Well I got it installed, and first thing to say is, its not as hard as everyone thinks, its just getting things out and looking at what your doing and what parts your dealing with. I would say you would be more worried about keeping all the tranny parts clean as possible (as in not getting dirt/crud/dust etc... on them) and looking over all the parts to make sure you installed everything CORRECTLY, if you don't you could damage your tranny. I found it to be pretty much straight forward as installing parts goes. The directions with the kit give you good pictured details and tell you where and how most of the parts come out.

The following threads are ones I searched for and used for aid in my install. You need to sift through all the posts in the thread to find the relevant info to help you. There is one more, but I can't find it. It is Corbin's quick walkthrough of the install.

This one below has good pictures of in process working.
http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=33&topic_id=3066&mesg_id=3066&page=

http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=33&topic_id=134&mesg_id=134&listing_type=search

http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=23&topic_id=265

I took a few pictures with my camera phone, the quality is okay, but could be better. You still get the idea.


This is the top of the park actuator (correct me if I am wrong slightly off by my description) but you need to remove this bolt so the cable/connector comes off. You then need to slide off the top part with the tab coming out that was connected to the cable. (It may be froze on there so I used a lil WD-40 to free it up and pop it off.) Once this is off you will be able to slide the valvebody down and out.


This is a picure of the entire valvebody/assembly as a whole when I pulled it out of the car. To drop this out I took out all the hex style bolts around the outside of the valve body on its underside. Be sure to unplug the sensor located to the right of the solenoid pack...(it may be covered in a black rubber-like shroud) if you do not unplug this sensor you could end up breaking it while trying to drop the valvebody out!


Here are the underdrive and overdrive pistons from the valvebody. Above them are the expanders and seals which will be installed on the "Closed End" of the piston. The stock seal remains on the open end so no need to mess with it. Also install the 2 spacers (total of 3 that go in the center with the bigger spring surrounding it). When dropping out the valvebody I pulled it down too quick and the 2 pistons popped out and fell down. Ease the valve body out to ensure you know which one is the OD and the UD piston. If you don't remember which goes where there is a picture with some detail showing you which one is the OD and UD. Just make sure you have the right spring and spacer in the correct fitting for the piston.

To take apart the valve body you will need a 3/8 extension with a T-25 Torx bit attachment. There are several of these small bolts to remove. When you take this apart there are 3 check balls, and a small filter that may fall out. Make sure you keep track of them at this point. You do not want to lose/misplace these parts. They also must be installed exactly where they were before. The rest of the instructions are pretty self-explanatory for following drilling Just take your time.

There is one more piston that is held in up inside the tranny by a snap ring. You will need a set of snap ring plyers to get the ring out and then you will see a little cover wit a knob in the middle simply pulled this out (be ready) the piston is going to drop out so don't let it hit you in the face or slam to the ground. This is the L/R piston (low/reverse). Install the new expander and seal on the "closed end" and install the new spacer. Then put the piston back up into place along wit the cover and snap ring.

Hopefully my directions are clear somewhat in certain points. My car is still down with headwork and I'm waiting for that to get back to slap on my shortblock from VT. Here are some pics of it.




8.8:1 custom CP pistons, balanced, blue printed, and assembled wit eagle rods, clevite main/rod bearings and a brand new crankshaft. Gotta love it.


*rebuild in process...too much spent and still not fast enough*
GST Muffler
injen short ram intake
magnecore 8.5mm wires
EGR removal/blockoff
front/rear strut tower bars
GSX dual piston calipers

glad to see you got it all working man. i didnt connect the rooster gear correctly my first time and the car wouldnt go into gear. i knew it as soon as i tried to shift it from neutral exactly what i did. the rooster gear is that half sprocket type thing connected to the long rod.

anyway nice job.

______________________________
Matt D.
'06 Evo IX SE
'98 RS-T 13.8 @ 106.1

Well I thought I installed everything correctly but I may be unsure on one part of getting the valvebody back up into place. I have a picture pointing to the small rod wit the green spring that engages/disengages under a lil clip. Here is a pic to point out what I'm talking about.



The first time I put it back up into place it seemed that this rod was disengaged and was catching in a tab up inside the tranny. I noticed that you could push in on this rod to engage it to catch under the little tab on the valvebody (see picture above again). When I had the valvebody all the way up I pushed the rod in so it would catch up into this slot. After I got that back into place the VB slid back up into place and I put all the 10mm bolts back in.

I connected the actuator back into place. Now I'm not sure on this. I went in my car to see if I could switch through my gears correctly and I got it to lockup back into park but it was relatively harder to get back into park and it would slide through Neutral and drive. I guess my question is, once the car is running again will these gears catch back into place or do I need to go back and correct something?

Its hard to describe what I'm noticing, its kinda like you have to be there to get the true understanding. Hopefully someone can help me out. Thanks.


*rebuild in process...too much spent and still not fast enough*
GST Muffler
injen short ram intake
magnecore 8.5mm wires
EGR removal/blockoff
front/rear strut tower bars
GSX dual piston calipers

Sorry I got your p.m. too late for this.

It sounds like your park actuator may be in sideways or something. I wouldn't fret yet though. get your car running, and if it still feels wierd, then I would pull the VB out again and see if it will fit better.
I wouldn't suggest driving the car if it still feels wrong.

here's a tip....
if you end up pulling the VB again. put the trans into low gear before you pull it out. keep it in low while you are installing the VB again. it makes it so that the parking actuator rod "the small rod with the green spring" can slip right in place without any trouble.

let us know. I will try to keep an eye on this board.

peace
WIKKI


THAT is not f**king THAT!
THIS is f**king THIS!

Thanks man, I'm glad you caught the post. I had followed your instruction in leaving the gear in low, but I think when I disconnected the cable from the park rod up in the engine bay that it may have slipped up into 2nd or higher, so I think I may be off there. I noticed that with the cable disconnected, you can pull back and push forward and it will change through gears, it seems I may be off from where the gear selector and what actual gear the cable was in when the valve body was out. Does this make sense?

I'd really hate to fill my trans fluid up have the car running and find out something is wrong, I am installing a drain plug and remote filter soon as well. It probably wouldn't hurt to pull it back out and run through things again...It just sucks having to take those bolts back out again, but its better to be right than to have a screwed tranny.

Thanks.



*rebuild in process...too much spent and still not fast enough*
GST Muffler
injen short ram intake
magnecore 8.5mm wires
EGR removal/blockoff
front/rear strut tower bars
GSX dual piston calipers

I've been trying to turn my website into a big ass help file.
Heres's some more info for anyone still wanting to do this.

Some pics of my install
http://www.thisfreedumb.com/dirty/My2gNT/Tranny/

The instructions for the shiftkit. They start with transgo. The last 4 at the bottom.
http://www.thisfreedumb.com/dirty/Tech/Instructions/

"Natty Ride"


http://dirty.thisfreedumb.com/

bump...good info and pictures Dirty.

anyone else have any thoughts or ideas to my last post?


*rebuild in process...too much spent and still not fast enough*
GST Muffler
injen short ram intake
magnecore 8.5mm wires
EGR removal/blockoff
front/rear strut tower bars
GSX dual piston calipers

Trial and error dude. I had to do the same thing. Fuck I broke my trans range sensor when I took out my valvebody.

On a side note, if you put in a drain plug in your pan, get it welded in. I wish I never put mine in. It leaks no matter what. I'm gonna weld it and sale it once I get a new one to put on. I just don't think it's something we need. I need to take my pan off anyway to clean all my damn magnets.

"Natty Ride"


http://dirty.thisfreedumb.com/

This is true, the drain plug saves you some time and a mess, but dropping the pan seems to be a lot more thourough in cleaning.

I just don't want to bust something on my trans if its not in the right gear thats the point I was getting at. It sure does SEEM though that I got everything back up into place correctly, because the valvebody slid back up perfectly into place with all pistons in the correct spots. The only skeptic part was that actuator rod being engaged to fit back into the slot it appeared to disengage out of.


*rebuild in process...too much spent and still not fast enough*
GST Muffler
injen short ram intake
magnecore 8.5mm wires
EGR removal/blockoff
front/rear strut tower bars
GSX dual piston calipers