Rebuilding my 32RH transmission (fully successfully)

New update.

Adjusted the tc cable as far “out” as it will go. If anything, it’s worse. Kickdowns were hard to get after like 30mph. I also may need to readjust the kickdown band. ASGM manual said to back off the screw 2.5 turns, FSM says 2.25 turns. But I’ve been advised to readjust it anyway after a little bit of driving. Will do that tonight & drive some more.

Temp wise, it was only about 90 when I took it out this morning. Ran around 180 for a while, but then kicked up to around 200 once I got back in the neighborhood. Pulled into the driveway and put it into park and it instantly shot up to 214 and climbed to 218, and then held steady. Held steady in N as well, expected it to drop but I guess engine temp will affect it as it’s flowing through the radiator.

Turned it off, the to ON so I could see the gauge. It started dropping with the engine off, but in P there is just as much fluid flowing as with it off, so I guess the exhaust must be transferring heat in? Either way, I swear it’s running hotter than it used to.
 
New update.

Adjusted the tc cable as far “out” as it will go. If anything, it’s worse. Kickdowns were hard to get after like 30mph. I also may need to readjust the kickdown band. ASGM manual said to back off the screw 2.5 turns, FSM says 2.25 turns. But I’ve been advised to readjust it anyway after a little bit of driving. Will do that tonight & drive some more.

Temp wise, it was only about 90 when I took it out this morning. Ran around 180 for a while, but then kicked up to around 200 once I got back in the neighborhood. Pulled into the driveway and put it into park and it instantly shot up to 214 and climbed to 218, and then held steady. Held steady in N as well, expected it to drop but I guess engine temp will affect it as it’s flowing through the radiator.

Turned it off, the to ON so I could see the gauge. It started dropping with the engine off, but in P there is just as much fluid flowing as with it off, so I guess the exhaust must be transferring heat in? Either way, I swear it’s running hotter than it used to.

Too hot,something is too tight,the cable can’t be adjusted all the way out,not meant to do that
 
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Too hot,something is too tight,the cable can’t be adjusted all the way out,not meant to do that

He's right, all the way out is no good! You should NOT go more than 2 notches in either direction from nominal. And your band needs to be adjusted soon after you get it going. Mine settled in and slipped like mad after the rebuild. When I went back and checked, my band adjustment was way off. Also you should be at 2.25 turns out after torquing the stud down to spec.
 
He's right, all the way out is no good! You should NOT go more than 2 notches in either direction from nominal. And your band needs to be adjusted soon after you get it going. Mine settled in and slipped like mad after the rebuild. When I went back and checked, my band adjustment was way off. Also you should be at 2.25 turns out after torquing the stud down to spec.

I only just discovered the discrepancy in the band adjustment. Will adjust that today, then re-adjust the cable to where I feel it needs to be.

maybe the band being too loose is making it slip and generate more heat....
 
Ok, we may be on to something but I'm going to need help from the gallery regarding the assembly order of the throttle/kickdown valve. The FSM and the ATSG manual show two conflicting ways of sequencing the kickdown/throttle valves. Since I'm having trouble with the shift points & kick downs, this seems like it might be relevant to our interests. I know some versions of the FSM have the switch valve flipped (thanks @U8MYDZT), and I've already proven that the ATSG has at least one torque spec WRONG (not just wrong), so neither document are infallible.

Here is the sequencing according to the FSM. Note the sleeve goes on the kickdown valve, and the sleeve contacts the spring. The sleeve fits differently depending on which way it faces, which matters with this sequencing. I rewatched my assembly video, and this is how I did it.

1659065128507.png


However the ATSG manual has it with this sequencing, with the kickdown valve pointing the opposite direction and the sleeve (aka kickdown detent?) on the outside facing edge.

1659065470155.png



Seems like the FSM way will only allow a certain depth of valve travel, but I'm not sure how the sleeve plays into it. The ATSG way seems to allow for more valve travel, but I'm still not sure how the sleeve plays into it. Knowing that they call it a kickdown sleeve here makes me obviously think it controls kickdown somehow. And now I feel less sure about which way that sleeve goes on. Pretty sure it makes a big difference now.

I'm hoping somebody here *knows* the right sequence, or else I'm going to troll 904 valve body disassemblies on youtube until I catch a few frames of how these valves fall out.
 
Draining the fluid yet again. My calendar is wide open today, plan to pull the valve body & rearrange the valve in question. While it's all dripping down I'm going to compare the FSM & ATSG on the remaining valves, and then double check against my videos to make sure I've got them installed correctly.

My #1 fear here is that it's going to be a pain to get the park rod back into position while upside down & with fluid dripping into my eyes.
 
Draining the fluid yet again. My calendar is wide open today, plan to pull the valve body & rearrange the valve in question. While it's all dripping down I'm going to compare the FSM & ATSG on the remaining valves, and then double check against my videos to make sure I've got them installed correctly.

My #1 fear here is that it's going to be a pain to get the park rod back into position while upside down & with fluid dripping into my eyes.

I hear ya ,it’s a mess,At this point I would learn this and get this down so you can start doing it on the side for fellow jeepers,otherwise I would just soon pay the 1800.00 and be done with it.
 
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I hear ya ,it’s a mess,At this point I would learn this and get this down so you can start doing it on the side for fellow jeepers,otherwise I would just soon pay the 1800.00 and be done with it.

I will gladly take your $1800.

This shift point thing was starting to wear on me, but knowing that valve has minimal travel due to the bogus installation instructions has renewed my vigor. The only other actual problem I ran into was just a rookie install mistake of not lubing up a seal prior to install. I guess it remains to be seen, but I'm confident that we're going to be fully operational by the end of the day. So I was one lubed seal away from nailing it on the first try.



While I'm thinking about it, the ATSG manual also has a troubleshooting matrix, and lists potential causes for "transmission overheats" as:
  • stuck switch valve
  • engine idle speed too high
  • hydraulic pressure too low (this is related to the GM link provided above)
  • low fluid level
  • Incorrect gearshift control linkage adjustment
  • faulty pump
  • kickdown band adjustment too tight
  • faulty cooling system
  • Insufficient clutch plate clearance

seems like pressure being too low is a very likely culprit given what we now know. The others I don't believe are relevant for me today, but who knows. I don't think I have any reason to think the pump isn't working properly, but I did take it apart twice and that makes it a suspect area. Kickdown band was too loose if anything. Clutch clearance was within spec. No reason to doubt the cooling system, but it is old so therefore suspect. Idle speed remains where it was prior to rebuild. Fluid had been low, might still be a touch low but shifts seem fine other than being early.

This journey may be nearing it's end. I still have to finish the AW4 I still have on the bench.
 
I will gladly take your $1800.

This shift point thing was starting to wear on me, but knowing that valve has minimal travel due to the bogus installation instructions has renewed my vigor. The only other actual problem I ran into was just a rookie install mistake of not lubing up a seal prior to install. I guess it remains to be seen, but I'm confident that we're going to be fully operational by the end of the day. So I was one lubed seal away from nailing it on the first try.



While I'm thinking about it, the ATSG manual also has a troubleshooting matrix, and lists potential causes for "transmission overheats" as:
  • stuck switch valve
  • engine idle speed too high
  • hydraulic pressure too low (this is related to the GM link provided above)
  • low fluid level
  • Incorrect gearshift control linkage adjustment
  • faulty pump
  • kickdown band adjustment too tight
  • faulty cooling system
  • Insufficient clutch plate clearance

seems like pressure being too low is a very likely culprit given what we now know. The others I don't believe are relevant for me today, but who knows. I don't think I have any reason to think the pump isn't working properly, but I did take it apart twice and that makes it a suspect area. Kickdown band was too loose if anything. Clutch clearance was within spec. No reason to doubt the cooling system, but it is old so therefore suspect. Idle speed remains where it was prior to rebuild. Fluid had been low, might still be a touch low but shifts seem fine other than being early.

This journey may be nearing it's end. I still have to finish the AW4 I still have on the bench.
 
Draining the fluid yet again. My calendar is wide open today, plan to pull the valve body & rearrange the valve in question. While it's all dripping down I'm going to compare the FSM & ATSG on the remaining valves, and then double check against my videos to make sure I've got them installed correctly.

My #1 fear here is that it's going to be a pain to get the park rod back into position while upside down & with fluid dripping into my eyes.

Can it even go together the wrong way? I don't think the valve assembly will even fit in with the bushing by the spring.
 
Can it even go together the wrong way? I don't think the valve assembly will even fit in with the bushing by the spring.

Oh but it did. It looked pretty correct once fully assembled & inserted. I’ll be sure to take a pic before I take it apart. Interestingly, I take a LONG pause in my assembly video on this valve because I don’t feel like it’s in the right order before it goes into the bore. But I trusted ye olde FSM.
 
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Here’s how it exists currently. You can see that with no throttle there is a large gap between the throttle “applicator?” And the end of the valve sticking out. So I can give it a lot of gas before the valve sees any movement.

The larger flange on the valve is more or less flush with the edge of the bore… it *looks* like it could be right as I have it so this is a somewhat easy mistake to make I think.

BAA8FF60-48C3-4660-A231-4D598B79E4CF.jpeg
 
Man, it sucks that you've had to go back in a couple of times, but I gotta say, finding mistakes in the FSM that others could (and likely would) make is very good information that you are providing. I've been following and paying attention, and this is exactly the kind of thing I could run into. I have the Thomas Hand book as well as the FSM, but this is subtle enough that anyone could miss it, especially since it's wrong in the bible (FSM)!

Your and U8MYDZT's work at the very least have and will help me quite a bit, and I'm sure many others who will attack this.

Thanks to the both of you for the excellent documentation and following up on things that you find wrong. Often in these forums people start threads like this, something goes wrong and then they ghost the thread.

The most knowledge is gained by mistakes.

Nice work.