Official "How long does an A440 last" thread

[Mitch Powell]

259,000 and mine went out. Started going downhill around 252,000 i think cause that's when I got it, maybe even before. Lasted a few thousand while slipping and then finally wouldn't shift out of first.

 

[RMutt2017]

249,000
Cooler
Rebuilt transfer case and DIY McNamara Gear, when i did, I dropped tranny and drained completely. Replaced front rear seals, new fluid and a little friction juice(forget the name) and the slip between 2 and 3 was gone. Shifts great, clunk from D to R is still there, but other then that, keeps rolling right along.

 

[Mike357]

1991 FJ80, A440, with the auxiliary tranny cooler: 341k miles, running strong, no slippage (it was a dealership car)

1992 FJ80, A440, no cooler, 289k miles, still running but it slips frequently, probably on it's last legs.

 

[60Works]

'89 with 195,000 and no problems other than the clunk of the output shaft splines being loose in the t-case input gear. Last flush was very clean inside despite week maintenance by PO.

'88 with 295,000 and it's getting very tired. Wouldn't trust it on a road trip.

 

[zapatius]

I got my 62 with 288,000 on it and the transmission was slipping. Made it about 2000 miles while I found a replacement. I got one with less than 100K on it and it is going strong.

 

[Bike n Board Cruiser]

1989 FJ62. I bought it with 154,000 miles on it. It currently has 268,000 miles. When the tranny starts slipping, the Rodney flush has fixed it every time. I've done that twice since owning it. Recently I had an issue that was very interesting. My distributor G pickup coil had either moved, or something else moved and the rotor rubbed the pickup until wires were showing. The truck would drive but acted as if the timing was way off. It felt like retarded timing which would all be related to the distributor. However, at the same time, it shifted vary hard into all gears and hung up shifting to near redline. Now I don't know if these things could be related or is coincidence. Either way, I drained fluid to inspect/change filter and throttle/kickdown cable. I removed the valve body at the same time and noticed that gasket pieces on the valve body are brittle, cracking, and braking off. Since I didn't have those parts available I used a light amount of RTV gasket sealer on the places that were missing gasket and put it back together. Filled with ATF and took it for some test drives. Not fixed. Hard shifts and hanging up. I kept fiddling with the kickdown cable and adjusted the Throttle Positioning Sensor. I was being very sensitive to how it shifted on test drives and figured I should ask the wife to go for a ride to see what her impression was. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought and I was just being hyper sensitive to how it was working. Well, we were on our way to the mountain bike trails and the first 2 shifts were hard shock shifts. The third shift into the trip is miraculously fixed itself. (My wife is an energetic healer and she ran processes on it, so maybe she fixed it). I'm just wondering if timing can affect shifting? I know the manual says the engine should be isolated and running properly at operating temp to run the FSM tests.

I did order valve body gaskets for a valve body rebuild. My searches haven't found any posts for valve body rebuild. I've seen one for Rodney's Extreme Valve Body install. Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,
Pete

 

[hjdca]

I got my FJ62 with 60K miles approx 9 years ago. I put in a Hayden tranny cooler, did a rodney flush, and refilled with Castrol Transynd. I have 100K miles now, running 31x10.5 BFG All Terrains. Lots of hwy trips , lots dirtbike trailer towing , and carrying my Hobie Tandem Island on the roof. The tranny is as strong as the day I go it and the fluid still looks great. Putting Transynd in and putting in the tranny cooler seemed to have really paid off.