself. An 80e is a good tranny and you don't need to be nearly as good as you'd need to be if you were doing a 700.
Click to expand...

What do you mean as good? Selecting parts, checking clearances, assembling correctly.. .... ?
 
TYTILIDIE

TYTILIDIE

METH HEAD
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

I'll throw in my two cents here. I always build mine and would never let anyone touch my trans (local anyways). The way it worked out for me is that I called around for my first build which I got a best price of $2500. After doing some digging and buying a plain jane haynes book, I decided to give it a whirl. All I did the first time was build it to stock. Definitely glad I did it alone. I haven not done an 80E yet but can't imagine it could be much harder. I would think that most RWD autos are fairly similar to a point. The same basic concepts should apply anyway. I say go for it. Parts will cost probably a quarter of what having someone else would cost. And if it gets screwed up you only have you to blame.:lol:
 
George Blake

George Blake

DONATING MEMBER
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

It's not too awful bad. You have to actually be a little better than a 700 because there are a LOT more components to inspect. Valvebody has several MORE areas to inspect and correct and all the bushings will need replaced and many need resized in place. Take your time, do each sub assembly and you'll be fine. Just get the ATSG. You should've gone to Homecoming, I went sub assembly by subassembly. Some tricks to do the 2nd gear and setting the direct drum in there.
Some critical upgrades have to be done to prevent some known problems. The 80e kits I do have all the upgrades in them and I offer to do the valvebodies and pumps for you if you don't feel comfortable doing them in the build.
 
tbauer03

tbauer03

TRBOBOX
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

George Blake said:
Some critical upgrades have to be done to prevent some known problems. The 80e kits I do have all the upgrades in them and I offer to do the valvebodies and pumps for you if you don't feel comfortable doing them in the build.
Click to expand...
Yeah I saw your diy 80e kit on your 4l80 price thread but couldn't find the specific details about it. It appears like everything you would use in the jeremy build minus your cost of labor. Is that correct?
 
U

Upgrade

I suffer from boost envy
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

A few tips from my 60e build-
The correct tools save a lot of time. But you don't need every one of them.
See if you can find a friendly tech at the local shop.

Buy/borrow the correct snap ring pliers. They have flat knurled tips not round pins. Why- I spent 45 min on one clip using two picks. I have big hands so not a lot of room. Took less than 10 seconds with the correct tool. May have to go to a tool truck to get. Not too expensive. ~$15

Look into making your own spring press from some steel stock and all thread or take it to a shop for a small charge.

The solid teflon seals need to be carefully installed. The tools are outrageous for this. I had the shop do this part because you'll burn the trans up if one of these is done incorrectly and gets cut. On a 60 you can install the assembled pump on the input shaft after the seals get sized (compressed) to hold their shape until your ready for the final install of that part.

Replace all bushings unless the trans has low miles.

Disassemble all valves even if trans is clean inside on tear down.
All valves should move freely. How do you determine this? They should fall out by gravity only when lubed with trans fluid. Repeat test at least 3 times and should always drop. I had some that would only occasionally hang. Like one in four and that was enough to cause problems. Found that the hard way. $$$$
Fixed by lighty rubbing edge of valves with 600 grit. -very light- too much will make it easier for grit to wedge between spool and bore surface.

You can use a feeler gage for the lip seal installs. But the tool is cheap and cuts down on skin removal since it's longer. It looks like a paper clip stuck on the end of a small hollow metal rod.

Always lube the pump case prior to install-every time....They like to stick.
Test fit the pump prior to installing the case oring and gasket to check clearances.
If something got installed upside down it will hopefully show up as a snap ring or an assembly not seating all the way. I got one thrust bearing backward and a snap ring wouldn't drop down into it's groove.

Get lots of opinions prior to using any kevlar parts- My convertor only lasted 30k on a stock motor.

Shop for all parts, there's a wide range of costs. Some sites have a parts list. Use that for comparison shopping. I like bulkpart.com

Get a new 34 element sprag- and make sure it's installed in the correct orientation. I've seen shops mess this up.......let the junior guy try his hand at it or something.

Hook a gauge up to the test port and verify pressures prior to and while driving. This will let you know early on if you have a problem with a seal or a stuck valve. But not a valve the sticks occasionally....$$$$

Consider taking pictures during disassembly since you plan on this taking several days to complete. Never know when the dog/cat/neighbor kid will bump something onto the floor.

I used trans gel for assembly lube since I had no idea what vaseline would do to solenoid windings.
 
Quickstop [UK]

Quickstop [UK]

Combating adversyty.
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

I am hoping for some broken solenoids but if I have to rebuild it myself then I will. I haven't been scared by this truck yet.

Pissed off, yes, but scared? No...

I will beat the gremlins.
 
J-bird

J-bird

Member
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

Yea that write up is awesome!! I've got just about every book there is on 4l80e's and this write up has info I just haven't seen elsewhere. thanks for sharing!!! My 4l80e is disassembled in my shop waiting for parts to rebuild.

Thanks,

Jeremy
 
MRKING

MRKING

New Parts for Old Trucks
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

DOOOO IT !!

I drove the shit out of my 80e last night .It shifts great ,the tcu controller works awesome and after some tuning , look out !

I meticulously followed the astg manual and picked up the gm powertrain college 4l80e book and cd to help me understand what everything actually does . I had a tranny shop do the bushings and seals , but with a pump intaller/remover i was able to do everything else . Once you do it once , youll never pay for tranny work again .
 
Quickstop [UK]

Quickstop [UK]

Combating adversyty.
Re: Who has personally rebuilt a 4l80e

what tools do you need/recommend?

Waller told me he could get all the tools and parts to make a monster 80E for 2k. After that I shouldn't need to get anyone else to work on a trans. I've already ordered the ATSG manual and the DVD out of curiosity.

I have all the pdfs from George Blake's cd as well.

How can I host them in this thread?

I am sort of interested in doing it just for the hell of it so I know what is going on with it :)

Same as WyoSyclone :tup:
 
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