32RH With Manual Valve Body Question

[richardh]

I'm building my TJ and planning to run a reverse manual valve body in the 32RH. I’ll be using a Winters shifter with a GenRight console, so that part is sorted.

The transmission has about 110k miles and worked fine before Jeep teardown.

My main question is: should I rebuild it now, or run it as-is and rebuild later?

I understand a reverse manual valve body runs full line pressure, so shifts will be harsher. How much additional strain does that actually put on the transmission?

For those running this setup:

• Did you rebuild when installing the valve body, or wait?
• If you rebuilt, did you stick with OEM-spec parts or go with a performance build (like Oregon Transmission)?
• If you didn’t rebuild, how long did the transmission hold up?

The Jeep will be driven to and from trails and used for rock crawling in SoCal. If I can get a few thousand miles out of it before rebuilding, I’d rather put that money elsewhere in the build for now. I'm not worried about pulling the transmission later and rebuilding, it doesn't take long to get one of these tranny's out of the Jeep.

Appreciate any real-world experience.

 

[macleanflood]

@hear will fill you in on how easy it is to stack new clutches and steels.

-Mac

 

[hear]

I don't know of anyone running that setup here, but I bet on a-bodies only you'll find guys who have done this in their 904 (same transmission, for all intents and purposes). You're probably aware that there is no need to drop the transmission to put in a new valve body. I like to live on the edge a little, so I would probalby just replace the VB and send it, and see what if anything breaks. The one that always seems like the weak link is the servo/strut/kickdown band that puts you into 2nd gear. It's basically the front drum spinning at engine RPM to 0 in less than a 2nd. If anything is going to stress the mechanicals, it's that shift. But also a manual VB means it's actually using M1 & M2 which involves the overrun clutch, which is probably the other weak link. That's a pretty cheap part though. That's just my first intuition.

As far as rebuilds go, I use the transtech stuff off ebay, but I've also used OPT. OPT is more expensive, takes longer to ship, and has zero in the way of communication (in my experience). But I'm also not attempting to do performance builds, so my experience and your asks don't really line up.

The rebuild itself is honestly a piece of cake, the effort is in dropping & re-installing. Provided no hard parts are busted....I'm assuming the risk of that is greater here but that's just speculation on my part. The even worse news for you is that I'm probably your best source of info here. I didn't ask for the title, but I'm pretty sure nobody is clamoring to take it from me. The bar is low to say the least. LOL.

I manual shift a ton on the trail, but I street drive mine way too much to even consider this. Keep us informed though.

 

[ColoJeep]

I don't know of anyone running that setup here, but I bet on a-bodies only you'll find guys who have done this in their 904 (same transmission, for all intents and purposes). You're probably aware that there is no need to drop the transmission to put in a new valve body. I like to live on the edge a little, so I would probalby just replace the VB and send it, and see what if anything breaks. The one that always seems like the weak link is the servo/strut/kickdown band that puts you into 2nd gear. It's basically the front drum spinning at engine RPM to 0 in less than a 2nd. If anything is going to stress the mechanicals, it's that shift. But also a manual VB means it's actually using M1 & M2 which involves the overrun clutch, which is probably the other weak link. That's a pretty cheap part though. That's just my first intuition.

As far as rebuilds go, I use the transtech stuff off ebay, but I've also used OPT. OPT is more expensive, takes longer to ship, and has zero in the way of communication (in my experience). But I'm also not attempting to do performance builds, so my experience and your asks don't really line up.

The rebuild itself is honestly a piece of cake, the effort is in dropping & re-installing. Provided no hard parts are busted....I'm assuming the risk of that is greater here but that's just speculation on my part. The even worse news for you is that I'm probably your best source of info here. I didn't ask for the title, but I'm pretty sure nobody is clamoring to take it from me. The bar is low to say the least. LOL.

I manual shift a ton on the trail, but I street drive mine way too much to even consider this. Keep us informed though.

My only experience with a manual VB was a THM-350 behind a 400 SBC. Violent is the only word to describe the shift .It was in a 58 Chevy pickup and when you moved the shifter from 1st to 2nd at any speed or throttle position it barked the tires and you would swear somebody ran into the truck !
I don't know much about automatics or how it was setup .

 

[mrblaine]

I'm building my TJ and planning to run a reverse manual valve body in the 32RH. I’ll be using a Winters shifter with a GenRight console, so that part is sorted.

The transmission has about 110k miles and worked fine before Jeep teardown.

My main question is: should I rebuild it now, or run it as-is and rebuild later?

I understand a reverse manual valve body runs full line pressure, so shifts will be harsher. How much additional strain does that actually put on the transmission?

For those running this setup:

• Did you rebuild when installing the valve body, or wait?
• If you rebuilt, did you stick with OEM-spec parts or go with a performance build (like Oregon Transmission)?
• If you didn’t rebuild, how long did the transmission hold up?

The Jeep will be driven to and from trails and used for rock crawling in SoCal. If I can get a few thousand miles out of it before rebuilding, I’d rather put that money elsewhere in the build for now. I'm not worried about pulling the transmission later and rebuilding, it doesn't take long to get one of these tranny's out of the Jeep.

Appreciate any real-world experience.

Have you ever driven a RMVB vehicle in stop and go on the freeway?

 

[mrblaine]

I manual shift a ton on the trail, but I street drive mine way too much to even consider this. Keep us informed though.

I've driven a few of the Savvy race cars that are set up with manual valve bodies. They are beyond annoying on the street. Remembering to drop it back down to 1st at a stop is not even the slightest bit intuitive and I've never driven one where I didn't try to take off from a stop in Drive at least once.

 

[hear]

I've driven a few of the Savvy race cars that are set up with manual valve bodies. They are beyond annoying on the street. Remembering to drop it back down to 1st at a stop is not even the slightest bit intuitive and I've never driven one where I didn't try to take off from a stop in Drive at least once.

Before I got my TV cable dialed in I was doing this a bunch on the street. Its fun to wind up 1st gear but ultimately yeah, no thanks. I pretty much never get into 3rd on the trails anyway, so manual shifting between 1 & 2 works plenty good for me. And it remembers to shift into 1 for me.

 

[richardh]

Thanks for all the perspectives. Mostly the jeep will be a trailer queen so, the freeway's will be minimal. I have driven manual valve body in my Dad's hot rods, violent is a good word to describe that 1st to 2nd hit.

As a far as pulling the tranny, I've done a couple now, so it doesn't take long when you've done it once or twice. The tranny is out of the jeep, because it's totally stripped down right now.

If it doesn't work the way I want, It's pretty easy to replace the valve body, and update the winter-car shifter to a standard pattern.

and @here I've watched your videos, along with the FSM and an ASG tech manual, I'll muddle my way through it. Thanks for posting those.

 

[Moglocker]

Thanks for all the perspectives. Mostly the jeep will be a trailer queen so, the freeway's will be minimal. I have driven manual valve body in my Dad's hot rods, violent is a good word to describe that 1st to 2nd hit.

As a far as pulling the tranny, I've done a couple now, so it doesn't take long when you've done it once or twice. The tranny is out of the jeep, because it's totally stripped down right now.

If it doesn't work the way I want, It's pretty easy to replace the valve body, and update the winter-car shifter to a standard pattern.

and @here I've watched your videos, along with the FSM and an ASG tech manual, I'll muddle my way through it. Thanks for posting those.

When I had my 69 roadrunner 727 rebuilt,the guy that did it owns a shop and talked me into a reverse valve body,he said with the line pressure and lack of slippage,the thing would last a lot longer,he wasn’t wrong.

 

[John Cooper]

When I had my 69 roadrunner 727 rebuilt,the guy that did it owns a shop and talked me into a reverse valve body,he said with the line pressure and lack of slippage,the thing would last a lot longer,he wasn’t wrong.

Wait.... wait, you said had????

 

[richardh]

Hey, I've gotten a complete tear down done, and I have a couple of questions that maybe you can help me with.

• Do you recommend hot tanking the case and hard parts, like clutch drums?
• The output shaft is showing signs of bluing, a file test shows some annealing.
• I want to source one.
  • My preference would be a billet, but I can't find that, and they are $$$$
  • Next is a cryo-treated double or triple tempered shaft
  • A stock NOS shaft
  • A refurbished shaft.

Have you had any luck sourcing an output shaft?

@here vis???

 

[hear]

ebay motors is where I normally go for parts first. After that it's a mad dash to find anyplace that carries parts. A&A Transmission in Indiana is one of my first phone calls. Oregon Performance Transmission has some stuff, but good luck actually talking to someone there (or getting an email returned). Beyond that there are Mopar performance shops that specialize in 904 & 727 builds, but I'm not ever building for performance, so I'm generally not sourcing billet parts or anything.

As far as cleanup, I'm not trained in this...just a dude in his garage who figures things out as he goes. Mostly brake clean & compressed air. As long as it's not caustic to aluminum, anything you do to the case should be fine. The other driveline parts are steel, so you can probably get pretty intense with that cleanup. While it's important to work fairly clean, we're not assembling hard drives here; we don't need to be in a clean room. And the parts don't need a super rigorous cleaning procedure before you install.