Fill’er Up!
The Aisin Seiki 450-43LE has a very small diameter fill tube, and a very large
diameter torque converter. It’s just about impossible to get fluid down the fill
tube fast enough to keep the pump from starving for oil.
O
K, you’re at the bench and
it’s complete. You have built
a great transmission. You
haven’t skimped – it’s got the latest in
geartrain, hydraulic and electronic control upgrades. You spent the money for
a premium kit and top quality friction
plates, and you also have invested in a
premium torque converter. The torque
converter may have cost a little more,
but you know that your converter supplier doesn’t skimp on their products,
either. You even have the correct fluid
that goes with the unit, and that, in and
of itself these days, is not an inexpensive item. All in all, you know how
important quality is – your name is riding on the results.
Now, all that has to happen is that
somebody – maybe an R&R person,
maybe a general repair shop, maybe the
owner of the vehicle, heck, maybe even
you yourself – just has to get it installed
and filled with fluid. After a good, clean
installation (Congratulations! No extra
parts left over!), filling the transmission
with oil will be the easy part, right?
Don’t be so sure.
There are units that fill from the
60
By Steve Jaussaud
©
2007 Sonnax Industries
this information as you can get your
hands on, and make sure it is accessible to the people doing the actual
initial oil fill and start up.
Instead, this article will describe
the failures (obvious as well as hidden) that can occur when a unit
starves for oil, and some of the general practices that you can employ
to help prevent failures – across the
board.
FAILURES THAT
CAN OCCUR WHEN
YOU DON’T FILL
THE TRANMSISSION
PROPERLY:
engine compartment, and there are
units that fill from under the vehicle.
There are units that fill from under
the vehicle, but you check the level by
The obvious, and usually the first,
accessing the dip stick from under the
failure is the pump – that’s no surprise.
hood. There are units that fill the ‘transWhether it’s a gear and crescent pump,
mission’ from the engine compartment,
a gerotor pump, or a vane and rotor style
but then fill the ‘differential’ separately
pump, no automatic transmission pump
from under the vehicle. There are units
is going to last long without enough
that fill from under the vehicle at one
oil. But, what happens if you run the
plug, but then you check the level at
unit low on oil for just a short time?
another plug. Some units require that
Or the pump sucks air, then oil, then
you purchase a dip stick as a separate ‘tool’. The point of this article is
not to give you specific instructions
about all of the different procedures
needed with all of the newer units.
The variables seem endless, and there
isn’t enough room in a single article
to tackle that topic. Besides, ATRA
and others have done great work in
getting the specifics documented in
a variety of tech bulletins and other
informational sources. Another good
source of information on ‘how to fill
This is what happens when you don't fill
the transmission on initial startup’ is
a KM Series in neutral.
the OEMs themselves in their factory
manuals and some of their tech bulletins. Collect and organize as much of
GEARS October 2007
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8/7/07 9:43:21 AM
Fill’er Up!
Failure caused by lack of lubricant.
Close up of the Aisin Seiki Drive hub and bushing welded on to the hub.
Fill it in neutral. With your assistant behind
the wheel, and as long as none of the tech
bulletins or factory manuals tell you otherwise,
fill the unit with the engine running and
the selector in neutral. Some units will not
efficiently fill in park, but in neutral, they fill
efficiently and quickly.
62
air for a prolonged period? Running a
pump – or any other transmission component – low on oil may not cause an
immediate or obvious failure, but the
component may be overly stressed to
the point that it might fail prematurely.
And if Murphy’s Law holds true, that
premature failure will probably occur
within your warranty period. But what
about other components besides the
pump? Other sub systems in the unit
are quickly at risk when you don’t get
enough oil into the pump quickly. The
next is the unit that typically drives the
pump: the torque converter. Today’s
converters typically have 3 bearings,
and those bearings are put into service
the instant that the engine turns over.
And those bearings do not like to run
without oil. By comparison, an earlier
style torque converter, like a C6 or a
727 for example, only has thrust washers – no bearings. Clearly, the newer
torque converters are much more sensitive to running dry. Although I don’t
have any hard data to prove it, I believe
that the root cause of a significant percentage of aftermarket torque converter
bearing failures is due to lack of lube
on initial start up. Like the pump, the
converter may not fail immediately, but
premature failure is very possible if the
unit runs dry for any sustained length
of time. Another typical component
failure associated with lack of lube
upon start up is the various support
bushings. The bushing that supports the
converter in the pump, as well as bushings or bearings that support the input
shaft in the stator support tube will fail
very quickly without proper oil flow.
Ever seen a pump bushing ‘welded’ to
a torque converter hub? Lack of oil is
almost always the culprit.
SUGGESTED PRACTICES
FOR FILLING UNITS:
In general, there are a few things
you can do to help prevent problems
while filling the transmission on initial
start up.
• Prelube anything that will
rotate as soon as the engine fires.
When you build a transmission, you
always use assembly lube, right? Good
– its good practice and cheap insurance
to liberally coat all moving pump (and
other) parts with lube.
GEARS October 2007
GEARS October 2007
are ‘slow to fill’. There are a number
of units out there that are very slow to
fill, even if you have a pressurized oil
dispensing system in your shop. A good
example of this is the Aisin Seiki 45043LE (Fig 1). The fill tube and dipstick
for this model is very small in diameter,
and it has a very large diameter torque
converter. It’s just about impossible to
get fluid down the fill tube fast enough
to keep the pump from starving for
oil. You can’t assume that you can just
start to fill this transmission without
first performing some basic tasks. If
you start the unit without prefilling the
AMORIMgears2006.qxp 12/14/06 1:37
pan/sump and without prefilling the
SEALING PERFORMANCE!
• Prefill the torque converter.
Your torque converter (and your torque
converter builder) will thank you!
• Know what you are dealing
with. Pull out your bulletins; get out
your fluid guides. How many quarts of
oil will you need? Do you check the
fluid level with a dipstick or at a fill
plug? Does it have to warm up before
all of the hydraulic circuits can pressurize? Are there any ‘adaptive learn’
issues that you also need to contend
with on start up? These and other issues
can have significant effects upon the fill
procedure.
• Have all your resources ready
ahead of time. OK, you know how
much oil it takes, and you have enough
to do the job. But do you have the right
equipment to fill that unit from underneath the vehicle? Does your shop have
a pressurized oil dispensing system,
a hand pump set up, or do you have
to fill the unit ‘by gravity’? After you
have the vehicle started is not the time
to find out that the ‘coffee can and funnel’ method is not getting fluid into the
sump fast enough.
• Get an Assistant. Even if it’s
only for the sake of safety, you need
to have somebody behind the wheel. I
have seen lots of strange things happen
in transmission shops, and it would not
be completely out of the realm of possibility for a vehicle with a fresh trans
to have linkage that falls from park or
neutral into gear ‘on its own’. Seeing a
driverless vehicle headed for the back
wall of your shop can be quite alarming. Besides being there for safety, a
person that is behind the wheel can be
there to immediately shut the engine off
if needed. If the car is up on the hoist,
and you are filling it from underneath,
it can take a long time to get from the
shop floor to the ignition switch if you
have to shut the engine off. The time it
would take to do that may be enough
time to cause immediate and substantial
damage.
• Fill it in neutral. With your
assistant behind the wheel, and as long
as none of the tech bulletins or factory
manuals tell you otherwise, fill the unit
with the engine running and the selector in neutral. Some units will not efficiently fill in park, but in neutral, they
fill efficiently and quickly.
• Be prepared for units that
torque converter and without using any
assembly lube in the pump, you are
just about guaranteed to sustain major
pump and converter damage. As you
should with all units, this transmission should have the sump completely
filled prior to starting the engine. On
this transmission in particular, there are
technicians that prefill the sump, prefill
the converter, and after they install the
converter into the transmission, they
hand spin the converter in an attempt
to prime the pump so that upon installation, the pump will immediately be
able to ‘pick up’ fluid as soon as the
PM Page 1
Continued on page 66
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Fill’er Up! Continued from page 63
Significant Bearing Damage
engine fires. With this procedure, they
have eliminated premature pump and
converter failures that they were seeing
in previous units. Also, with your assistant behind the wheel, there is another
tactic you can employ in dealing with
units that are slow to fill: they can start
and stop the engine in conjunction with
you putting in the oil. For example,
on this 450-43LE, you have filled the
sump and converter before starting the
engine. Upon engine start, you begin to
(slowly – there’s that skinny fill tube!)
fill the sump as fluid is picked up by
the pump. However, the pump can
suck up fluid way faster than you can
fill the pan. After initial start up, have
your assistant turn off the engine after
about 10 seconds. This will allow you
to continue filling the sump until the
pan is full, and then the engine can be
restarted. You may have to go through
this procedure multiple times before
the unit is completely full, but you can
be confident that you will fill the unit
without damaging any components.
• Once it’s full, drive the vehicle
and check the fluid again. Then check
it again. Checking ATF levels can be
tricky, especially with some of the very
66
‘thin’ oils that are in use today. It can be
tough to read the dipstick when the oil
is fresh! I have seen very experienced
techs get ‘false readings’ on dip sticks,
and then proceed to test drive the car
when it was really a couple of quarts
low. It doesn’t take much time to double
check that you have the correct amount
of fluid, especially when you are about
to put the unit through its paces with
a vigorous test drive and/or adaptive
learn process. It would be unfortunate
to get everything right – only to damage
the unit upon the test drive because of a
lack of fluid.
In conclusion, when it comes to
getting oil into the transmission, don’t
get lulled into a false sense of security.
Even though some of the topics discussed here may seem quite basic, you
can’t assume that everyone is as critical
as you are about the details. You can’t
expect general repair techs (much less
a ‘do it yourselfer’) to keep up with
all of the different procedures for all of
the different units. In the past, perhaps
you have filled more 4L60’s, 4R100’s
and 46RE’s than you care to remember.
But don’t confuse the fill procedure on
one of these ‘simple’ units with filling
a late model unit. Transmission builders
do not always have control over who
installs their products. Before turning that great transmission and torque
converter over to a complete stranger,
or even a seasoned technician, make
sure that they have a good understanding of what it takes to properly get oil
into the unit. Otherwise, there is a good
chance that you may be going back into
that transmission, with at least another
pump and torque converter.
Steve Jaussaud is Vice
President of Sales and Marketing
for Sonnax.
Sonnax supports the Torque
Converter Rebuilders Association.
Learn more about the group at
www.tcraonline.com
Special thanks to Chris Lenox
at Camerota Truck Parts in Enfield,
CT and Mike Maravelas at Bob’s
Transmission and Clutch Service
in Simi Valley, CA for help with this
article.
GEARS October 2007
4L30E Shift Kit® is the FIX
BUSHING: New Center Support Distribution Bushing
Would you like to replace the Rear Band only once?
Valve Body & Pump Parts/Upgrades – Input Shaft Valve
George Reed
CJ’s Auto, Bruceton Mills, WV 26525
4L30E Isuzu Rodeo 2000
13 June 2007
Slips Forward and Reverse ---99,356 miles.
The rear band was shot and the rear drum scored up.
The clutches were not worn at all. We installed band
and drum, new clutches and a rebuilt converter, made
a road test, and gave it to the customer.
CEL
EBR
ATE
!
The very next day it was towed in
with no drive forward.
The 1-2 rear band was totally burned out - again.
I called TransGo and David told me the band burns up when the distribution bushing in the
center support wears or is to loose.
The distribution bushing leaks rear band release pressure which allows the 1-2 band to drag
on the drum in 3rd and 4th.
He said, “if you will write a report on the problem we will send you a Center Support
Bushing with the right clearance and a precision installation tool at no charge.” “Otherwise,”
David said, “A new center support for prox $230 will, at least, get it out the door for awhile.
Parts came UPS overnight. I was totally relieved to have the fix in my little hot hands. This
letter is the report I promised.
We cleaned unit up, installed the TransGo bushing and a new band.
TransGo’s insisted on a thorough test, so we drove the car 4 days, 150 miles and made
sure we got it hot. It has been 2 weeks and the customer says it’s working better than ever.
We’ve used TransGo kits for 15 years and firmly believe that they let us do a better job for
the customer, and also keep us out of trouble.
George Reed