Fj62 Auto Trans Woes. Advice needed (1 Viewer)

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Believer it or not, my total cost of converting to the H55F still came out almost two grand less than an A440F rebuild (with the obligatory tcase rebuild), larger torque converter and Nomad valve body. So without those two upgrades, about on par cost-wise with a stock auto rebuild. More than worth it IMO. The H55F is a joy to drive, even with the wearing synchros that mine is beginning to exhibit.
Thank you, Spook. I’m going to try the “simple “ fix first; dropping the tranny and replacing the main seal. If that works, I’ll roll with it. If not, I’ll almost certainly go the h55f route.
 
Thank you, Spook. I’m going to try the “simple “ fix first; dropping the tranny and replacing the main seal. If that works, I’ll roll with it. If not, I’ll almost certainly go the h55f route.
I have the part numbers for the seal I would also replace the rear main seal while you have the transmission out. I just pulled my working transmission out of my 62 and installed it into another 62 for a customer. If you plan on doing this I highly recommend a stout transmission jack and a extra hand here and there. Good luck and be careful not a light unit at all and your not gonna want to do tgis twice believe me. The seal pictured is out of my 62 with 160 thousand miles on it wasnt leaking but didn't take much to make it crumble to pieces.
Tommy

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I have the part numbers for the seal I would also replace the rear main seal while you have the transmission out. I just pulled my working transmission out of my 62 and installed it into another 62 for a customer. If you plan on doing this I highly recommend a stout transmission jack and a extra hand here and there. Good luck and be careful not a light unit at all and your not gonna want to do tgis twice believe me. The seal pictured is out of my 62 with 160 thousand miles on it wasnt leaking but didn't take much to make it crumble to pieces.
Tommy

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Wow! Yes, I’ll do both and will be careful. Is the pn you pictured the front seal? If so would happen to have the pn for the rear?

Guys, I love this place. Thank you for all of your help. I’m sincerely grateful.
 
Yes the seal pictured and part number are for the transmission the rear main seal for the engine is 90311-90005
 
Be easy installing the rear main seal take your time and make sure it goes in straight the whole time. I did not remove the oil pan or the rear bearing cap. Removed transmission with torque converter then removed the fly wheel make sure you re tourqe the flywheel bolts with a tourqe wrench to factory spec. The other thing the fsm says to remove the exhaust I didn't do that you may be able to get the top two transmission bolts out by dropping the transmission down with transmission xmember removed to get the bolts out if you do it that way take them out first then jack it back up and remove the rest of the bolts. I didn't do it that way i removed the front seats comsole and carpet to get the transmission hump cover to get access to the bolts also replaced all the shifter bushings and grommets shifter was way loose. I put a rachet strap around both sides of the frame and under the oil pan to hold the engine up while removing the transmission leave it there until the transmission xmember is back in with the trans. This is all pretty fresh in my memory so if you have any questions fire away. Oh yea you have to jack the truck up to get it out from under there.
Tommy

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Be easy installing the rear main seal take your time and make sure it goes in straight the whole time. I did not remove the oil pan or the rear bearing cap. Removed transmission with torque converter then removed the fly wheel make sure you re tourqe the flywheel bolts with a tourqe wrench to factory spec. The other thing the fsm says to remove the exhaust I didn't do that you may be able to get the top two transmission bolts out by dropping the transmission down with transmission xmember removed to get the bolts out if you do it that way take them out first then jack it back up and remove the rest of the bolts. I didn't do it that way i removed the front seats comsole and carpet to get the transmission hump cover to get access to the bolts also replaced all the shifter bushings and grommets shifter was way loose. I put a rachet strap around both sides of the frame and under the oil pan to hold the engine up while removing the transmission leave it there until the transmission xmember is back in with the trans. This is all pretty fresh in my memory so if you have any questions fire away. Oh yea you have to jack the truck up to get it out from under there.
Tommy

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Tex, gosh man, thank you for all of this. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate the details that you’ve shared. I’ll get those two parts ordered and give it a go. Hoping that you and yours have a very Merry Christmas.

Edit: sorry Tmx, autocorrect got the best of me. Fat fingers and Mud salute:flipoff2:

Joking aside: Merry Christmas!
 
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Be easy installing the rear main seal take your time and make sure it goes in straight the whole time. I did not remove the oil pan or the rear bearing cap. Removed transmission with torque converter then removed the fly wheel make sure you re tourqe the flywheel bolts with a tourqe wrench to factory spec. The other thing the fsm says to remove the exhaust I didn't do that you may be able to get the top two transmission bolts out by dropping the transmission down with transmission xmember removed to get the bolts out if you do it that way take them out first then jack it back up and remove the rest of the bolts. I didn't do it that way i removed the front seats comsole and carpet to get the transmission hump cover to get access to the bolts also replaced all the shifter bushings and grommets shifter was way loose. I put a rachet strap around both sides of the frame and under the oil pan to hold the engine up while removing the transmission leave it there until the transmission xmember is back in with the trans. This is all pretty fresh in my memory so if you have any questions fire away. Oh yea you have to jack the truck up to get it out from under there.
Tommy

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Hey, Tommy,
Thank you again for the parts numbers. Just got them ordered and keeping my fingers firmly crossed that replacing those seals will sort things out.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
 
Update:

I ended up taking my truck to a shop that I trust (life intervened and I did not have the time or the gumption in me to drop my tranny by myself)

:(

They dropped it for me and found that my torque converter had actually backed out of the transmission housing, shearing off pieces of the converter. An absolute mess. But, the good news is the transfer case, etc. are undamaged.

I bought the tranny (a re-man) before I found this place, and after the original transmission completely crapped out.

The re-man tranny is six years old... and a piece of chit as they say over in the Monkey thread here.

Rather than start a rebuild myself, or have a shop do it (5-6k estimate), I gave Georg at Valley Hybrids a call. He is an amazing fount of knowledge and experience. I had toyed with the idea of converting to a manual tranny, as so many on here have done, but after speaking with Georg, I tossed that idea.

My '62 is the only auto that I have owned in the last 20 years (above I said "ever owned", but I hated to admit that the one I did own was a '96 Chevy Astrovan... lol! The '62 is my second auto. I can't lie), and frankly, for trail riding and camping, I like it.

So, after we talked through the problems that my current tranny had, I decided to bite the dang bullet and order one of Rodney's heavy duty transmissions. It costs a major chunk of change, but as I've put so much work into my truck, and never plan on selling it, the new transmission is a proper investment.

Order in. I'll post up more as things progress.
 
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Update:

I ended up taking my truck to a shop that I trust (life intervened and I did not have the time or the gumption in me to drop my tranny by myself)

:(

They dropped it for me and found that my torque converter had actually backed out of the transmission housing, shearing off pieces of the converter. An absolute mess. But, the good news is the transfer case, etc. are undamaged.

I bought the tranny (a re-man) before I found this place, and after the original transmission completely crapped out.

The re-man tranny is six years old... and a piece of chit as they say over in the Monkey thread here.

Rather than start a rebuild myself, or have a shop do it (5-6k estimate), I gave Georg at Valley Hybrids a call. He is an amazing fount of knowledge and experience. I had toyed with the idea of converting to a manual tranny, as so many on here have done, but after speaking with Georg, I tossed that idea.

My '62 is the only auto that I have owned in the last 20 years, and frankly, for trail riding and camping, I like it.

So, after we talked through the problems that my current tranny had, I decided to bite the dang bullet and order one of Rodney's heavy duty transmissions. It costs a major chunk of change, but as I've put so much work into my truck, and never plan on selling it, the new transmission is a proper investment.

Order in. I'll post up more as things progress.

Two questions

Do you need another torque convertor? Would you trust a used one with ca. 190k on it? I ask because I have one out of an '88 that was working when pulled but I don't know how to assess the condition of a TC.
 
@Godwin Thank you for the offer. I don't need one. The Rodney set-up comes with a billet torque converter. I went whole hog on it.

When I spoke with Georg, he said that torque converters don't go, unless they are poorly installed originally (as mine was...). You should be able to off-load it pretty easily if one of the crew here is looking for one as part of a rebuild.

Again, thank you for offering to help. I really appreciate it.
 
Howdy, All, bringing this thread back from the dead. Georg and Roark came through big time (and so did Rodney!). My tranny has shipped from Australia and is due here in Bourbon Country next week. I don't know their handles here, but if anyone does, would you please give them a nudge? I've got the new seals ready to roll and the new tranny will be here soon.

Found it! @orangefj45

Thank you Georg!
 
Update:

Got my new transmission installed, and I must say, it is amazing. It pulls beautifully, and the 3rd gear lock-up makes highway driving and acceleration so much better. When the second lock-up happens in 4th, going 55mph, RPMs are under 2k (I'm running 33s and have not re-geared).

The only thing that was exposed after the install is that my H/L shifter bumps out of L. 4wheel engages fine and stays in H no problem, but L is a no go. The shifter moves freely into L but won't stay there. The shift rod was messed about with by a previous owner (found some welds on it...). So, I think with the brand new transmission from Rodney's shop that this fault was exposed.

Last night, I stupidly started a new thread and @OSS immediately jumped in to help with PNs (thank you @OSS ). Managed to track down a new H/L shift rod, clevis and other bits and pieces from Megazip (Japanese warehouse).
 
Congrats with the 'new' trans - I've been running a Rodney special for 12 years without issue. :beer:
 
Congrats with the 'new' trans - I've been running a Rodney special for 12 years without issue. :beer:
Thank you! Reading that makes me happy. Hoping that mine lasts for the life of my truck (which I hope is many, many more years). And yes, I should have put single quotation marks around new...lol. It sure feels new to me; a night and day difference.

The one thing about replacing parts (large or small), is that something else that needs to be replaced is always exposed in the process... lol. I've got about 2 weeks until the latest batch of parts arrive from Japan.
 
Thank you! Reading that makes me happy. Hoping that mine lasts for the life of my truck (which I hope is many, many more years). And yes, I should have put single quotation marks around new...lol. It sure feels new to me; a night and day difference.

The one thing about replacing parts (large or small), is that something else that needs to be replaced is always exposed in the process... lol. I've got about 2 weeks until the latest batch of parts arrive from Japan.
Oh yeah I can relate. And the quotes weren't a dig at you and on second thought I would classify the Rodney transmissions as new, workmanship is amazing and it is basically a brand new transmission - I was blown away when I first opened the crate.
 
Oh yeah I can relate. And the quotes weren't a dig at you and on second thought I would classify the Rodney transmissions as new, workmanship is amazing and it is basically a brand new transmission - I was blown away when I first opened the crate.
No worries man, no offense taken at all! :beer: You're exactly correct.

It's an amazing piece of craftsmanship, and super cool too to get the dyno numbers and the name of the technician who built it.
 

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