Hi guys,
Are there any treads on swapping out the 4T65e? I'm looking to find out how hard it would be to do on the street as I do not even have access to a driveway.
I'm getting slippage in 3rd and 4th gears. And my trans fluid is brown. (170,000 miles on car and I don't think it has ever been see serviced) I'm going to change the fluid and filter in hopes that will help till I can afford a rebuilt unit. Got a quote from JasperTransmissions of $2100 with a $580 core charge. Triple Edge is $1500 and I don't k ow about their core charge. I don't want to go with a kicked unit. And although I can rebuild a motor in my sleep, an auto trans is like Chinese to me.
Just wouldering how hard it would be?

 

As far as threads on it, i'm not for sure. But you could just leave your car where you normally park and put it up on jack stands and if you have enough room to work, oyu should be able to get the trans out in a couple hours. Then you can just work on the trans in your house if you don't have a garage. Building an auto trans is not bad at all. I rebuilt my old 96' thunderbird's transmission with absolutely no mechanical knowledge. It took me about a day to get the trans out, and the trans in it was way larger then a Monte Carlo trans. It took my gf's dad, my dad, and me get it out just because of how massive it was. Then every day after school (this was a couple years ago) I went over to my girlfriends house and her dad and I started taking it apart. We not only changed the solenoids but we also changed all the clutch packs inside as well as all the rubber O-rings. It was pretty much a full rebuild. I went and picked up a book on the trans and it showed pretty much how to take it apart and put it back together step by step. I don't remember the name of the book. But if you look up on google "4t65e transmission book" all kinds of good stuff comes up. That book pretty much holds your hand all the way through. It took us about 3 days to do the rebuild and that was with only about 3 hours a day. You could easily get it done in a day or 2 if you have full days to work on it. And then it took all 3 of us again to get the trans back into the car (again just because this trans was so massive). But all in all the trans was pretty easy to work on. Just need a new torque converter, rebuild kit, and I also made sure I got a new rear main seal, I needed to get a few tools such as torque wrenches, and that is about all I payed for. So roughly $600-700 and a nice weekends work is worth it. I would rather do that then pay someone twice that any day. Hope this helps out

 

It does. I kind of have a Fear of Auto Trans cause I never took one apart before. I would normally take the bad one out and put the good one in. That is, when I was a young Buck working in a shop. I've done fluid and filter changes and replaced a couple of rear wheel drive trannies so I feel you on needing extra muscle to get it in and out. Idk, I'm just not as confident as I would be doing a motor. Guess I just gotta get over it or pay someone to do it for me! :-[

 

Yea I feel you man. It's not as hard as it may seem. I'm 20 now and have much more knowledge on cars. I rebuilt my thunderbird trans a couple years ago, back when I was just starting to get into cars. I was kind of worried about going into it. But like I said if you can find one of those books, it holds your hand and walks you through the whole process. On top of that you have everyone here at MCF who I'm sure a lot of have got into a trans at some point. So we could all help you as well if you get stuck. Give it a shot, if you can't get it fixed then hey, at least you have the trans out so you can just take it to the trans shop to get fixed and they can't charge you to take it out of the car, or you can buy a new one and just pop it in. You can do it

 

What I might do is buy a used one and rebuild it. I have to consider that this car is my only transportation to and from work. This way I can take my time, and do it right. Then put it in on the w/e and be ready for work on Monday. No Bus or train connection between the house and the job. I will look into that book too. Every little bit helps!

 

OK so after watching a couple of videos on rebuilding the 4t65e transmission, I've come to the conclusion that I will have to save the $$$, buy one that has already been rebuilt and upgraded and put it in myself. There is no place in my house I could do a rebuild. Wish I was still in Lakewood. I had a 2 car garage, 2 big work benches and a 6 car parking lot. Oh well! :-(