Can you rebuild your own TC?

CorneliusRox

CorneliusRox

Seasoned Rookie
Hey guys,

Has anyone here rebuilt a torque converter and feels like sharing?

I beat up my lockup too much (assuming the clutches are shaved down to nothing). Anyways, can I just toss it on a lathe, grind it at the welds, separate, replace the frictions and steels, and weld it back up together?

I know there's got to be more to it than that, because they usually run >$500 for a rebuild. I just want to understand what's involved.

Thanks!
 
I'm all for do it yourself, but I'd definitely leave that job to Phil. I don't remember it being that expensive? (Other than shipping)
 
X2 for shipping it to Phil and let him do it! I have shown the process in detail in articles before and I still think it is best to have him do it... If you get the tolerances wrong you can mess up a lot more than your converter!!!
 
TheBigNasty said:
I'm all for do it yourself, but I'd definitely leave that job to Phil. I don't remember it being that expensive? (Other than shipping)
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I didn't buy my triple disc through him, not sure if that'd matter, but on his site it says to reman a triple $895.

Chris Tobin said:
X2 for shipping it to Phil and let him do it! I have shown the process in detail in articles before and I still think it is best to have him do it... If you get the tolerances wrong you can mess up a lot more than your converter!!!
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Yeah, that's how I've always felt. I suppose that's why I posted this to see what the consensus was.
 
CorneliusRox said:
I didn't buy my triple disc through him, not sure if that'd matter, but on his site it says to reman a triple $895.



Yeah, that's how I've always felt. I suppose that's why I posted this to see what the consensus was.
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That is to buy a reman triple from him. ie. you send him chit stock unit as core he sends you shiny triple.
 
There's also videos on YouTube that show the process. I'd be willing to bet any labor savings would be offset by the cost of rebalancing, unless you have the equipment to do that.
 
Chris Tobin said:
They ran in Diesel World magazine... I'm not sure if they are on the website currently, but hopefully they will be included when the site is upgraded soon...

There are a couple pics of the TC build in this older article...

http://www.dieselworldmag.com/allison-101-trans-mods-handle-different-power-levels
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You're awesome... Thank you. Work was getting boring and I needed something to read. :thankyou2:

I'll leave the performance TC's alone but I'd love to tear into a stock one and give er a go once.
 
Thanks Tobin for the link and the write-up!

TheBigNasty said:
There's also videos on YouTube that show the process. I'd be willing to bet any labor savings would be offset by the cost of rebalancing, unless you have the equipment to do that.
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I definitely don't. :-/ I was hoping it was as easy as spinning it with a dial indicator on two surfaces that weren't the welded part, then sandwich them with some pressure, and weld around it. It is starting to sound like that's not the case. I guess I am surprised at this considering I've seen some welds on converters that definitely don't look robotic and I'd think that'd throw off the balance.

I wonder how accurate of a balancer I could make using a tire balancer and making an input adapter... Either way, I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and send it out after what everyone's saying.

whitneyj said:
I'll leave the performance TC's alone but I'd love to tear into a stock one and give er a go once.
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You and me both. I gave away my last stock one. If I still had it, I'd cut it apart for everyone with lots of pictures. If anyone wants to send me an old one lying around that isn't going to use it as a core, let me know. I'm fairly certain it'd fit on the lathe I use.
 
Yep I'll pay Phil any day.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6YqloTNWw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6YqloTNWw[/ame]
 
I had a billet faced Allison single disk converter rebuilt by Midwest converters, they are local to me for 210. That was with their big single disk parts, after watching the process I would leave it to the pro's.

I loved their converter till I was way outta single disk HP range, even then it performed good for a year before slipping..
 
rjustman said:
Inbox is full
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Cleared!

6 speed 90 said:
I had a billet faced Allison single disk converter rebuilt by Midwest converters, they are local to me for 210. That was with their big single disk parts, after watching the process I would leave it to the pro's.

I loved their converter till I was way outta single disk HP range, even then it performed good for a year before slipping..
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Can local 'normal' shops do triple billet converters? I'm not sure I'd trust them. I don't think I trust anyone in this state to touch anything on my transmission for the most part. :-/ That was one nice thing about CO. Lots of good people around.
 
Midwest by me builds converters for a lot of local drag racers... so I had some backing to my choosing them.
 
I have one out of a 4r100 I'll bring in tomorrow that you can cut apart. Alawys wanted todo just never got around to it.

As far a rebuilding them. Getting new clutches could be an issue. And I have heard alignment between stator and turbine are really critical.
 
I would definitely just get ahold of phil, his prices, service, and everything are above anything you'll get anywhere else. He is the man when it comes to TCs. He knows his chit and builds some badazz converters.
 
The 895 isn't Philadelphia rebuild price. I believe I was priced 350ish to go through and restall and refresh one but it's been a year or so.
 
Yeah, I've got a Transtar Recon CR70X-S4. I love the stall on it (~200rpm less than stock).

I lost pressure to it when a line burst a while back and I think I fried the lock up clutches. I got everything back together and it was holding still, but as time goes on, it slips a little more and more.
I was hoping the price would be less to just swap clutches over a new stator and what not.

Guess I'll start making some phone calls!

Thanks again for all the info everyone.
 
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