Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle ATX Rebuild Picture Story

One thing I forgot....I beginning to know this transmission like the back of my hand! Sheesh!

Well I had a good chuckle today. I went to a wholesale transmission parts house - you know the kind..... industrial side of town, make a wrong turn and you get a uncomfortable feeling, etc. I went straight from the office to the parts house. Of course walking in, all these ole boys were in the coverhauls, work uniforms, etc. I walk in with office attire. Upon entering the shop, the counter person asks if he can help me. I tell him, I need a seal protector kit for the Forward/Direct/Coast Piston on a CD4E. As he is looking it up one ole boy looks over at me and says, Do you rebuild transmissions? I smiled and said only when I have to! He looked at me and then said you don't look like no tranmission rebuilder to me!!!! I laughed and told him a man's gotta do what a man's gotta due when Ford wants to reach in my pocket at take at least $2000 to fix my tranmission. They all busted out laughing at that point. Actually this guy was there for a manual lever sensor for a CD4E on a Mazda 626. We started talking about rebuilding the CD4E. I asked him if he was able to assemble the piston assemblies with out the seal protector kit, he said no way. He had to pick one up also. We talked about endplay measurements, Reverse Clutch 2 hole lube alignment to drum - easy to miss and will cause clutch burnout. After our conversation he then asked very seriously about how long I have been rebuilding tranmissions. I told him the last tranmission I rebuilt was about 10 years ago. He shook his head and mumbled something about me doing my homework. The parts house was also telling me that in the past few months they have been having ALOT of parts being sold for the CD4E - gotta love FORD for this!

When I arrived home, I tried using the seal protector on the piston in the reverse drum assembly. Previously with me homemade tools, I spent a couple of hours trying to get this piston into the hub. With this protector it took me....let me see counting...... 30 seconds!!!!!!

Did a test assemble on the remaining pistons and it worked like a champ! 5 pieces of plastic which I paid a total of $122

The only other semi difficult assembly is the retainer springs. I have had to use c-clamps and a few strips of flat metal to compress the springs...patience here...nothing like the piston seals but it requires a little bit of patience.

I tried to purchase a VSS sensor, but when I looked at the sensor it did not include the gear. I thought they were sold as a unit? I didn't purchase it until I could verify.

Ok,

The next pictures should I hope prove helpful.

The first picture shows the C-Clamps I used to remove and replace the retainer and spring assemblies. The metal corner braces are used to keep from deforming the metal retainer from the c-clamp base. Reverse Assembly is shown here.






Next is a picture of one of the plastic seal protectors.....





Placing piston in seal protector



Direct clutch drum assembly, I use the piece of metal to protect the underside when I use c-clamps to remove the spring retainers. I was trying to find something that would work, and found this when I went to pick up my wife at her office..they were throwing these decorative metal fixtures out when I spotted this.





This picture is important. when assembling this reverse clutch hub to reverse drum, there are two slots under the reverse hub. These slots MUST match with the two holes that are in the clutch drum. If you don't get this right, you will have to repull the trans and correct this. The ATSG manual says NOTHING about this. Nowhere did I find this information. I happen to run across one of the links on Unisys site which clued me to this! Thanks Unisys. I have inserted a wire to check if holes in the drum are in alignment with the clutch hub. You can't see on the other side so a flashlight, etc will not work.




Shot of transmission getting ready to insert reverse piston with seal protector.









Final assembly in place with seal protector removed:

Well today I was planning on adding the final pictures but ran into a problem. When I was at a key point, I did a pressure check of the piston assemblies. What this test does is that it checks if the pistons move within their bore and correctly move the clutch assemblies. If you get hissing or don't hear the pistons move then you have a problem. I first checked the servo assembly. Upon using compressed air 40 psi, I heard solid movement when I stopped applying air and then took the nozzle away from the test plate, the remaining air in the assembly came out from where I removed my nozzle. An indication of excellent sealing. I tried this with the low/reverse assembly and same thing, excellent movement of the piston and proper backflow of air when removing the nozzle. When I tried this with the Reverse and the Forward and the Direct clutch, I would get piston movement on two of them, but the air was escaping fast, the third I had no movement at all.

I pulled the assembly took it apart and checked all seals they were fine. I did read that the Forward Direct/Coast drum assembly can and does develop a hairline crack from high fluid pressures because of valve body wear, I must have took this assembly apart three times and tested it three times with pretty much the same result. I'm going to purchase a new forward direct/coast drum housing. I've checked everyting else and I suspect this is the problem. This would also lead me to believe this is why I lost foward movement on my trans. I will be ordering from Bill tomorrow and probably will continue with this on Thursday or Friday.

In spite of the problems, this has been fun. I've learned alot and now know this tranmission inside and out to be sure!!!!! Oh yes, when I was putting on the speedometer gear on the differentail (this is where the vss is driven from) the plastic gear is a snap on fit on top of the differential. I was using light taps with a rubber mallet and it broke.....I'm glad it happened here and not after I had the transmission together. Another small problem I found was when I was separating the case halves I head to beat with a rubber mallet for quite sometime - I was being careful, until the case halves came apart. When I put the case halves back to gether it still was very tough to get them together. After checking a few items on why this was a problem, I found the bottom guide pin was getting stuck in it's bore. I finally took a circular file and reamed it out some. Case now drops in place perfectly.....I'm glad I did this, I don't like putting the halves together when it is so tough....might have has something installed correctly which I would forever worry about.

Thanks for the awsome update and glad you found some useful info from the links on my site.

Well for a direct/coast clutch housing from Ford the price was a little over $200. With a local transmission supply house, I was able to purchase an aftermarket housing for $90.00 Apparently with the aftermarket housing, it will work for other years other than 95 - 98 as well as for 4 cylinder engiens, if the thick steels are used. Standard steels in kit are .078, there is an option to purchase .118 steels if needed. This housing is a bit taller than my old unit, so I will definitely have to recheck endplay and reshim to keep everything straight. Also on my direct cluctch pack, I have a little too much play, if I got to thick steels - 4 of them, I will be out of spec. The other way to adjust clearance is to purchase different thickness snap rings. Standard clearance on endplay for direct clutch pack is .02 to .04 inches. I have something like .05 to .06. Purchasing the thicker snap rings will solve this problem. As I understand it, regardless of whether you have thin or thick steels, the endplay under the snap ring is what counts. The other side of the housing checked out with an endplay of a kinda tight .02 -- I rather have them a bit tight rather than too much endplay!!! The biggest deal in this trans is endplay, endplay, endplay.

Reverse clutch pack endplay check
Direct clutch endplay check
Coast Clutch endplay check
Low/Reverse endplay check
differential planet to housing endplay check - to align it up with the drive sprocket

Differential endplay to TC case
And Drive sprocket to TC housing

Sounds like a lot but it really isn't, just measure carefully and take your time.


My old direct/coast housing did have a big time crack that I found tonight!!!! For an aftermarket cost of $90, it probably is a must item to replace. this housing takes a beating to say the least!!

Bob

Well, I reassembled my Direct/Coast housing assembly. Had to purchase one thick steel for direct clutch to bring endplay in spec. Cost $3.00

I put assembly in case for pressure test and began to pressure test ports when my friggin EBAY special less 30 day old air compressor blew up. No more compressed air. There goes my *$(%*$(%* $45 dollars!!!!!

I'm going down to Home Depot and get me a small unit. Anyone want a pancake compressor for a good price

I'll pressure check tomorrow and let you all know the results.

Well, I went to Harbor Tools today and picked up a nice oil driven compressor 2 hp 2 gal tank for $100. Seller of unit bought on Ebay did offer to replace unit when I sent this one back. Don't really know if it is worth it.

I did perform the pressure checks today. Everything worked great EXCEPT the reverse piston would not move. I had a big time leak! I pulled it apart checked it and it is fine, Whe reinserting the piston into the housing with the seal protector, I noticed that the air pressure created gave way through the check valve. Checking more closely, the check valve looks like it is defective. Local transmission house will sell me a rebuilt reverse housing for 35 dollars. Heading over there now to pick it up!

Just to let you know, so you don't feel so bad - when mine was rebuilt, they had to replace all the this same stuff. So don't feel like you keep running into a wall.

You're also quite right about endplay. When I rebuilt my Mazda tranny, I used all new steels just 'cause they came with the master rebuild kit.

As I read through my resources, I discovered the specs & checked the numbers with old vs new steels just to see what kind of wear I had. The old steels were undersized by 3x spec. The tranny was seriously burned up. New steel brought it to the very tightest limit of spec.