Fj62 Valve Body...I’m going in!

[EscapeWagon62]

Ive been fighting an issue where the truck doesn’t want to shift from 2nd to 3rd but only when it has sat for a while (home or office). If I manually move it to N who and then put in drive it goes to 3rd and shifts normally from that point onward.
Adjusted the kick down. Ran with correct, low and high fluid level and adjusted the shift linkage.

Figured I’d change the kick down cable with a new OEM unit, change the filter too. The old filter did not look great but no major debris, just gunky.

Never being able to leave things alone I decided to pull the valve body and clean out the pistons....just in case. Found an A440F Toyota manual on eBay and I have the FSM and some gaskets.

Hell, what could go wrong!

I’ll post up some “in process” photos as I progress.

View attachment 1873997

 

[Saucerman]

You are a bold and ambitious individual. Some others on here have done it and has success. For what it's worth I am pulling for ya!

 

[EscapeWagon62]

You are a bold and ambitious individual. Some others on here have done it and has success. For what it's worth I am pulling for ya!

Thanks! Worst case scenario I go get an extreme valve body by Wholesale Automatics.

I know a couple of guys at the Toyota regional tech center. Had them give me a tutorial first.

 

[bfoldy]

I know a couple of guys at the Toyota regional tech center. Had them give me a tutorial first.

/QUOTE]

Awesome!!! You're good to go then. Please keep us posted on how it goes.

 

[mwebfj60]

Nice, go for it. A couple of must have tools are a magnet, like a magnetic telescoping pickup tool and some picks...especially a 90 degree one. I recommend lining up all the pieces of each set in order as they come out and snap a pic, before sending them through the cleaner. The FSM does a nice job with the parts breakdown but your pics will help. If you get stuck or need extra pics of a certain subassembly shoot me a pm. I have a bunch. Good luck!

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Nice, go for it. A couple of must have tools are a magnet, like a magnetic telescoping pickup tool and some picks...especially a 90 degree one. I recommend lining up all the pieces of each set in order as they come out and snap a pic, before sending them through the cleaner. The FSM does a nice job with the parts breakdown but your pics will help. If you get stuck or need extra pics of a certain subassembly shoot me a pm. I have a bunch. Good luck!

Thank you for the advice and I’ll definately reach out if I need a picture. The Toyota guys lent me a magnetic finger and small inch pound torque wrench. I’ll drop by harbor freight for dental picks.

 

[bfoldy]

Thank you for the advice and I’ll definately reach out if I need a picture. The Toyota guys lent me a magnetic finger and small inch pound torque wrench. I’ll drop by harbor freight for dental picks.

Just curious...how did you get connected with the Toyota Technical Center guys? Do they offer support to normal folks like us or do they exist to support the dealership techs?

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Their role is to train dealership techs in a classroom setting. I happened to meet these guys through the corporate side and they were kind enough to spend a few minutes with me. Not generally a service they offer.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Ok...finishing up day 2 and things are going well.
With an FSM, magnetic finger, Aluminum foil and Saran Wrap I’m making good progress.
Things that are helping along the way
1. Each step of the process is numbered in the FSM and A440f book (the one I’m using for this). I use a glad bag for the parts I remove and number the bag for that step in the book.
2. I take pictures with each step WITH the removed bolts laying in plane view with their ends pointed to the hole they go into. Some of the components have 2 bolt sizes, some have three and one of them has 4 BOLT SIZES! I’ve also marked the repair book pictures with the relative size of each bolt (when I remember so I’m about 50% on that part.
3. As soon as I disassemble a part I cover the valve body with Saran Wrap and bag the parts I took off. I’ll do all of the cleaning just before I reinstall.

Issues
1. This adventure started because if would (with increasing frequency)not upshift from 2nd to 3rd after sitting overnight or at work. I could shift to neutral then to drive and it would work fine.
2. I found that my 2-3 shift valve was stuck/sticky. Frankly it took me a while to get it out. The valve was cartching on something and showed score marks. I used some 2,000 grit sandpaper to even out the burring in the valve body and on the valve plus. Hope this works.
3. I have two pins that won’t come out....these are the small round pins that are supposed to come out with a magnetic finger. If anyone has solved this issue let me know.

Anyway...they say 70% of the deaths on Mt. Everest happen on the way down. We’ll see if tomorrow brings any more challenges and IF this stuck shift valve was indeed my issue.

More tomorrow.

 

[mwebfj60]

Good progress. Some of those pins are a PITA. I found that some of the caps needed to be pushed outward a little to get the pin out versus pushing the cap in. Brake cleaner, some WD40, compressed air, and the picks all came in handy to move the caps a little.

The bolt sizes are listed next to the holes in the FSM if I remember correctly. Sounds like you’re staying organized, that’s half the battle.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Good progress. Some of those pins are a PITA. I found that some of the caps needed to be pushed outward a little to get the pin out versus pushing the cap in. Brake cleaner, some WD40, compressed air, and the picks all came in handy to move the caps a little.

The bolt sizes are listed next to the holes in the FSM if I remember correctly. Sounds like you’re staying organized, that’s half the battle.

Thanks for the advice on the pins. I’ll give that a shot tomorrow.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Good progress. Some of those pins are a PITA. I found that some of the caps needed to be pushed outward a little to get the pin out versus pushing the cap in. Brake cleaner, some WD40, compressed air, and the picks all came in handy to move the caps a little.

The bolt sizes are listed next to the holes in the FSM if I remember correctly. Sounds like you’re staying organized, that’s half the battle.

Thank you for the bolt size info too. I hadn’t read ahead to reassembly but I just checked and the FSM tells you exactly which size bolt to put in each hole. Thank goodness, I thought that was going to be the hardest part of reassembly!!
Cheers

 

[Saucerman]

Godalmighty! I think you will fix the thing!

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Day 3(since I have a job that pays for this obsession)
Got a little more work done on the VB today. @mwebfj60 saved me with the WD40 and dental pick advice....got the pin out!
I found that the pins and end pugs are the hardest part. The end plugs have to come out dead straight or they bind up. I was probably being over cautious but a couple of these gave me trouble. Used picks, skinny screwdrivers to push out and in one case used some pliers covered in electrical tape to pull out end plugs.
So I’ve cleared out the valves, put the sub assemblys back together and will regasket and complete the reassemble tomorrow. In the mean time I’m using Saran Wrap to keep dust out.

QUESTIONS:
1. I’m installing a new OEM kickdown cable as well. Does anyone know where this clip/bracket attached? Mine was hanging. I think it also carries the vent tube from the tranny back up to the fill tube (my vent line was cut off by PO so I have to get some tubing and re-rig this. (Photo below)

2. I’ve saved as much tranny fluid as I could so I can refill with the same amount of brand new fluid. I assume I can just replace the entire volume all at once vs fill, start, fill but advice is appreciated.

3. I assume that when I start the truck it’ll take a while to get fluid throughout the valve body. If there an appropriate way to ease into this and are there did noises etc I should expect while it is getting the air out?

Thanks to all for your comments so far.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Not a huge update on this since the Mrs had a list of things for me to do.

Got the entire valve body put back together. The FSM does a great job of showing each step and I’m certainly glad that I put each step in the disassembly process in its own zip lock bag.

Tomorrow is valve body install, kickdown cable, refill. Fingers crossed.

 

[Cruiser Jimmy]

nice to see someone diving into a valve body. Nice work!

 

[Spook50]

You are a gutsy man. I'm confident in my mechanical skills, but this is something I wouldn't attempt to do myself without extensive training or at least step by step instruction. Though what would be cool is if Robby from Wholesale sold an upgrade/rebuild kit with instructions so those of us on a budget could do up our valve bodies ourselves. Maybe then I would attempt it.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Home stretch. Assembly is back together and I’ve re-installed it on the rig.
Takes a while to get everything lined up since there are three accumulator valves (easyif the tranny is out of the truck, not as easy from underneath.
I got the kickdown cable attached and temporarily put the oil pan on to keep any dirt out.
Enough for today, I. Exhausted.

Tomorrow is fill, test and drive. Fingers crossed.

The only bad news so far is that my wife threw away my skid plate. I left it on the side of the garage after degreasing, apparently too close to the garbage so she did me a favor and chucked it Friday. Replacement on the way from eBay.

 

[mongoose2231]

wow, great work

 

[bfoldy]

Nice work! Thanks for documenting everything along the way; it will certainly give confidence to others down the line.

Can't wait to hear how everything goes today when you go for the test drive.