Valve Body

Use lint-free shop rags: Always work with lint-free shop rags. When it comes to transmissions, cleanliness is imperative. Lint from rags is something you want to avoid at all cost, because lint loves to get in the sump filter and restrict it.

Air-check: While the valve body is out, be sure to air-check every clutch pack circuit that is accessible using low, regulated air pressure. It will help you discover any issues before you even install the valve body. But, above all, the importance of doing so is that — should you have any shift concerns once finished — having notes on how each element air-checked can save you lots of diagnostic time. You are already in there, so the extra time it takes to do this quick check can save you hours later on.

Use a torque wrench: Always use a torque wrench in sequence on all the valve body bolts to ensure they are all torqued equally. I know many of us think that we have a torque wrench built into our arm, but using a torque wrench goes a long way towards preventing castings from warping and valves from sticking by ensuring the torque is equal (and not too great) for all the bolts.

Make sure the manual valve is indexed properly: Double-check that the manual valve is indexed properly. I get calls from time to time for a no-move condition, simply because the manual valve was missed when installing the valve body. It is fairly easy to do on some valve bodies, especially when replacing the valve body with the transmission still in the vehicle.

Flushing the cooler lines and cooler: This is of the utmost importance, I cannot emphasize it enough. Over time various types of particles will lodge themselves in the nooks and crannies of the heat exchanger. New ATF cleans really well once the fluid is hot; the last thing you want is contamination that was present in the cooler circuit to break loose and end up in the valve body you just installed. Using a good-quality flusher that uses heated ATF is a must. If you don’t have access to one, replacing the radiator or bypassing the existing cooler is your next best option.

Check for DTCs: When replacing the valve body with the transmission in the vehicle (and before putting the pan back on), I strongly recommend that you take a minute to hook your scanner up to the vehicle, turn the key on and check for transmission codes. The vast majority of TCMs will detect a short or open circuit with just the Key On Engine Off. This is a quick and easy way to make sure everything is hooked up correctly, and that you don’t have any cut or pinched wires. All too often the solenoid looks like it is connected correctly, but in reality it is not, either it just missed the terminal or it’s not all the way in. This causes the computer to trip a solenoid circuit code right away on startup.