How to overhaul a 32RH valve body

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Transmission topics seem to be lacking, so I'll contribute. This will be more of a "how to take it apart & put it back together" guide. There's not much to fix in a valve body, if anything is broken in any way you're probably just replacing either the whole thing or the individual springs & valves if you can even source them. But if you have a sticking valve or are doing a shift kit, this will probably be relevant. Full disclosure, this is pretty much exactly what the FSM says. If you're like me, the FSM is intimidating. I like seeing the instructions written in somebody else's words to give me the confidence to tackle a project.

And I'll apologize up front for the camera work from my 10 yr old boy. I was just glad he wanted to be in the garage with me. He's shaky in places, but hopefully it's not so bad you can't power through it.


If you don't like to read, here is a video of the teardown process:


Difficulty: 2/5, only because it's going to drip fluid on you as you remove the unit, and reinstallation is done while on your back).

Time commitment: under 2 hours

Tools:
  • T-25 torx driver
  • T-25 socket
  • Inch-pound torque wrench
  • Brake cleaner or other solvent
  • air compressor (to blow out the solvent & debris)
  • ATF to pre-lube on re-assembly
  • Safety glasses (if you're going to be doing this while the transmission is in the car....you will get ATF in the face)
  • zip lock baggies to keep all the parts organized. This is not just for the OCD Type A personalities out there. You're going to have 8 different valves & springs that all look reasonably similar. The valves are pictured in the FSM but the springs need to match the valve and I don't know how to identify which spring is which if they're all just laying on a table.

The bags will help you turn this:

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into this, which you'll be grateful for when you go to reassemble everything.

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Phase I: Removing the valve body from the transmission








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  1. Drain the transmission
  2. Disconnect the shifter & throttle linkages from the selector shaft
  3. remove the pan
  4. unplug and remove the neutral safety switch
  5. unplug the torque converter lockup solenoid from the inside of the case
  6. Remove the nine 11mm bolts (FSM says 5/16", I did not find this to be the case, ymmv)
    1. torque on these is 105 in-lbs
  7. Pull the valve body away from the transmission housing
There is no real trick to this, but you need to be aware of two things. First is that the shift selector shaft needs to slide more or less straight out of the opening w/o damaging the seal. It doesn't require perfection, just be aware there is a seal there so your angle of attack is important. The second thing is that the park rod needs to clear the opening at the rear of the case. For me it pulled straight out every time. I've seen videos where they had to really tease it to get it to come out.

This video shows the valve body removal (watch between 0:56 and 2:05)



Phase II: Disassembling the sections


There are several sections of the valve body. It's best to tackle them one piece at a time, taking care to put the components into labeled bags. All the screws are T-25, but there are a few places where the screws are different lengths. If I don't specify anything about the screws, assume them to be one of the many short T-25 screws. There are two main sections: the transfer plate which is the wider, thinner sections which appears to be machined aluminum. The other section is the valve body itself which is made of cast iron. They are separated by a thin piece of steel called the separator plate.

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Right side of the paper towel is the filter, torque converter clutch module, its 2 valves, and the module connecting tube (pictured below, disassembled, on the lower right of the blue paper towel)

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  1. Remove the Torque converter clutch module. This involves removing 3 screws and lifting the module away from the valve body. There's a small pipe that just slides out of either end. Put those components & screws in a bag. These screws are of specific lengths so keep them with this assembly.
  2. Remove the screw holding the torque converter clutch solenoid and pull the solenoid out of the valve body. There is an o-ring holding it in but it shouldn't be overly tight. Make sure the o-ring comes out with the solenoid.
  3. Turn the whole valve body over and remove all the T-25 screws from the back of the transfer plate.
    1. torque spec on these screws (and all the other similar screws) is 35 in-lbs.
  4. Slightly separate the two pieces to see the filter in the transfer plate. You just need to have a handle on where this is.
  5. Carefully rotate the transfer plate counter clockwise, pivoting around the filter. Just rotate it enough for the transfer plate to clear the shift selector bracket.
  6. Once it's clear of the shift selector bracket, just lift & separate the two sections. BE CAREFUL NOT TO TURN OVER THE VALVE BODY DURING THIS STEP.

From here you'll want to start being careful. There are 7 check balls in various channels of the valve body, and they sit in there loose. If you turn the valve body over, they will fall out. Don't do that. Note the locations, although you can also easily find them in the FSM. If you happen to have an aftermarket shift kit, your check ball scene may vary from the factory configuration. Note that one is noticeably bigger than the others and goes in a bigger "bathtub" than the rest.

image1.jpeg


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7. Remove the check balls and bag them up.
8. Remove the remaining 2 screws from the separator plate, exposing the fully glory of the transfer plate. Note there are 2 more check balls here. Note the locations, and put them in the bag with the rest of the check balls.

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Phase III: removing/reinstalling the valves


This is most easily explained visually, as disassembly is literally the exact reverse of assembly. Remember to shoot some ATF into the valve bores and lightly coat the valves themselves with ATF before installing. The valves should go in pretty smoothly. If you have to fight them, stop, and back up. Usually it just takes a little bit of wiggling and they drop right in. For cleanup, once I had it entirely disassembled I sprayed the fire out of it with brake cleaner & hit it with the blower attachment on my air compressor. I did this on ALL the parts. I've seen transmission shops. They're not exactly building hard drives in clean rooms....the goal here is to be as clean as possible. But I don't think perfection is required.

As I broke down each of these sub-assemblies, I put those parts in a ziplock bag. I can't stress this enough. I had everything laid out on my work table but I quickly realized that it didn't take much to make the springs roll & get mixed up with the other sections.

  • Torque Converter Clutch Module


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  • Governor Plug End Plate


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  • Kickdown Limit Valve & Shift Valves

(apologies for the background noise)

image4.jpeg



  • Throttle Pressure Plug


(this is pictured above, on the right)

  • Throttle Pressure Adjuster Bracket & related valves

(please watch this one on the youtube site, not as an embedded video here)

Forgive me, as I have pulled a fast one here. I show the valve install with the selector shaft assembly removed. I don't have the removal on video, but it consists of removing one E clip and sliding the shaft out. Oh, and making sure the detent ball doesn't shoot across the room. Install is a bit of a bear, and all I have is a lousy video clip showing what I did ex post facto. They make a tool to simplify the install but it's an expensive single-use tool. I was able to get'r done with a flathead screwdriver and the 0.025" strip from my feeler gauge.

NOTE: FIg. 68 below contains a corrected re-arrangement of the kickdown valve & sleeve; the FSM is incorrect and will result in super early shifts and no kickdown. If you watch the embedded video above you may not see the CC edits I added to correct my own re-assebly procedure. Please watch in Youtube proper to see the full details & corrections.

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Hopefully this gives you the confidence to tackle your own valve body maintenance or shift kit or whatever it is you want to do. I still have no real clue how these things work, but fortunately we don't need to know that. We just need to know how to take it apart and get it back together. I hate seeing people spend good money on things they can easily do themselves, and automatic transmission work is one of those things that people assume is beyond their comprehension. I don't think that is the case for the 32RH (or any older transmission, actually) and as these units become more rare it becomes more important that we're able to service them ourselves.

image2.jpeg



NOTE: the FSM (at least for the 97) is wrong with respect to how the kickdown valve/spring/sleeve goes together. My photo shows it as per the FSM, and I'm leaving this photo here because it also shows the correct orientation of the pressure regulator valve. The kickdown valve should be constructed as per this modified diagram.

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Very nice write up. This kind of thing adds a lot of value to this site(y)

Oh yeah, and this is my favorite part:

" I still have no real clue how these things work..."

I love that you were willing to dive into and complete something like this despite the mystery it still holds. Again, good job.
 
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OK my man, this entire writeup is perfect! You have given me the confidence to give this a go. I was pretty sure it was just a bad solenoid in my 30R Trans in my 97 TJ 4 banger, but you gotta drop the Valve Body to get to it so I figured I may as well rebuild that while I was into it that deep.

Unfortunately I've run into a problem early on. I cannot get that dang park rod to come free! I've worked it and coaxed it and cursed it and pried it and everything I can think of, but it will not come free! Seems to be no way to get it apart on the other end of it either. There's some kind of what looks like a blade up in the hole that wiggles, but it's sitting right on top of that rod and will not let it come free.

Any suggestions? Please!

(Can't figure out how to post pictures here.. )
 
OK my man, this entire writeup is perfect! You have given me the confidence to give this a go. I was pretty sure it was just a bad solenoid in my 30R Trans in my 97 TJ 4 banger, but you gotta drop the Valve Body to get to it so I figured I may as well rebuild that while I was into it that deep.

Unfortunately I've run into a problem early on. I cannot get that dang park rod to come free! I've worked it and coaxed it and cursed it and pried it and everything I can think of, but it will not come free! Seems to be no way to get it apart on the other end of it either. There's some kind of what looks like a blade up in the hole that wiggles, but it's sitting right on top of that rod and will not let it come free.

Any suggestions? Please!

(Can't figure out how to post pictures here..
 
Yeah, that blade thing is spring loaded and it Springs shut to hold the head of the park rod against the park gear. You have to hold that piece back while finessing the rod out. I had to drop the valve body after I had the trans in, and I’ll admit this step was a bear. At one point I just resolved to do what I needed to do while it was suspended by the park rod….and then suddenly it slid out.

OR you can just shift it out of park before you remove the VB. 🤯

Also, there’s only 1 solenoid on the 30rh afaik, which is for the torque converter lockup. Just making sure you’re doing this for the right reason.
 
You're telling me all I had to do was put it in neutral before I started??? Oh Lord...

Thanks for the tip. At least now I know it *will* move if I just pry it from the right angle. I was afraid someone was going to ask "did you put it in neutral before you started? "
 
That rod is always behind that spring loaded thing. I think the hard part is when it’s engaged with the park gear. But the time I did it I was in park so it’s definitely possible.

This is the thing you’re wrestling with. If it’s in park, the big head is between the teeth of the park gear. So it has to slide out to clear the gear, then not get hung up on the spring loaded deli slicer.


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OK! Well it's good news that it in fact WILL come out of there! The "slicer" wiggles and moves around a bit when I'm pulling on the rod, so it seems loose, I just wasn't even sure that it would move so I didn't wanna pry too hard. Plus there isn't a lot of room to get in there.
 
You should definitely not have to pry. I can't remember if I got my hand up in there or if I used a socket extension or what, but if you push the slicer open the rod will eventually come out. I had the luxury of being able to see all these pieces working together when I had the trans off, so I have a decent visual in my head of how it all works. You might find that rocking the jeep could help if there is any binding going on.

I highly doubt it is necessary, but there are more "aggressive" steps you can take here, short of dropping the whole trans to get at some of these components. If you remove the t-case, you can also then remove the extension housing which will give you access to the governor & park gear. Obviously that's way more big steps, but it would be much easier to get the rod out when working from behind. But you'll need a new extension housing gasket, but like I said, this is a much more drastic set of steps that I would only do as a last resort.

You may also find that it's easier to re-install by rotating the shift lever all the way to "1", so you don't have to hassle with getting the head on that rod "meshed" with the park gear.
 
Thanks for bringing this thread to the top, I realized that I had never updated it after the FSM kickdown valve debacle. AND I learned that if you watch embedded videos, things like close captioning don't show up. I was pretty sure I had updated my video with some text to correct the kickdown valve sequencing but when I played it directly on this page it wasn't there. Then I clicked through to the Youtube link and sure enough there are my corrections.
 
Thank you! Moving to your last comment, how would I then know where to reposition the bracket into the shifter shaft once reassembled? Or do I just snug it up and then adjust as needed so it all aligns and functions properly?

I was thinking about that when I took that bottom bracket off actually. The top (smaller) one has a notch and will only go on one way, but the bottom one can be tightened up anywhere.

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You should definitely not have to pry. I can't remember if I got my hand up in there or if I used a socket extension or what, but if you push the slicer open the rod will eventually come out. I had the luxury of being able to see all these pieces working together when I had the trans off, so I have a decent visual in my head of how it all works. You might find that rocking the jeep could help if there is any binding going on.

I highly doubt it is necessary, but there are more "aggressive" steps you can take here, short of dropping the whole trans to get at some of these components. If you remove the t-case, you can also then remove the extension housing which will give you access to the governor & park gear. Obviously that's way more big steps, but it would be much easier to get the rod out when working from behind. But you'll need a new extension housing gasket, but like I said, this is a much more drastic set of steps that I would only do as a last resort.

You may also find that it's easier to re-install by rotating the shift lever all the way to "1", so you don't have to hassle with getting the head on that rod "meshed" with the park gear.

One more thing, to make sure I'm on the right track. When you say "push" do you mean that slicer should move toward the rear of the vehicle, or side to side? Cause I was trying to pry it to the left (passenger side).

Screenshot_20220919_110535_Photos.jpg
 
my terminology was confusing. I think. The straight bar on the left I believe is stationary. The more circular thing on the right should slide left or right (I can't remember, maybe it slide kinda down?). Then you have to get the head of the rod around all that stuff.

All while it's raining ATF on your face. And just wait till you actually get it free.