1986 F-250 build/rebuild progress thread.

[Gary Lewis]

It is a bummer to be ill on your vacation!  But glad you are getting well.

[FordFETruck]

Alright got this thing together other than the pump and valve body. The boost valve was really worn so I ordered the sonnax boost valve update/repair kit for it and the pump gears should be here tomorrow. It went together pretty well. Here are a bunch of pictures showing the TCI low drag kit/torrington bearing kit. I did have to reuse the thrust washer for the reverse/high drum, I remember having to do that on the last one as well. I forgot to get a pic of the low/reverse clutch pack in the case but its in there and the clearances were good.

The teflon sealing rings on the forward and stator didn't work out, I couldn't get them to cooperate so I installed the metal sealing rings there. The two teflon and 1 metal on the governor worked fine. I also painted the headers with rustoleum high heat silver BBQ paint. Sprayed on nice and dried fast, we'll see how well it holds up.

[Gary Lewis]

Wow!  That looks surgically clean.  Nice!  

[ArdWrknTrk]

It needs to be surgically clean!
Every tranny shop I know has a stainless counter with a drain, like a restaurant kitchen dishwasher or a morgue.

Those headers look sharp too!  
Too big for the home oven, I suppose....

[FordFETruck]

I give all the parts a scrubbing in my parts washer that has diesel and a ton of brake cleaner mixed into it, then I give everything a straight up brake cleaner bath after that, followed by a blow dry with compressed air. The inside of the case I pressure washed and that worked excellent for getting the dirt out of the aluminum pores. It's as clean as I could make it and keep it putting it together, which is probably cleaner than some transmission shops. Before I did this I also blew the garage out several times with the leaf blower to get as much dirt and dust out of the garage as possible.

[FordFETruck]

I got my pump gears yesterday and assembled the pump and installed it in the transmission. End play in the trans was at the limit of .045" so I bought the stator selective thrust washer kit. I had the same issue with the other C6 I did years ago after installing the low drag kit, a thicker thrust washer was needed to get the end play in check. I was hoping to put the engine and trans back in the truck this Sunday but I guess it'll probably be the weekend after now.

[Gary Lewis]

It is frustrating to have to wait, but it is better to do it right than have to do it again.  

[FordFETruck]

Yep, definitely not a job I want to do twice for no reason. The transmission did turn super smooth and easy with all those torrington bearings though. I was able to apply low/reverse and direct/reverse with two air nozzles and turn the output shaft in reverse using 1 hand on the input shaft with ease. Couldn't do that with all the thrust washers.

[FordFETruck]

The front pump selective thickness thrust washer kit came in yesterday and I put the pump in after work last night, I have .015-.016" end play now. The sonnax boost valve I bought with the O rings on the outside of the body didn't work so I just put the original boost valve back in, it had some wear but worked fine. Transmission is now ready to go I plan on putting the engine and transmission back in thursday. I also put helicoils in the 3 bolt holes for the inspection cover, one was stripped and the other two were almost stripped.

[Gary Lewis]

Looks really good!  Well done.  

[FordFETruck]

Thanks! I also air tested everything while spinning the input shaft and everything does what it should.

[viven44]

Lot of great stuff here... Getting into an automatic transmission is no ordinary feat!!

[FordFETruck]

Yep, not like engine work but once you do one or two it's really not that bad. I got a little frustrated with it here and there but I liked it more than the engine work.

[FordFETruck]

Got the engine and transmission installed today. I only have the transmission cooler lines to finish, install engine oil dipstick tube and fill the transmission with fluid and put the hood on. I plan on starting it and breaking the cam in Sunday. It was a long hot day, but I was able to get a ton done and had nothing else going on anyways and really need this back on the road. Those 6AN cooler hoses I bought are pretty nice, made it easy to run almost all the way to the driver side of the radiator.

I'm going to run the stock in radiator cooler, then into the spin on filter, then into the hayden fin and plate cooler and then back to the transmission. I bought a 3 row welded aluminum radiator off Amazon and surprisingly it fit perfectly. Also put a new SFI flexplate on and a new REMY PMGR starter, the teeth on the old one were really worn I'm surprised it didn't have issues grinding. One thing that really made me mad was one of the studs on the TORCO reman torque converter I bought was a bit dinged up, it took a while to even get a thread die to start to fix it but I got it fixed anyways.

[Gary Lewis]

Looking good!  Can't wait for the report.  

[FordFETruck]

Alright I've posted about this in the WHYDTYTD thread but I got the engine fired up, camshaft broken in. Changed out the Comp cams 10W30 break in oil for Penngrade1 10W40 high zddp oil and I cut the filter open and saw nothing to complain about. Most of what I saw was the moly grease I used on the cam and lifters and the magnetic drain plug had pretty much nothing on it. Transmission seems to work like it should and fluid level is full. The new severe duty Hayden fan clutch and 3 row welded aluminum radiator worked awesome, the engine never got above 195 degrees breaking the camshaft in which is a first for me doing cam break ins. Here's a short clip of it idling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qQLx9xbuUo