Tranny went byebye...now what? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 1, 2008
Threads
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1,181
Location
Leawood,Kansas
My tranny finally gave up the ghost today...:crybaby:
Truck is currently at the Toyota dealership....
What do I do now? I've heard that doing the H55F conversion is around the same as replacing the A440? If so is that the best way to go? Ide love to have a manual.
And if so, does anyone know of a good place that could do it around the Kansas City area?
Thanks for all your helps guys

-Carl
 
All said and done, you're probably going to spend a little more replacing the auto with the H55. Depends on if you do the work or farm it out, if you have the auto rebuilt locally or have it redone by the Aussie, and how modded you want to go with it?

I'd say a stock rebuild should be in the 2500-3500.00 range. Mine was in between the 2.

The 5 speed is going to cost you about 12-1800.00 from what I've seen, then you're going to need the pedal assy, and some other parts to make it work.

Also depends on the intended use of the truck?
Crawler, mudder, weekend camp/trail rig or DD?

In traffic daily, I'd go with the auto.

For anything that plans on seeing high water/mud, I'd likely go with the 55.

For the sheer fun factor, 5 speed all the way:cheers:
 
The truck will eventually see some mud, was actually planning on going out with some buddies then this happened. But truly, Ide love to have a manual, more feel for the car in my opinion...

-Carl
 
5 speed or auto. Auto cheaper,esp.a used one.Which do you want ,which can you afford in this economy? Mike
 
But truly, Ide love to have a manual

Then go with the H55F if you can afford it, I did and love it. It gets pricey if someone else is doing the work so be prepared to spend over 4K. The pedal bucket, crossmember, DS's, etc add up and it's only smart to rebuild the Tcase while you're doing it.

BTW, I think the tranny failure is your trucks way of telling you not to call it a car! :D
 
Everybody with an auto (myself included) is thinking about this. Mine was rebuilt right before I bought the truck, but I am still thinking about it because the kick down wasn't adjusted correctly, and the breather tube from the top of the tranny to the tranny dipstick was missing altogether (broken off at the top of the transmission), so I question the quality of the rebuild (done at AAMCO) and I'm kind of expecting it to crater.

My research indicates four options:

1. Buy a used one from someplace like cruiserparts.net. They have one for $750 where the output shaft is not worn, which means it probably has lower miles, comes with a 3 month warranty (can be extended to 12 months). Always a roll of the dice with these guys, but if you extend the warranty, at least you are covered for 12 months, and the price is cheap. You might also be able to find someone doing a 5 speed swap where their tranny isn't toast yet, but I don't think too many guys swap out a perfectly good auto for a 5 speed. Most do it when it craters.

2. Buy a rebuilt one from Wholesale Automatic Transmissions in Australia. I like my automatic tranny, and this is probably what I would do.

3. Swap in the 5 speed. There are some good write ups on this procedure, but I think it would be a daunting task unless you are fairly high up the Land Cruiser mechanic learning curve. I guess you could always try it with the option of towing your rig somewhere to complete the task if you hit the wall.

4. And finally, rebuild your transmission either yourself (do a write up for us if you pick this option) or take it to a rebuild shop. In my opinion, this is the riskiest option of the lot. For some reason, guys on this forum have not had good luck with rebuilds. I don't know why. Since this transmission seems to go 200K+, maybe there just aren't many guys that have rebuilt one. Would be great if we could find a shop that could rebuild it like the Wholesale Automatic Transmission one.

Anyway, good luck with your decision, and keep us posted on what you do and why. A lot of us have this decision in our future.

Oh, and one last thing: Rescue your truck quickly from the dealership before they touch it! ;)
 
5th option is to buy a new auto tranny from Toyota. You could give American Toyota (Cruiser Dan) a call to check the price. Considering your location, a used unit in good working condition would be my first consideration.
Edit: Forgot another option: Replacing with a used 4 speed.
 
Like it was said in the last post, pick up your truck now. I have heard too many horror stories about the stealerships with our rigs. Now to what to do...It depends on what your economy is like. If money is a big issue, get a used one and intall yourself, and get some buddies to help. I believe I read in another post that you are 16, so I would have to assume you live with the 'rents. Will they let you do a project like this in their garage or do you HAVE to hire it out. This will probably affect what you can do cost wise.
If a rebuild on an A440 costs that much, I would dump that and go H55. Isn't that bad for DD. All of us 60 guys drive 4spd everyday. The H55 seems like a good upgrade over both stock US trannies. I would talk to a local wheeling club, or get in touch with local tlca chapter to drum up a little help with some expertise.
Just my thoughts. Not worth much:p.
 
Your sig says you have two 62's is that still the case? If so, it will cost less to just swap it out and take the loss on the value of the other one.

X2 on this option. You could then part out the other one and maybe even get more than the $2K you are asking. And you would learn a whole bunch as you disassemble it and ship the parts all over the place.
 
Been down this road.

Either:
1 Swap in H55F (I did mine in my garage)
2 Buy an Extreme A440F from Rodney (He was not on radar when I did mine)
3 Find a used one to swap in. (There are free ones out there from swaps, MUD is your friend)

Do not have it rebuilt by anyone other than Rodney.

Search this forum for "Dunbar" and "H55F" to find my swap thread.

Good luck!

Dunbar
 
For the H55 swap, stuff you will need:

bellhousing
flywheel
entire clutch system
pedal bucket ( requires disassembling the dash to install I believe )
shifters
t-case modifications ?? manual shift t-case ??
transmission
driveshafts
transmission crossmember ??
transmission mount ??

while you're in there:
t-case rebuild
extend breathers
2 low mod

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is one of those conversions that seems cheap until everything is apart on the garage floor.
 
Answes to a few question:
1.Yes, being 16 the parents dont think I could do this on my own, which is true, I couldnt do the fix unfortunetaly.
2 yes trapper, I still have the other 62, but its got 250xxx on it and runs real real rough, so I dont think that auto would last me much longer...(been trying to get rid of it for some time now)

I still need to find a good shop to do the manual conversion if thats the direction I take....so far I've found none.:crybaby:

Wouldnt a manual also be easier on then engine? Like running bigger tires for example, is hard on it. Please excuse the stupid question...

-Carl
 
A440s are relatively unknown by US tranny shops, hence Rodney being THE guru. NEVER, repeat, NEVER take anything to AAMCO. If you have something "murican", search locally for a good, independent shop.

Slc is right, but I think his #4 is the "kill me 1st" option.

I had my 4L60E rebuilt by a good local shop & am thrilled by it, so I'm guessing Rodney's rebuilds are as awesome as folks say. But if I were running the 3FE I'd do the H55F like FrontRange, though.
 
That sucks, guess I was wrong in my diagnosis about the slipping in your other thread.


What actually failed in the tranny? How many miles on it?
 
Not entirely sure what exactly went wrong yet, but its gone:crybaby:. It had 203xxx on it.
Still cant find a shop in the Kansas City area to do the conversion....:bang:

-Carl
 
A440s are relatively unknown by US tranny shops, hence Rodney being THE guru. NEVER, repeat, NEVER take anything to AAMCO. If you have something "murican", search locally for a good, independent shop.

Slc is right, but I think his #4 is the "kill me 1st" option.

I had my 4L60E rebuilt by a good local shop & am thrilled by it, so I'm guessing Rodney's rebuilds are as awesome as folks say. But if I were running the 3FE I'd do the H55F like FrontRange, though.

1st, I'd NEVER let AA (beep beep my arse!) MCO touch anything ever again!!! Learned that lesson a loooong f**kin' time ago.

That said, although I know Rodney is the Auto GURU, it'd be far cheaper to swap out the auto for a 5 speed than to ship to/from Oz. You could pay the price for one of his and the shipping but still??? Of course, if I were going to keep an auto that would be ultimate assuming $$$ is no object:cheers:

Do not have it rebuilt by anyone other than Rodney.

This I have to respectfully disagree with.

I had mine rebuilt by a local guy here in Tampa.

He did a hell of a job:cheers:, supported it with great customer service and still keeps in touch from time to time to see how it's hanging in?

He drives a raised and modded Taco and knows his 'Yotas!

If you want his name, it might be cheaper to ship it here and back and have him rebuild it?

You can mod the auto to manual shift and still have that left foot free.

The biggest concern I have with any auto is the water/mud in the internals???
 
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Answes to a few question:
1.Yes, being 16 the parents dont think I could do this on my own, which is true, I couldnt do the fix unfortunetaly.
2 yes trapper, I still have the other 62, but its got 250xxx on it and runs real real rough, so I dont think that auto would last me much longer...(been trying to get rid of it for some time now)

I still need to find a good shop to do the manual conversion if thats the direction I take....so far I've found none.:crybaby:

Wouldnt a manual also be easier on then engine? Like running bigger tires for example, is hard on it. Please excuse the stupid question...

-Carl


...Just a cheap option to get back up and running...It doesn't mean the tranny's rough if the engine runs poorly...how does it SHIFT? Hard? Soft? Crisp?

Just saying, it'll get you back on the road for a couple hundred bucks instead of a couple Thousand. Just keep the other 62 under a tarp for spare parts.
 
4. And finally, rebuild your transmission either yourself (do a write up for us if you pick this option) or take it to a rebuild shop. In my opinion, this is the riskiest option of the lot. For some reason, guys on this forum have not had good luck with rebuilds. I don't know why. Since this transmission seems to go 200K+, maybe there just aren't many guys that have rebuilt one. Would be great if we could find a shop that could rebuild it like the Wholesale Automatic Transmission one.

CruiserJimmy has a write up in the 80 series forum. ;)
 
From the initial description from your original thread, sound like you might have a worn output shaft. If so, you just need to install a macnamara gear in your transfer case. Just a possibility,

Bill
 

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