96 Monte 4t60e questions

[shift1313]

Hey guys, this is my first post here. Im working on my sister-in-laws car and it started having tranny problems. The car has the 3100 in it with the 4t60e 4speed. The car has 120k on it and the filter on the tranny was replaced 20k ago. The tranny has never had any problems up until a few days ago. The 1-2 shift seems to be delayed and then hard. When giving it WOT it almost bangs into gear. With just a little throttle input its almost unnoticable. The car has no codes and aamco said all the electronics were good. They told her the problem was more then likely 'soft parts' and not the 'hard parts.' Im not sure if I believe them because Ive never had a good experience with them. Today i pulled the vac line off the modulator and there was no fluid in it(I read somewhere that could be a problem).

Basically where Im at is Ive never worked on an auto before. Ive done plenty of manual stuff of various makes but this will be my first auto. Is this a common problem with these 4t60e's? From what I read on your site its most likely a broken accumulator spring or possibly the valve body is messed up. Is this right? Im open to any help or suggestions I can get. Also Id like to know the best way to get the tranny out of the car if I need to. Everything is jam packed under the hood of this thing and im just wondering if I can drop some of the suspensions out and drop the tranny or what I can do. Sorry if thats a stupid question, I havent been under the car yet.

Any help I can get is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

matt

[Manitcor]

the vac line shouldnt have fluid in it, it just supplies vacume.

It sounds like it could be one of a couple problems. Playing with an auto trans is nothing like rebuilding a manual gearbox. Do yourself a favor and leave it to the pros. Though I agree crap-oco is not a good plave to trust your transmission to.

Depending on where you live there are some good shops that know the t60 very well.

[sharkey]

dont go to aamco, nuff said there.

it could be a broken acumulator spring. 120k miles is right in the range were the 4t60e fails. there are lots of updates for the valvebodies for them.

to pull the tranny out, you need to pull the subframe out of the car. in not to farmiliar with the monte, but i beleive the motor is bolted to the frame, meaning you will need to use an engine hanger to hold the motor up while you remove the frame. this is a very tough job to do on jackstands, and without the proper equiptment, can be dangerous. if you dont have a hoist to work on, id leave it to a shop to pull it out, unless you want to pull the motor and tranny together.

[shift1313]

yeah i thought it was kinda funny in the cheapo manual it said to leave the rebuild to the pros but a home mechanic can pull the tranny out of the car on jack stands. I got under it and took a look and it was very sketchy they way they said to do it.

I know there wasnt supposed to be fluid in the vac line for the modulator, I was hoping there was to indicate a bad diaphragm but no luck there. I did test the modulator and it seemed fishy so I replaced it with a generic one and the car shifts great now. This was a non adjustable replacement for the car so im not really affraid of too much pressure hiding the problem but I told my sister in law to keep an eye on it and let me know how the thing drives. When I tested the modulator it still moved when i applied vac to it (stock one) but it seemed like the piston wasnt attatched to the diaphragm. I checked the one on my camaro (turbo350) and it wasnt like that. Meaning it reacted to vac no matter what position I held it in where the stock one only reacted with the vac port facing down using gravity on the piston. Im hoping this caused a delay making the shift points a bit slow.

I definately wont be going to aamco with anything. I took my bronco there to have them diagnose (for free) my slipping out of 3rd problem with my np435 and they gave me the same song and dance, $500 just to pull it out and tell you whats wrong plus labor and parts to fix it once we find the problem. The problem was the bearing on the output shaft after 200k had gotten sloppy allowing everything to go crazy. Since its a toploader with a rear bearing plate it probably didnt even have to come out of the truck to fix it. $40 in parts and a little time.

Thanks for the replies.

matt