All in - pulling the 4.6 engine and trans to fix oil leaks once and for all

[stunt]

Hi racing,

The piece with the visible crack is the tension strut bushing. It still feels very firm moving up and down relative to the sub-frame. These appear to be pretty easy to change later if needed, so I'll probably leave them alone for now.

That said, I agree with you that I should just go ahead and replace the engine mounts now they they are so easy to get to, so that's what I'll do.

[Ricky Bobby]

If you have a visible crack in the tension strut bushing and play in the arm when pulling on it, I'd replace it while the car is apart and in the air, a pair of poly bushings shouldn't be much if you wanted to go that route, and I'd do the ball joints on the other side of the arm at the same time as well.

[stunt]

Originally Posted by jsoto

Stunt. East coast. Call here

Erikson : (203) 386-8931

Thanks! The correct number for Eriksson Industries is 800-388-4418. The guy answering the phone at the first number said they get calls all the time for Eriksson, lol, but he pointed me in the right direction.

Anyway, I spoke to Scott and they have done plenty of the L51 converters. Price was a very good $250. They didn't have any cores at the moment, so I'm sending him mine. Turn around is 2-3 days.

Here's their web site:

ZF Parts Eriksson Industries

[stunt]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

If you have a visible crack in the tension strut bushing and play in the arm when pulling on it, I'd replace it while the car is apart and in the air, a pair of poly bushings shouldn't be much if you wanted to go that route, and I'd do the ball joints on the other side of the arm at the same time as well.

Ok, I'll do those too then while I'm at it. Hell, might as well do the ball joints as well now that I got the converter situation resolved, and at a very reasonable cost.

Picking up a 20 ton Excalibur shop press I found on craiglist this evening after work. That will come in handy for those bushings and the transmission clutches (and a lot of other stuff that I have been doing with a vise or hammer up until now on previous projects/repairs )

[stunt]

Originally Posted by RRPhil

Regarding special tools, the 5HP24 is particularly easy to strip & rebuild – the whole thing practically comes apart just using T27 & T40 Torx drivers - but you will need to fabricate something to compress the clutch return springs. Three tools will suffice for all six clutches.

Phil, would you mind sharing the I.D. and O.D. of each of the 3 spring compressors shown as well as the height of the welded on "U"?

Thanks!

[stunt]

I wonder if something like this would work?



Here' s a link to their web page. Not in the US unfortunately.

CLUTCH SPRING COMPRESSOR Engine Series Car Special Repair tool, automotive engine repair Tool, auto tool, transmission tool, body panel, under car tool, body tool, radiator tool, pneumatic tool, air tool, impact tool

[jsoto]

Phil -

Sorry for the threadjack. In regards to your other message re: full rebuild kits versus specific parts. What is normal standard operating practice from a trans builder point of view. Teardown and only replace failed parts, and maybe a upgraded part like the upgrade A Clutch Drum.

I just had my wiring harness replaced (temp sensor fault) on my trans which was rebuilt about 6 month ago.

[RRPhil]

Originally Posted by stunt

Phil, would you mind sharing the I.D. and O.D. of each of the 3 spring compressors shown as well as the height of the welded on "U"?

The D brake piston, in particular, is quite narrow so I would imagine you’d need the ‘custom made’ spring compressor tool at least for that one.



The three sizes I use are :

Large (D brake) = 164mm o/d, 155mm i/d
Medium (B clutch & E brake) = 110mm o/d, 97mm i/d
Small (A & C clutches and F brake) = 89mm o/d, 80mm i/d

These are the diameters where the tool actually contacts the spring but you may wish to add a step in the ‘hoop’ to bring it up to a large enough diameter to weld the ‘handles’ to.



Each tool is around 125mm tall (total height top to bottom) to suit my mandrel press.

Phil

[stunt]

Thanks for the size details Phil! Didn't think about the narrowness needed. I'll probably see about fabbing up something like what you have.

Deal on the 20 ton press fell through. Some guy picked it up this morning. Wish the seller would have at least called me instead of making me drive an hour to his place... Oh well, back to looking for one of those again now.

[RRPhil]

Originally Posted by jsoto

Phil -

Sorry for the threadjack. In regards to your other message re: full rebuild kits versus specific parts. What is normal standard operating practice from a trans builder point of view. Teardown and only replace failed parts, and maybe a upgraded part like the upgrade A Clutch Drum.

The gasket and seal kit (ZF 1058 298 022) is clearly essential but, other than that and a re-manufactured torque converter & sump filter, I don’t generally replace anything else unless it’s obviously required.





The only exception to this is the axial needle roller bearing (ZF 1058 202 016) between the B clutch hub and C clutch drum - the Achilles Heel of the 5HP24 - which I invariably replace regardless of condition/mileage.



The control system is so protective of the clutch packs (i.e. drops into TRANS FAILSAFE PROG at the merest sniff of unscripted clutch slip) that it’s extremely unlikely that the clutch plates will have worn at all, unless someone has driven the vehicle around in failsafe mode. For example I generally measure the friction plate thickness of brand new plates at 1.60mm and after 120,000 miles the plates generally measure 1.60mm.

The A clutch drum issue is only relevant to transmissions built before November 2000 (serial number 355863) when the stiffened drum with the radial swages and the main pressure valve land width increase (from 9mm to 10mm) were introduced.





Phil