Fj62 Valve Body...I’m going in!

[EscapeWagon62]

The Land Cruiser Gods have smiled upon me.
Filled the tranny and took it for a few test drives today.....all is well.
Time will tell of my intermittent 2nd to 3rd shift issue was solved but for now it seems great.
I’ll never know which made more of a difference, the valve body cleaning g or the new OEM kickdown cable.
Either way it was great to lean something new about the rig.

Since a year and a half ago the most I’d ever done is an oil change or changing a flat, I’d classify this as a doable repair. You’ll need a clean place to work, an FSM, flexible tip ratchets, inch/lb torque wrench, dental picks a magnetic finger, easily sourced valve body gaskets and almost 3 gallons of ATF.

The hardest parts are staying organized, getting the end plugs out of the valves, lining up the valve body and accumulator pistons while reinstalling and reinstalling the oil pan (3 bolts but in a place that’s really hard to get to).

It might also help to take yoga or pilates, there are a billion nuts and your shoulder and neck will hate you if you are reinstalling the valve body from your garage floor like I was.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement.

 

[Gretsch]

Man this is impressive. Not something I would have ever taken on myself.....not only because I have a 60 and not a 62, but I would have been too damn chicken to do it. Kudos to you for tackling this yourself. Now with the money you saved you can go buy something nice for that cruiser.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Man this is impressive. Not something I would have ever taken on myself.....not only because I have a 60 and not a 62, but I would have been too damn chicken to do it. Kudos to you for tackling this yourself. Now with the money you saved you can go buy something nice for that cruiser.

My wife breathed a sigh of relief that it worked (apparently there are trust issues with my mechanical skills)
She graciously is allowing me to buy a replacement skid plate for the one she threw away while I was doing this repair. Better than nothing I suppose.

 

[Gretsch]

Sounds like my wife and yours have the same trust issues. At least in mines defense, things have not always gone quite as smoothly for me as they did in this thread for you. Anyway, great work.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, I figure any wife that lets us buy antique trucks, is a keeper. Mike

 

[SteveH]

Excellent work. How many miles on the transmission? Any indication of why this valve was scored - just old age? My trans shifts fine at 256K, but you always wonder when it might act up.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

I’m at 228k now.
The scoring I found was caused by small metal fin/lips which developed and jammed some grit. In hindsight I doubt that caused my issue as the scoring was on the end plugs vs the pinstons.
I did find some loose gasket material inside the passageway of the valve body. That may have been causing intermittent issues or it could have fallen in while I was disassembling the valve body.
I did the kickdown cable at the exact same time. The old one wasn’t massively corroded bit the housing was old/stiff and may have been causing inconsistent travel which could have been my causal factor.
I also had a gunky strainer screen which I cleaned.

Auto transmissions can be as much magic as science. I may never exactly know the cause or solution was or if it’s coming back. In my case it did t seem like clutch packs so I anticipate the day when those act up.

Good luck with your tranny.

 

[SteveH]

Thanks. Seems like cleanliness is still very important to the health of automatic transmissions.

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Thanks. Seems like cleanliness is still very important to the health of automatic transmissions.

I've read - don't own one - that newer Mercedes don't even have trans dip sticks. A source of contamination. It's assumed that if the trans isn't leaking it's got the right level of fluid.

I do know for a fact the owners manual for my 85 300SD says to only wipe the dipstick with a piece of clean leather to minimize lint getting in.

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Well I’ve now put about 150 miles on the rig, mostly city driving.
This thing is shifting like a brand new transmission....smooth and predictable.

If I were going to do it all over again I’d clean the trans filter and change the kickdown cable first and if that didn’t fix it then I would do the valve body. While doing the valve body isn’t technically difficult, it is extremely messy and time consuming.

Like I said before, I’ll never know exactly which maintenance step fixed the issue but I’m thrilled with how it ended.