F350 tranny rebuild

[HD78bronco]

I had been planning on swapping in a ZF 5 speed into the truck for a long time, I even had the ZF and most of the piece's already. But after reading about TCI's Maximzer truck transmission rebuild kits and Hughes Performance's fuel miser towing torque converters I decided to stick with C6. So I sold the ZF which payed for most of the new C6 parts.
First thing I did was run down to AutoZone and pick up a Haynes manual for Ford auto transmissions, then I ordered the TCI kit and Hughes converter from Summit, while I was at it I also ordered a Lokar kickdown cable.

Started the other day with the daughter and I pulling the trans and pressure washing it.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811745/fullsize/001.jpg

I got feed up with the radius arm crossmember and cut it two to get it out.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811746/fullsize/002.jpg

Then I put the trans on the bench and followed the manual to disassemble it. It was actually pretty easy. There's a lot of pieces in there.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811747/fullsize/003.jpg
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811748/fullsize/004.jpg

I made my own spring compressor out of scraps instead of paying for one.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811749/fullsize/005.jpg

Then I followed the directions and put it back together, got almost finished when I figured out that I left some wave plates in that I wasn't supposed to so had to take most of it back apart again. It's really pretty easy if you go step by step with the manual.
I got the trans back in the truck, buttoned everything up, started the truck and it actually moved forward and backward around the yard. I thought everthing was good so time for a test drive. We got just down the street and when it went to shift into second I lost all forword gears, but it still had reverse. Got it back in the yard and called TCI and the guy thought it sounded like a valvebody problem. So I pulled the valvebody today and was very happy to find a obvious problem. Check out the gasket.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/811766/fullsize/valvebody.jpg

The B&M shift improver kit that was in it before said not to use a gasket, but the TCI kit came with a gasket so I put it in, guess I shouldn't have. I cleaned everything up and put the valvebody back together without a gasket. Then it started pouring rain so I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see if that fixed it. Everybody keep your fingers crossed for me.

[HD78bronco]

Well, I put the valve body back in and it still didnt work so I pulled the tranny again and opened it back up. This is what I found.

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/812495/fullsize/005.jpg

Thats the fwd clutch drum and as you can see the end broke off and the snap ring groove all the way around. I bought a new drum from Broader Performance and cleaned the vale body really good, then put it all back together and put the trans back in the truck. Everything worked fine this time. The line pressure is dead on and it's shifting good and firm.

[Traveler]

That is great that you got it working.
That can be so frustrating when you do everything right and it still doesn't work.

I bet that truck is quite the animal now.

[HD78bronco]

I towed the Bronco(about 9000lbs w/trailer) a couple hundred miles to Gulches ORV park last weekend and the transmission worked great. Had a issue with the engine running kinda hot, but I think I have that taken care of now.