'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[Erik the Awful]

Surprise, surprise, surprise! The rear shocks look old, but I nearly lost my thumb taking it loose. The bracket that holds the parking brake cable was six different types of mangled, but I hammered it straight and welded the thin sheetmetal back together. A quick shot of paint, alignment of the clamps, and the rear sway bar is good. I did discover I mounted the left frame mount about 1/2" further back than the right. Maybe some day I'll redrill the holes...

Still waiting for FedEx to show up with my idler pulley. I'm really wanting to reset the self-learn on the Sniper and test drive it.

 

[Dubs]

Surprise, surprise, surprise! The rear shocks look old, but I nearly lost my thumb taking it loose. The bracket that holds the parking brake cable was six different types of mangled, but I hammered it straight and welded the thin sheetmetal back together. A quick shot of paint, alignment of the clamps, and the rear sway bar is good. I did discover I mounted the left frame mount about 1/2" further back than the right. Maybe some day I'll redrill the holes...

Still waiting for FedEx to show up with my idler pulley. I'm really wanting to reset the self-learn on the Sniper and test drive it.

Shocks will get yea. Glad to hear it's coming together. I have to get time to get mine together.

 

[Erik the Awful]

If you haven't been following, last weekend I replaced the stock TBI water pump with a Vortec water pump with the external coolant bypass. I forgot that at least one of the water pump bolt holes goes right into a water jacket, so a couple days ago I pulled, applied sealer, and reistalled the bolts. Then my water pump started leaking. Ugh. Today I pulled it off, cleaned the mating surfaces, made new gaskets from some cardboard, and reinstalled. About that time FedEx arrived with my new idler pulley, side marker light, and A/C condenser.

I do know the old idler pulley that had been fine had bitten the dust. It was chunky when I tried turning it. I put the new idler pulley on, fired the truck up and it was quiet... for about thirty seconds, and then it started squeaking. I shot a bit of silicone on the A/C clutch and it quieted for five seconds. I dribbled a bit on the very front of the alternator pulley and it quieted down for about thirty seconds. The pulley's aligned good, so I'm not sure what's squeaking. I may have to dig around and see if I have another alternator.

I pulled the grille and installed the new marker light with one sheet nut. I've lost the other! What a stupid thing to be missing. I removed the hood latch support, scrubbed the dirt off, and shot a coat of black paint on it. The condenser went on with no issues and I reinstalled the latch support.
View media item 32335The nose of the truck is back together until I get the compressor replaced and reinstall the A/C lines. I left the caps on the condenser for now.

The driver's door doesn't close fully right now because it's sagging. I tried to jack it up, but discovered my little floor jack doesn't reach that high, and my big jack is in the garage. Tomorrow's plan is to straighten the door and remove/reinstall the door spring pin, mow the yard, and install some ceiling fans in my wife's shop. At some point I want to reset the Sniper's self-learn and drive the truck a bit. We'll see.

So far I'm loving the storage bin and the inset top that seems specifically designed to hold screws while I'm working on the front end.

 

[Erik the Awful]

To: SonnaxTechSupport
Subject: 4L60 Best Bang for the Buck?

I have been working on reviving an '89 Chevy Stepside. It now runs, but after a few minutes of driving it starts whining and has trouble pulling. I dropped the pan, changed the filter, and everything looked good except the amount of grey goo on the magnet. I think my 4L60 is on its last legs. I am considering rebuilding it myself - I rebuilt a TH700R4 twenty years ago in school and it ran fine on the transmission dyno.

My truck's purpose is to be a fun, light-duty tow pig. It has a 350 that should put out a little over 400 lb/ft of torque and runs on 275 width tires with a Suburban rear sway bar. It will occasionally get tasked to tow a 3500 lb race car on a 1500 lb trailer. I might even autocross it.

If I do rebuild my transmission, I will be budgeting $500 for transmission parts. What would be the best build sheet of Sonnax parts for that budget? I did see the 4L60E build sheet on your website, but couldn't find one for a 4L60.

Erik



Erik,
I would recommend:

SmartShell Heavy Duty Reaction Shell Kit 77749-02K
4th Gear Super Hold Servo 77767K
Line Pressure Booster Kit 700R4-LB1

Pair these parts with a good rebuild kit including GM High Energy Frictions.

Regards,

Jason Larochelle
Product Support Representative
Sonnax Transmission Company, Inc.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I fired Way Cool Jr up this morning and it was popping bad. I drove it around the block once and the squealing noise was terrible, but when I got back to the house to re-torque the wheels the popping had faded. After checking the wheels I drove it around the square mile. By the time I got back the squealing was gone and the Sniper was running near flawlessly. It stumbles a bit returning to idle, but that's going away.

The transmission is my concern. Having re-welded the TV cable bracket to give myself some room for adjustment, it runs better. It's not hammering into second gear and then immediately shifting to third. In the neighborhood it runs smooth, so smooth I completely forgot about how badly it had been running. On the open road it runs wellish. Cruising at 45-50 mph it runs fine on level ground. With a slight hill or trying to ease the speed up a bit it kicks down, which tells me the TV cable is probably one click too tight. A couple times I mashed the pedal a bit and it kicked down and revved up without pulling. I'm not sure if that will resolve itself with a TV adjustment, or if the clutches are slipping. It doesn't pull as hard as my Mustang, but if I can get the transmission to hold it might!

The truck is really too loud for my tastes. I don't think it's loud enough for the police to care - especially hearing some of the diesels my neighbors drive. I'm hoping putting the exhaust over the axles and finishing with some turn-downs helps.

The truck is inhabiting the driveway now, and I pulled my daughter's Beetle TDI into the shop for a turbo cartridge replacement. Amazon says my rattle-can bedliner should arrive on Wednesday. Why rattlecan instead of the 'professional' two-part stuff? Cheap and easy to repair. I really wanted to get Plasticote bedliner, but it currently appears to be off the market. I'll post how well it holds up.

Plans for this week:
1) Adjust the TV cable one click and test drive it
2) Jack up the driver's door to see if I can tweak it back into alignment
3) Install the center console
4) Spray on the bedliner

My goal is to be able to drive it to and from work next weekend.
View media item 32337View media item 32336

 

[Erik the Awful]

View media item 32338

 

[Dubs]

Coming together nicely. I'm jealous. Keep up the good work.

 

[91Vieja]

Sorry if I missed if you mentioned, but how did you wire the converter lockup with the sniper? Is the original computer still controlling it?

 

[Erik the Awful]

The old ECU is still there. I don't know if it's locking it up or not, which leads me to today's update!

I jacked up the driver's door with my big jack and a 2x4 between the jack and the lower edge of the door. Straightened it right out and the door opens and closes as it should. I still need to reseat the roller pin, lube the locks, strip the flaking tint, and install sound deadener, but right now I just want it driveable.

I knew the TV cable was a little tight, so I went out to adjust it one click and it slipped all the clicks. I set it back to where I think it should be, test drove and it slammed into second. I adjusted it one click and it revved a bit high and shifted into second. I adjusted it a third time and it shifts nicely in the neighborhood, but it's still slipping with more throttle on the open road. The warmer the transmission got, the more it slipped. When I finally got the transmission adjusted, the transmission would only grab just off idle. I limped it home. I'd love to go pick up a 700R4 at Pull-A-Part this weekend (like my new avatar?), but I just started a dirty dozen - two weeks of work with an Air Force Reserve weekend in between. Because we had April and May off for Covid-19, it's a dirty dozen, a weekend, and another dirty dozen to make up for lost time.

I think I'm going to take Friday off to go get a transmission and hopefully break my long week up a bit.

As far as controlling the lockup in the future, if the ECU keeps controlling it, I'll keep it in place for now. Eventually I'd like to buy a 4th gear pressure switch and wire it to work automatically.

Edit: Back in the day if your transmission was slipping you could put a quart of Type F in with the Dextron and get it to tighten up and last another year. Anybody ever tried that on a 700? I have a quart of Type F in my fluid locker.

 

[Dubs]

I used to run straight type f in mine. Never had any issues. Itll shift like a champ. The dextron is just a lube to allow the discs to slip a bit for a smoother shift.