Picked up a 4l80e. 125 BUCKS!
02-08-2011, 07:26 PM
#1
Picked up a 4l80e. 125 BUCKS!
Well the title says it all, I got my hands on a used 4l80e from craigslist, with converter, dipstick, and a lot of wiring for just 125 bucks. 
The guy guaranteed me that the transmission worked fine, and when I checked the fluid condition it was pink, and I dint see metal flakes in it at all. here is a picture, although its dirty as ****.
It has 135K on it, I want to just do a shift kit and put it in my Hoe but some people tell me I should rebuild it. I do not want to rebuild it if it will hold with just the shift kit. What do you all think I should do? I will be using stock converter, and am on a very tight budget.
The guy guaranteed me that the transmission worked fine, and when I checked the fluid condition it was pink, and I dint see metal flakes in it at all. here is a picture, although its dirty as ****. It has 135K on it, I want to just do a shift kit and put it in my Hoe but some people tell me I should rebuild it. I do not want to rebuild it if it will hold with just the shift kit. What do you all think I should do? I will be using stock converter, and am on a very tight budget.
02-08-2011, 10:22 PM
#7
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The thing is nasty dirty but so long as it works there you go. I payed 350 for mine with nearly the same miles, same condition. What year is it from? I still don't know where I read this but it seems to be true that 97 and later 80s have a weaker low/reverse band servo piston and the pin likes to punch through the piston giving your 4 perfectly fine forward gears and no reverse. If I had one from a 97 or newer I would go ahead and tear it down and fix/replace the weak link before putting it in. I've seen quite a few trucks give this exact problem to. There was even an episode of American Chopper where they piled up a bunch of snow behind Sr.'s Hummer and he hammered on it in reverse and lost reverse all together and had all forward gears. It would be one thing if the band was just behind the pump but its all the way at the back of the transmission so you might as well pull it down and check it over if you feel the need to address the weak piston concern.
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02-08-2011, 10:34 PM
#8
If its like mine more trash then you typically see on a catastrophic 4L60E failure yet mine was still in perfect working condition??? No clue but there was a TON of trash in the pan with relatively clean fluid and its still going strong.
The thing is nasty dirty but so long as it works there you go. I payed 350 for mine with nearly the same miles, same condition. What year is it from? I still don't know where I read this but it seems to be true that 97 and later 80s have a weaker low/reverse band servo piston and the pin likes to punch through the piston giving your 4 perfectly fine forward gears and no reverse. If I had one from a 97 or newer I would go ahead and tear it down and fix/replace the weak link before putting it in. I've seen quite a few trucks give this exact problem to. There was even an episode of American Chopper where they piled up a bunch of snow behind Sr.'s Hummer and he hammered on it in reverse and lost reverse all together and had all forward gears. It would be one thing if the band was just behind the pump but its all the way at the back of the transmission so you might as well pull it down and check it over if you feel the need to address the weak piston concern.
The thing is nasty dirty but so long as it works there you go. I payed 350 for mine with nearly the same miles, same condition. What year is it from? I still don't know where I read this but it seems to be true that 97 and later 80s have a weaker low/reverse band servo piston and the pin likes to punch through the piston giving your 4 perfectly fine forward gears and no reverse. If I had one from a 97 or newer I would go ahead and tear it down and fix/replace the weak link before putting it in. I've seen quite a few trucks give this exact problem to. There was even an episode of American Chopper where they piled up a bunch of snow behind Sr.'s Hummer and he hammered on it in reverse and lost reverse all together and had all forward gears. It would be one thing if the band was just behind the pump but its all the way at the back of the transmission so you might as well pull it down and check it over if you feel the need to address the weak piston concern.
Thanks for the info, It is a 97, which i actually tried to get because I heard that the ones with the tranny line going into the middle of the case were actually more reliable
( so apparently i didn't research enough) I guess if the thing looks really good inside i wont mess with it, but if it looks a little sketchy i might have to tear it apart. I am just not a professional at rebuilding trannys and for all i know i could make it worse by rebuilding it than it would have been if i didn't touch it.
