Automatic Transmission Design Review

**TooMuch03** · #1 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:12 AM

As many of you may know from a previous thread that I started here:

All dressed up and no where to go

I'll not go into all the detail, but my transfer case and my Suncoast Transmission decided to part company. Naturally, the damage was not limited to the external parts. The internals of the transfer case were all shot. The output shaft on the transmission was damaged on both ends, so it all needed to be rebuilt.

I did all of the removal and install myself, and I decided to take my transmission to Automatic Transmission Design in Germantown WI because it is close and I have heard lots of good things about the work they do from truck pullers, circle track, and drag racers.

One thing i will first say about them is that the guys there are all extremely knowledgeable about a wide range of transmissions, and they have some guys that specialize in GM tranys, some in Ford trannys, etc, even one guy who does nothing but torque converters. The owner Scott did the majority of the work on my 5R110. Also, before they did any work, they gave me an estimate for both the tranny and transfer case, and the price for the rebuild of both ended up being within $200 of their estimation.

Here are some pics of the transmission and transfer case after I picked them up last week:

I installed the tranny this past weekend and took the truck down to them on Friday. They wanted me to bring the truck down so that they could check out the install, scan any codes, and test drive while checking the pressure. This was at no charge to me.

A couple pics of the install:

You will notice the rubber lines which are not stock. They were added by the Previous owner when the suncoast was installed to plumb in the secondary inline suncoast filter. This is something that Scott did not like. He said that the 5R110 is very sensitive to pressure drop and adding the additional filter
can potentially cause some serious problems

He believes that the stock inline and pan filters are sufficient.

Finally, it appears that the current strategy on my truck (VXAP1N6) is not a good flash for the TCM. The early 03-05 flashes had problems maintianing shift pressure. The analog shift pressure gauge that they installed temporarily showed me what he was talking about. The tranny pressure would drop the instant before the shift took place. This is not related to the tuning that I am running as it did the same thing whether tuned or stock. I will have the truck reflashed, not rolled back, as I am not sure if the earlier flashes would be free of the same shift pressure issue. Since I will be having ithe ECM and FICM tuned having a later flash shouldn't be a problem.

So far I am happy with the service and pricing at Automatic Transmission Design, and their knowledge is quite impressive. I plan to keep this thread updated with my findings once the truck is back on the road with the new flash.

ZMANN · #2 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:18 AM

did they require that u replace the cooler ?

that would have been a good time for the 08+ in pan filter upgrade to get 100 percent filtering

**TooMuch03** · #3 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:23 AM

My situation was unique because the internal damage was very minimal to the transmission, so flushing the cooler and installing a new filter was enough. I had no metal shavings in the pan, just 50k of wear and tear. Had an internal component of the transmission failed, then yes they would have required that I get a new cooler.

**windrunner408** · #4 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:34 AM

Looks nice man. If you dont mind me asking, what was the damage to your wallet since you were the one doing the removal and install??

ZMANN · #5 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:39 AM

makes sense

**TooMuch03** · #6 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 08:44 AM

It was about $900 for the transfer case rebuild with new chain, planetaries, and input shaft. It was $2800 for the transmission and triple disc Torque Converter rebuild. They quoted me $2500 for the tranny and $1000 for the transfer case, so it ended up beign about $200 more.

There will be some cost left yet for new OEM cooler lines to get rid of the suncoast inline filter and the reflash. I am guessing by the time all is said and done I will be at $4000 ish.

risco · #7 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 10:38 AM

looks very nice how long install take you

**windrunner408** · #8 (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 11:06 AM

Nice and good deal. $4k is a good price for sure for all of that. Now just waiting to hear how it works out for you. Best of luck and looks great for sure man.