4l60e to 4l60e swap problems

[H8DSOUL]

I bought a 1998 4L60E Transmission for my 1998 c1500 that has a 4L60E transmission in it and they person that is putting it in says the bolt pattern and spacing is wrong. My rebuilder is Mark Hendricks from Hendricks Transmission in Huber Heights. Any ideas out there why I would be having problems?

 

[NickTransmissions]

I bought a 1998 4L60E Transmission for my 1998 c1500 that has a 4L60E transmission in it and they person that is putting it in says the bolt pattern and spacing is wrong. My rebuilder is Mark Hendricks from Hendricks Transmission in Huber Heights. Any ideas out there why I would be having problems?

You probably bought an F Body 4L60E as they had LS1s thus have a different input shaft, pump, bell housing due to the gen3 small block rear architecture design change and wider/taller TMBX torque converters that were intoduced at the same time.

Completely different than the bell, pump stator, input shaft and torque converter your C1500 has (you have a vortec 5.7 sbc engine).

Here's what the front of one of the newer units looks like.

You must be registered for see images attach

Im wondering why they wouldnt have explained that to you...

 

[H8DSOUL]

Yes sir you are correct how do I fix it to make it work I have $1800 in the rebuild I have to make this work

 

[H8DSOUL]

And the bell housing lines up and everything and i vin’d the truck it came out of and it was a 1998 c1500 just like mine

 

[NickTransmissions]

And the bell housing lines up and everything and i vin’d the truck it came out of and it was a 1998 c1500 just like mine

Something's not making any sense.

No way a transmission shop, assuming they know (and should have asked) what vehicle the transmission you gave them to rebuild, wouldn't immediately inform you that it has the wrong configuration for your vehicle so something is missing from your story or you're not explaining it correctly.

Why did you purchase a different 4L60E to have rebuilt instead of having the transmission shop rebuild the one that is already in your truck?

Did you either buy the replacement transmission while it was still in the truck then pulled it out or was it already out?

How did you 'VIN' the the other truck based on what information is available on the replacement transmission itself, if it was purchased after it was pulled?

The only 97-99 vehicles that received the later 300mm stator-design 4L60Es were the Corvettes and F-Bodies. The trucks/SUVs didn't start receiving G3 small blocks (4.8, 5.3, 6.0, etc) until late 2000 for the 2001 model year, IIRC.

 

[Road Trip]

And the bell housing lines up and everything and i vin’d the truck it came out of and it was a 1998 c1500 just like mine

Q: Is it possible that the donor truck had the right VIN...but the engine that matched that
VIN was pulled out and a LS motor/matching tranny swapped in? We're talking about 25 year old vehicles here --
you can have several different owners in that timeframe, one of which decided to 'upgrade' his truck's
powertrain?

 

[NickTransmissions]

Yes sir you are correct how do I fix it to make it work I have $1800 in the rebuild I have to make this work

You will have another few hundred into it or so when all's said and done correctly. You need to swap the existing bell housing, pump cover-stator assembly and input drum/shaft assembly with a bell housing for Gen1 SBCs, 298mm stator design, piloted input shaft for legacy SBCs and correct torque converter.

Your transmission shop should be able to do this for you no problem.

 

[H8DSOUL]

Something's not making any sense.

No way a transmission shop, assuming they know (and should have asked) what vehicle the transmission you gave them to rebuild, wouldn't immediately inform you that it has the wrong configuration for your vehicle so something is missing from your story or you're not explaining it correctly.

Why did you purchase a different 4L60E to have rebuilt instead of having the transmission shop rebuild the one that is already in your truck?

Did you either buy the replacement transmission while it was still in the truck then pulled it out or was it already out?

How did you 'VIN' the the other truck based on what information is available on the replacement transmission itself, if it was purchased after it was pulled?

The only 97-99 vehicles that received the later 300mm stator-design 4L60Es were the Corvettes and F-Bodies. The trucks/SUVs didn't start receiving G3 small blocks (4.8, 5.3, 6.0, etc) until late 2000 for the 2001 model year, IIRC.

When i bought it it was in the truck. I didn’t have the one in the truck rebuilt because i was waiting until the new one was in. My truck still had to be mobile at the time.and yes my transmission guy said they the same bell housing and everything for some reason the guy that is putting it in not my tranny guy is saying something about the bolt holes not lining up to the flex plate

 

[H8DSOUL]

Q: Is it possible that the donor truck had the right VIN...but the engine that matched that
VIN was pulled out and a LS motor/matching tranny swapped in? We're talking about 25 year old vehicles here --
you can have several different owners in that timeframe, one of which decided to 'upgrade' his truck's
powertrain?

It was a 305 the same as mine and had the 8cd sticker right on tranny body and i ran the vin thru gm vin decoder which gives you options the truck was equipped with

 

[NickTransmissions]

When i bought it it was in the truck. I didn’t have the one in the truck rebuilt because i was waiting until the new one was in. My truck still had to be mobile at the time.and yes my transmission guy said they the same bell housing and everything for some reason the guy that is putting it in not my tranny guy is saying something about the bolt holes not lining up to the flex plate

So you're saying that the transmission you gave the shop to rebuild has the correct pump, bell and input shaft?

Is Hendricks Transmission doing the reinstallation? If so, why the hell is the shop calling you instead of figuring this 'problem' out on their own or at least being clear as to exactly what the problem is and why it requires you to be involved at all unless something else is broken and you need to shell out more money to fix it (They then should spell out exactly what the problem is and how much more money it's going to cost to fix it)....If Hendricks Transmission is not doing the reinstallation, why has it been outsourced?

None of this makes any sense to me, period. First you seemingly confirmed they had the wrong 4L60E variant after viewing my post w/the picture above but now you're saying that they have the correct one. Instead, its a problem w/the bell and flex plate/TC bolts?

If the trans shop has the truck, let them fix the issue and let you know when it's done.

There's no reason for anyone here to get involved and potentially add further confusion to an already confusing, perplexing situation.