To rebuild or swap, 4L60e advice needed.

[coheed]

I know the 4L60e isn't a commonly used or talked about transmission on this site, but I figured with the wealth of knowledge here and how common they are someone will be able to chime in.

 

So, the 4L60e I've swapped into my MJ from a 94 Camaro is slipping in 3rd and 4th. I know the common issue is the 3-4 clutch pack burning up, and there's no dearth of information about diagnosing and rebuilding this transmission. Unfortunately, this is an odd use case, as it's a 60 degree bellhousing and I've swapped the output shaft and tail housing so I can run a NP242 on the back of it. So, picking up a known good unit is very slim pickins. 

 

One alternative would be to find an AX15 or NV3550 and swap the truck back to a manual. I kept the 4L60e with the motor as the AX5 in the truck could have been original, with over 350k miles on it, and some point down the road I'd like to TDI swap the truck. The 4L60e seemed like a decent option as they hold power well if built right, and standalone controllers are easy to get whenever I went that route. Swapping back to manual would also mean getting another clutch pedal assembly, master and slave cylinders, lines, flywheel and clutch, a Dakota bellhousing, and potentially driveshafts (both the AX and NV would be a half inch longer than the 4L60). 

 

The other, I suppose more straight forward solution, would be to pull and diagnose the 4L60e and replace what's needed/ rebuild. That's where I'm hesitant. I've never done any work on an automatic aside from pulling this one apart to swap out the output shaft and tail housing. When I bought the Camaro from @dasbulliwagen it had about 140k on it, and the person he got it off of said the trans had about 30k on a rebuild (which may or may not be true, I don't really know how to tell because like I said I have no experience with autos).

 

With no way to know how many miles are actually on the 4L60e, would it just be smarter to rebuild the unit fully instead of pulling and replacing some parts? By my math it seems like rebuilding the 4L60 and swapping to an AX/NV would be about the same cost if I bought all the parts myself and upgraded the common failure points. How long is a rebuilt 4L60e going to last as long as I make sure to maintain it properly? Also, does anyone have any good and trusted resources, hard copy books or online, for rebuilding and diagnosing the 4L60e?

[89 MJ]

I’d get the 4L60e rebuilt completely. As long as you change the fluid in it fairly regularly, it should live a long life. My parents had one in an 04 Suburban they bought new. The thing towed greater than its towing capacity a few times and had 190k miles on it when it got totaled by a hailstorm. Never needed any transmission work. 

[derf]

The 4L60e is probably the most common swap transmission in the off road community.  And they put it in eleventy bazillion GM cars.  Rebuild parts are plentiful, and even upgrade kits are an easy find.  The guts are basically the same no matter the bellhousing.

 

If it were me, I'd just pull it, take it to the transmission shop, have them do a rebuild with common inexpensive upgrades, and stab it back in.

 

When you do the TDI swap, that's when swapping a different transmission in would make sense.

[coheed]

1 hour ago, 89 MJ said:

I’d get the 4L60e rebuilt completely. As long as you change the fluid in it fairly regularly, it should live a long life. My parents had one in an 04 Suburban they bought new. The thing towed greater than its towing capacity a few times and had 190k miles on it when it got totaled by a hailstorm. Never needed any transmission work. 

 

Rebuilding it is probably what I'll settle on. There's a lot of love and hate for the 4L60, but it seems like if it's built well and not abused or too much torque put through it it'll do fine.

1 hour ago, derf said:

The 4L60e is probably the most common swap transmission in the off road community.  And they put it in eleventy bazillion GM cars.  Rebuild parts are plentiful, and even upgrade kits are an easy find.  The guts are basically the same no matter the bellhousing.

 

If it were me, I'd just pull it, take it to the transmission shop, have them do a rebuild with common inexpensive upgrades, and stab it back in.

 

When you do the TDI swap, that's when swapping a different transmission in would make sense.

 

There's no way I'd spend the time and money to rebuild and not upgrade the common failure parts.

Unfortunately, taking it to a shop isn't in the budget. To get it built with the parts I'd want, parts alone would be $1000-1200 doing some minimal pricing over the last day. Then add on $150-200/hr labor rates, it'll get real pricey real quick.