Tranny update...Lentech VB

[silver_pilate]

Well, last week was a long, drawn out saga for the Mustang.

If you don't recall my earlier post about a long weekend, I'll refresh your memory in an abreviated form.

I installed the Lentech valve body on my AOD weekend before last. I ran into problems with a busted torque wrench and resulting broken VB bolt and stripped out bolt hole in the case. Fun fun. That all occurred over an entire Saturday which included running from a couple of tornados, talking to storm spotters, and sinking the suburban in a ditch running brim-full of water. Lucky it's a straight no-bones work suburban with all vinyl interior and floor, because the water came up to the seat on the driver's side.

Anyway, when it had dried out Sunday, I go to get my car. I walk into the barn to see all the tranny fluid on the ground. Fun fun. I pull the pan and find a kink in the gasket. Fix that and it's all good to go. Drove 90 miles to Amarillo, around town a bit, and parked it. Noticed 30 minutes later a spreading pool of fresh red fluid. Fun fun. Crawled under and cranked the pan bolts again...stopped the leak.

As I have no way of getting under the car at my appartment, and they won't let you work on it in the parking area there anyway, I topped off the fluid and drove to a tranny shop. They put it up, checked everything out...couldn't find anything. So I drive it back and around town...checking under the car everytime I stop. No problem. Back to the appartment to park in my spot. Noticed 1 hour later a spreading pool of fresh red fluid. Fun fun.

Back to the tranny shop next day. They pull the pan and find some kinks in the pan lip which they straighten out and put a new gasket on. Drove around all day...checking under the car everytime I stop. No problem. Back to the appartment to park in my spot. Noticed 1 hour later a spreading pool of fresh red fluid. Fun fun.

Back to the tranny shop next day. The car won't freaking leak anywhere other than my parking spot. I leave the car there all day, telling them that I think the leak is coming from the hole drilled in the tranny for the OD delete wire, and that it must not be sealing properly. They figure out that it is leaking there, and also from the front seal. That's really my fault, as I didn't change the front seal after pulling and reinstalling the motor. They want to pull the transmission. I say fine, go for it as I have no way of working on it up here, and I had to get home for work on the weekend.

$500. Yippie!. One thing they do with all transmissions they pull is tear them down completely and check everything while the tranny is out. If nothing's wrong, they put it back together and charge nothing. Well, they found a couple of burnt clutch packs, a wasted thrust washer, and some other things. I say fine, go ahead and rebuild the damned thing.

Tack on another $500 to the previous charge. At least they seem to have done a good job. They sent the converter off and checked it to see if it was square, polished the hub, etc. So I've basically got a brand new tranny. And I bought a three year-50,000 mile warranty to boot.

I've finally been able to try out the Lentech for a while, and I LOVE it. No more 1-D-1 shuffle crap to hold second. Simply flip the switch on, and no more hitting OD in town, period. When left to shift by itself, the tranny shifts very politely. Rather soft when not at WOT, but still very quick. When manually shifting at WOT, it hit's like a ton of bricks. Very nice. The tranny, being all fresh now, seems to get the car off the line more quickly, and it actually feels faster in the seat of the pants. We'll have to see what happens at the track.

It's great not having to anticipate shifts or wonder what the tranny will do every time. In the past, sometimes the tranny would decide to hold a gear for the heck of it and you would hit the limiter. Also, you'd throw the shifter and kinda wonder when the tranny would decide to shift. Now, when you push the shifter forward, you know EXACTLY when it's goint to hit. It is EXTREMELY consistant. This valve body would be great for bracket racing. And I can hold third gear past 100 mph without the tranny going into OD like it did before.

I'm enjoying the new drive feel, despite all the money I had to drop into it.

If it leaks a drop of transmission fluid onto my parking spot at the appartments again, I'm selling the Mustang, buying an equivalent amound of Napalm, and I'm taking out that parking spot.

Just a little FYI.

--nathan

[Mr 5 0]

Silver P:

Man, that sounds so familiar to so many of us. Try to improve something on the 'Stang and end up with grief and a big expense before it all works out, finally.

At least you've got a fresh, guaranteed transmisssion as well as the Lentech, which sounds like a very good addition, despite the hassle of getting it installed correctly (without leaks). I hate leaks.

Anyway, good luck with it. It'll be interesting to see how the Lentech affects your track et. I think you'll be rewarded for all the aggravation and expense. Hope so, anyway.

I hate to hear about your trouble dude, but that Lentech is sweet!! I love mine, makes the car soooo much better. $500 for a rebuild, must be friends with these guys. You realize you could have had a wide gear ratio kit for $550, don't you? My tranny guy said that kit was the complete innards of an aod, just pull the old out and slip in the new... First gear is 2.84:1(stock is 2.40)..

[silver_pilate]

rbatson,

Yeah, I asked him about high performance options on the rebuild, and he brought up the wide ratio kit. He told me the price, and all I could hear was "cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching" as money flew out of my school loan account. I REALLY wish I could have done it, but I just couldn't swing the cost.

Yeah, the $500 for the rebuild was so low because they already had the tranny out and torn apart. So basically, all they charged for was parts and to reassemble. I went ahead and payed extra for an extended warranty for 3 years or 50,000 miles. That way, in case it breaks while I'm just "driving normally on the street" (yeah right), I won't be out more $$$.

Total bill, including the original charge they had to pull the tranny and swap the front seal, the rebuild, and the extended warranty came out to just at $1500. Ouch.

But I'm really enjoying the car. I want to get it to the track as see if it has picked up as much as it feels like it has after the rebuild. Unfortunately, they've swapped nights of test and tune to Friday until 10:00 pm, and I work 'till 9:00. By the time I made it to the track (45 minutes), there would be no time. If they're up and running one of these Saturdays without points races going on, I'll head out.

--nathan

Oh well, it threw my speedo off 10mph. I still like having it. I was charged $300 to put the kit in. I can tell a difference with the kit but I saw no difference at the track(some years ago), the street tires spun alot more though. I believe with tires and a drag set up, I would see a difference.. I'm more of a street guy though..

[Mach 1]

Wow, sounds like my luck.

Easy on those valve body bolts, 90 in. lb. I think, its not a lot.

So, tell me more about this hole that you have to drill for the wires, and why it was leaking, and how they got it to stop?

Its in the case? Do you just feed the wire through and then seal it with RTV or something?

[silver_pilate]

Mach,

Yeah, they give you a graphic with the drilling location. It's on the passenger forward side of the valve works. You drill straight up into the case and feed the wire through. If you wanted to do it right like they do in their trannies, Lentech will tell you to tap the hole to fit an NPT fitting and run the wire through that and seal the fitting with epoxy. If you do it the cheap way like I did, you have to knot the wire inside the tranny case, and epoxy the knot against the case. As you can tell, it didn't work too well the first time. I don't guess I let the epoxy cure long enough.

--nathan

[Mach 1]

Thanks for the info. Even though I dont care for some of the features in the Lentech, I was considering possibly trying their valve body in the future, and was interested in the install.

To bad you dont live close to me, i just spent $100.00 on a tap and die set, pipe thread dies included, could have helped you out.

later

[silver_pilate]

Heck yeah, that would have been nice.

I planned on using a grommet in the hole, but I didn't find any that were small enough but still tall enough to fit.

I don't have anything to compare the valve body to other than the Transgo shift kit, but I'll say it sure kicks the hell out of that. I'd recommend it for sure. If you get a chance, try it out as I'm curious how it compares to the other VB's out there.

And one correction....I stated it was drilled on the passenger forward area...It's actually the driver's side forward area.

--nathan

[Mach 1]

Is there enough room to drill the required holes with the tranny still installed in the vehicle?

[silver_pilate]

Yep. You can drill the hole no problems.

The drill location is just alongside of where the shift linkage travels in the valve works. The area is off to the side of the bulk of the transmission and the drilling location actually goes up through a flat, plateau-like area of the case. It's easy enough to get you hand up there to feed the wire through.

I ran the OD delete wire through a factory gromet in the transmission tunnel where the shift-linkage leaves the cockpit. The I routed it straight to the hole. Only took about three to four feet of wire.

For the delete switch, I got a twelve volt switchable off the stereo connectors and simply grounded to a shifter hold-down bolt (the actual VB delete solenoid's ground wire comes already grounded to the VB itself). The fuse is pre-switch in line under the shifter cover-plate. I used a simple black rocker switch with a small red light which comes on when the circuit is powered. When the light is on...no OD.

Just a little extra info there. Take care.

--nathan