'77 FJ40 buildup in Charlotte (finally)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

The shop found a long list of problems with the transmission, from a missing bushing on the output shaft, a bad 3-4 clutch pack, clutch packs being too tight, sticking solenoids, and a bad drum, to name a few. In that 8 weeks, the shop has rebuilt the transmission numerous times. The transmission has been installed and removed from the truck numerous times. What it boiled down to was a re-occuring failure of the 3-4 clutch pack.

After way too much time, the shop changed the transmisison case and appears to have solved the problems.

The list, right from the service ticket:

input clutch drum
master overhaul kit
kevlar band
heavy duty shift kit
valve body (used)
super hold servo assembly
case (used)
drive shell
filter
fluid

I put about 16-18 miles the truck before loading it up for home, so fingers are crossed.

Stay tuned,

Jim
 
buttoned up all the loose ends today. I had removed the dust cover on the torque converter, front drive shaft, shifter linkage, shifter boots, etc. before I took it to the shop. I reinstalled everthing today, wired the 12V connection on the lock-up harness, and took the old girl for a ride. I got about 100 feet out of the driveway and turned around. The shop must have let the parking brake cable lay on the exhaust on some of their road tests. It's toast. With the 12V connection attached, the transmission shifts every couple seconds, or the torque converter is locking up (I'm not sure).

Either way, it's got to go back next week.

8 weeks and counting.

advice..... don't use an auto on your project.... and surely don't use TCI.:deadhorse:
 
This is somewhat reminiscent of my Cruise Moab 2009 story. After months of preparation on my 40 I drove it from Denver to Moab. The trip was not without drama but I made it. My wife and kids followed in our F-250 Superduty.

In Moab the diesel's auto tranny blew third gear. I had no choice but to take it to Moab Ford for repair because no one else in town wanted to do the work. I drove home with a re-manufactured Ford tranny for $4100!!:mad:

As soon as I got home I realized the tranny was not right. We took it to a local Ford dealer and three weeks later:mad: got the truck back with a "new" replacement tranny. When I read the technician's diagnosis of the tranny that was installed in Moab the list of problems was similar to yours Jim.
 
Well, got the truck back. After lots of discussion, we decided to dump the vacuum switch that TCI provided in favor of a pressure switch attached to the 4th gear pressure port on the passengers side of the transmission body. When I picked up the truck on Saturday, it was found that the pressure switch was wired incorrectly, so I brought it home to redo the harness. After that was done, I had to drain the transfer case (gotta be about 15 times now) to pull and replace the parking brake cable.

Finally, I was able to take the old girl for a ride to fill the tank up and road test her. The good news is that it seems to drive and shift well, the bad is that there are still drips coming from the transmission.:mad:

Gotta bend up some tube for rock sliders and frame tie in's today.

Stay tuned.
 
wow! thats frustrating... I am sure your ready to take that tranny and throw it off of a cliff...
 
John Smith said:
You are very patient. I think I would have given up on that auto tranny by now. Has TCI taken any responsibility for their product failure?
Click to expand...

None as of yet, but Greg did get past the warranty a$$hole and talk to the company president. I'm leaving him to deal with that, as my plate is full trying to wrap the truck up.

I did a 20 mile ride today, but the tranny temps went to 240. Off to shop for a larger cooler.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
My lord. I would offer to come by and help but at this point frustration may cause you to injure me....
 
New cooler is on the way from Summit. Took it for another ride today. I'll say one thing, the truck gets lots of stares. Total trip was about 20 miles. Transmission temps stayed low, but I never got over 45 mph.

At about a mile from home, the engine began to stumble and backfire.:eek: Nursed the old girl home and began to check things out. I found the battery at 9.8 volts. My guess would be one of two things:

My wiring job is not correct on the alternator? (I am a little fuzzy on the diode and alternator excite thing)

Alternator failure?

I find it hard to believe that the battery took this many moths to run down, so I'm hoping a test on the alternator will show the problem.
 
Put the battery on charge and began to look into rocker panel protection. My idea was to build something that would be "weld-on", protect the fuel filter, and allow for the roll cage tie-in of the A-pillars.
DSC05488.webp
DSC05492.webp
 
G'day Jim,

I know that I saw this somewhere in your thread, but now I cannot find it. Could you tell me where you got your rear flares? Was it JT Outfitters? Do you like them? Are they flexible enough that you don't need to worry about them cracking if you bump up against a tree 'gently'? Great build, beautiful rig. I wish I knew you when I lived in Charlotte!

Cheers,

Josh
 
Hi Josh,

Sorry for the delay in getting you a reply. They are bushwacker flares. I don't remember which parts house I purchased them from, but probably Spectre or Man-A-Fre. They seem to have good flex. I would suspect that cracking would not be an issue.
 
As I already mentioned, the transmission temps are way too high. I called the shop that did the 9 week rebuild and was told that I needed a better secondary cooler. As you probably saw on the table next to the roll cage tie-ins on the previous post, I purchased a Derale fan driven cooler from Summit. I also added a thermal switch to the mix. It's supposed to kick on at 180, and off again at 170. I swapped it in for the radiant cooler that was tucked under the loadspace. I hope to road test tomorrow to see if it makes the situation any better.

Stay tuned,
DSC05535.webp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom