Sub is, currently, in a state of disassembly; rebuilt engine on stand, waiting for supporting parts to run (MPI, H2O pump, PS pump), dash is out for repair/reinforcement and several body pieces are off for either refurbishment or replacement.


4L80E, about 191,000 miles on trans, which was replaced under warranty with only 4k miles on the truck. Pulled it due to hard shifting in 2/3 and a whine when in OD.


Tore it down a few months ago, anticipating rebuilding it myself. Ran out of time and contacted a local, highly rated shop. Shop who looked at it while Sub was running quoted me $1800 to R/R, now wants about double just to rebuild since I tore it down.


My opinion is this makes no sense, since I did the hard bit for them. Their reasoning; they have to sort through all the parts just to figure out what goes where. My reasoning; they're supposed to be a top rated shop in my area, and they have a certified GM trans man who looked at my unit, and I can't believe they don't know what they're looking at; they would rather use it as an excuse to upsell another unit. At any rate, they won't be touching it, and I need other options.


First question is just how difficult is the trans to build?


I bought the ATSG manual before the teardown, so a rebuild is still on the table. However, having torn it down, I see several parts that are worn. IIRC the forward drum has grooves worn in by the shaft, the center support bushing was driven out and may be a PITA to replace without the old one as a guide. I tore the VB and pump apart, and it may be more cost effective to just replace the VB at this point, as well as a new TC. Along with those parts, I would also need to get a good parts kit, along with the shift improver/sure cure kits. All the electronics, including the MLPS and external wiring, were damaged or showed signs of wear and also need replacing. The overall costs, not to mention not having done this before and, possibly screwing it up, push this option to the back burner.


The second option is a remanned unit. However, the lowest I've seen with a good warranty is $1700 my cost. Money I just don't have right now.


Final option is to yank one out of a yard and pray it works for at least a couple of years until I can get re-established in the job market. A new TC and shift kit would be installed. If I could get a good unit, the overall costs would be minimal. But that's a big if.


Which option would be best? I don't want to spend all that time putting this back together, just to have to rip it right back out again.

 

pulling the trans and tearing it down is not the hard part. going through boxes of parts that someone else took apart is. I did this with a duramax and it did indeed take 2x as long to repair. After speaking with other shop owners about this; all concurred that this situation is a potential for lost time. Some shops refuse these jobs outright. Seems to me the rebuild shop has experienced this before and are pricing the job accordingly.


your current trans is done. Go reman and backflush the trans cooler lines and cooler before installation.

 

That's what I thought; they just didn't explain it thoroughly. It makes more sense now.


I'm actually leaning more towards a used 12v Cummins and RH, which I see on Ebay all the time for less, combined, then what a 4L goes for by itself. Loosing the computers sounds appealing.