'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[Donald Mitchell]

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

I like watching the vids this guy does.

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[Erik the Awful]

Yeah, I watched that video the other day. He makes quick work of it. Unfortunately, playing the video in reverse doesn't help me with a rebuild.

I think I'll drain a couple quarts out of the transmission and put some Type F in it for now. I'm planning on taking Friday off and going in search of a rebuildable 700.

 

[Erik the Awful]

As I sat down I was going to rant a bit about UPS saying they had my bed liner "Out for delivery" yesterday and it still not showing up today, but as I put hands to keys, the UPS truck pulled up. I won't fault them for taking a day longer, but I will fault them for showing it "Out for delivery" when apparently it didn't even arrive to their distribution point until today. #firstworldproblems
View media item 32341The paint's flaking pretty bad on my truck, and it's down to bare metal in a lot of places in the bed, so I wire-wheeled away the white paint on the tailgate and shot it with self-etching primer yesterday. As soon as the UPS truck showed up this evening I shot the bedliner on it. Sorry, the light was fading and I didn't get pics yet.
View media item 32339This morning I got out and wire-wheeled the driver's side.
View media item 32340Tomorrow, if I still feel froggy after transmission hunting, I'm going to wire-wheel the passenger side and header panel. The bed itself is going to need a fair bit of cleaning, so no telling when I'm going to get it done.

Now that WCJr is out of the shop, I pulled my daughter's Beetle TDI in, and boy do I have a rant for that piece of VW! The Beetle needs a new turbo cartridge. I put it on jackstands, went to remove the wheels, and it has a VW-specific wheel lock. I can't find it in the car, so I end up ordering a $40 set of VW wheel locks just so I can get the "ABC5-16" socket. They should be here next week. Then, dorking around inside the car, I found the socket. I took the wheel off. The axle nut is 30mm 12-point. Not unheard of, but very odd. I have a 28mm 12-point socket, but no 30mm. One trip to O'Reillys and $9 later I got the axle nut off. I look towards the axle flange on the transmission, and it looks like Torx bolts, but my bit doesn't fit. I look closer and they're "Triple Square XZN" bolts. A little research tells me they're only used on German cars, mostly VW and Audi. I can get a set of bits for $25-40, but none of the local stores have them in stock. Amazon can get me a set next week for $15. Ugh. With the blown inner axle boot this $250 repair is quickly growing towards a $500 repair.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

I won't fault them for taking a day longer, but I will fault them for showing it "Out for delivery" when apparently it didn't even arrive to their distribution point until today. #firstworldproblems

Yeah I see that more often now, than before - chalk it up to the "Virus". Amazon is getting bad about that too whether UPS or USPS.

I look closer and they're "Triple Square XZN" bolts.

Have you tried a 12pt socket? Sometimes they work.

 

[Erik the Awful]

It's an internal 12 point bolt head, not external. The wheel lock I needed looks nearly identical, except it's 16 point.
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[Erik the Awful]

I went to Pull-A-Part this morning, hoping to score a $100 transmission. No luck. LKQ was the jackpot, but at $180 with no warranty. I was hoping to find a 700R4 instead of a 4L60, and I think I got lucky in finding an '89 model truck. I initially found a 4L60 that was almost ready to fall out of a truck, but it was missing the pan and tail housing. The 700 I found was completely intact. I had to remove EVERYTHING. It's 85* with high humidity, but fortunately I was laying in the shade of the truck. Still, I was hot and tired and forgot to remove the TV cable and dipstick tube before I yanked the crossmember back. A little tired and frustrated, but I shrugged and yanked it out from under the truck. It had an aftermarket torque convertor, so I'm pretty sure someone's been in it before. I think there's about a 70% chance the transmission is why the truck is in the yard. Good thing my intentions are to rebuild it!

My tips:
1) Take an old, ripped comforter and a thick plastic tarp with you.
2) Take all the bolts loose from the bellhousing before you remove the transmission crossmember. You can access them all with a wrench without the firewall interfering.
3) Unless you remember to take a 1/2" line wrench with you (guess who didn't), you're going to have to cut the cooler lines.
4) Yes, it will fit in the trunk of your Mustang, but you'll spill transmission fluid. If you pre-position the comforter and tarp it's not an issue.
5) When you lift the transmission out of the trunk of your Mustang to set it on your cart, make sure you don't pinch the top of your thigh between the cart and transmission pan.
6) If you yell "Magic feather!" instead of the obvious, your wife won't smack the back of your head for cursing in front of the kids. Fortunately, my wife and kids weren't home.
View media item 32343In the lead-up to today I've been watching videos and reading forums, trying to figure out the differences between the 700R4/4L60/4L60E, and here are my notes - I hope they help y'all.

Everybody has opinions on what constitutes a 700R4/4L60/4L60E, but it appears that GM had no qualms about mixing and matching characteristics between the three. Any rules as to what each transmission consists of are fluid. All bets are off - EXCEPT that 4L60Es are computer controlled and 700R4/4L60s are TV cable-controlled. That said, here's what I've found:

"The 700R4 is identical to the 4L60"
No, apparently the 4L60 has a forward apply tube and accumulator that the 700R4 doesn't have.

"You can tell the 4L60E apart because it has a removable bellhousing."
Careful! Early 4L60Es had an integral bellhousing, just like the 700R4/4L60s.

"If it has a speedometer cable it's a 700R4, and if it has a VSS it's a 4L60."
Nope, '88-89 trucks have a 700R4 with a VSS.

"MD8 is stamped on the passenger side of most 700R4 cases."
4L60s also have "MD8"

"K is stamped on the side of the truck transmissions."
"K" is on the side of the 4x4 transmissions.

"GMT400s have the cast 6-bolt torque convertor cover."
700R4s have the tin 4-bolt cover. 4L60s have the cast 6-bolt cover.

Apparently, later 4L60s have a temperature sensor in the back of the valve body. 700R4s and early 4L60s do not.

On 700R4s and 4L60s the TV cable goes in the right side of the transmission. On 4L60Es this is replaced with the computer controls plug.

"84 and later has 30 splines."
IF it was behind a V8. Apparently the V6s still had 27 splines for a while, but I cannot verify. If you get a 700R4 from a GMT400, I believe you're safe.

1990 is the year they went to 4L60s, and 1993 is the year they went to 4L60Es.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

"GMT400s have the cast 6-bolt torque convertor cover."
700R4s have the tin 4-bolt cover. 4L60s have the cast 6-bolt cover.

I don't know about this, my 88s trans was rebuilt by the PO so, I guess he may have got a 4L60 instead of using the original 700R4 but my cover had a cast 6 bolt.

Edit: Good info anyway!

 

[Thatlowchevy]

Am I the only one on here who has trouble viewing images on this thread? Only this one the others are fine. All the pics load like this. I have to get on google to view them rather than the app

You must be registered for see images attach

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Erik the Awful]

I got out while it was cool and finished wire-wheeling the chipping paint. Once I had that done I wiped the bed down with acetone and taped it off. I used two and a half cans total of Duplicolor Self-Etching Primer, available pretty much anywhere. To paint the bed, I pulled off my shoes and worked in my sock feet for about 30 seconds. The sun was up and it was like standing on Satan's skillet. One quick trip into the house and I had my reef-walkers I bought in Guam - they made it much more bearable. By the time I had the bed painted it was already dry enough for the bed liner, but I had to go inside and cool down. I used two and a half cans of Seymour bed liner, and tomorrow I'll use the last half a can for touchup. It's available on Amazon and pretty cheap.
http://www.seymourpaint.com/product/truck-bed-coating/
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[Erik the Awful]

So, I'm at a decision point. Do I rebuild the 700R4, or do I swap the NV3500? No, I don't need a 4L80 or NV4500 - I'm easy on transmissions.

When I first started driving the truck, I had the TV cable a bit loose. It would hang, then hammer into second gear, and it would shift up to third almost immediately. I changed the transmission filter, cleaned the pan, and the fluid looked and smelled good. I topped the fluid off, tweaked the TV cable bracket, and tightened the adjustment a bit. It shifts beautifully, but freewheels when I give it more than 1/2 throttle. I drained a bit of fluid the other day so I could put in some Type F, and it came out black. I stopped there.

And now I'm paralyzed with indecision.

At this point I don't think adding Type F will crutch the current transmission. A week ago I bought a spare 700R4 so I could rebuild it while limping the current transmission, but now I'm thinking I should swap in the spare and rebuild my original transmission.

The original transmission had a stock-looking torque converter and no signs of a rebuild. The truck has about 130k on it.

The junkyard truck I pulled the spare from had over 200k and an aftermarket torque converter. I'm pretty sure someone's been in it. It also had a hole punched in the pan and the truck had no body damage, so I figure there's about a 70% chance the transmission is why it was in the yard.

Either way, I'll need to rebuild a transmission. I'm looking at about $400 in parts - a $40 rebuild kit, a $70 high-energy friction pack, $240 worth of Sonnax upgrade parts, and a $40 for oil pressure and vacuum switches to eliminate the computer control of the torque converter clutch.

My other option is to do the NV3500 swap I've been considering. I have everything except the shift boot. No TV cable to adjust, no more money to spend, and I prefer manual transmissions. However, I'm not a fan of having a manual when I have to hook up my trailer. That said, I'll probably only be using the trailer about once a month.

Finally, I don't have an open spot in the shop right now. As soon as I got the truck running I pulled it out and put the Beetle TDI in. Just a few bolts more and I'll have that leaky turbocharger out. That little pig is going to cost me about $400, but hopefully I can turn it pretty quick and release some funds.

What would you do?