transfer case and 48RE fluid change

[buzzinghalfdozen24]

The transfercase is a drain and fill plug... make sure the fill plug is not seized before pulling the drain plug.

Second that comment. Mines was seized in place. I got it fixed when my transfer case was out later for a trans rebuild. It stripped the torx bit. I tapped hard with a hammer trying to free it up too, still wouldn't move. Had to weld a nut onto it to get it out.

 

[deeselfitter]

I will def try the welding trick.....my hex allen socket rounded out the hole

Second that comment. Mines was seized in place. I got it fixed when my transfer case was out later for a trans rebuild. It stripped the torx bit. I tapped hard with a hammer trying to free it up too, still wouldn't move. Had to weld a nut onto it to get it out.

 

[spin05]

Found these guys recently up my way. http://www.cascadetransmissionparts.com/48re.aspx Am order all my parts this week. They make a kit that has everything you need......

 

[Boaring1961]

With my recent experience I wouldn't order anything from Cascade Transmission Parts. I bought two items from them. One went out within two weeks. They would not call me back to tell me how to test the parts so I had to send both back for them to test. I was without my truck for 4 days! All I wanted was some info so I could get it locally and not have to wait for the mail both ways. Never again!!

 

[gtobey]

48RE Service notes after the 4th time doing it...

I recently had good service from Cascade Transmissions. Received the Borg Warner solenoid in less than a week along with a new 3-4 accumulator spring. Serviced my 48RE transmission and transfer case the first time at 20K miles, when I purchased the drain plug kit from Geno's and put. I continued to service it every 25K after that. At 45K miles, I started using Amsoil ATF. The drain plug makes it so easy to remove the night before I am going to work on it, and let it drain out. I usually do the same for the transfer case.

I silver soldered the hollow plug and nut to the transmission pan so nothing will ever get loose. I still support the removal of the 1/8" pipe plug by putting a wrench on the larger hex before attempting to loosen the pipe plug.

Here's what the inside of my pan looked like at 95K miles. The pan and fluid still looked clean, the magnet had a very slight gray slime on it, and the filter inlet was still quite clean even after towing my PJ 18' tilt and United box trailers. The two times I have serviced it after it had the Amsoil ATF in it, there was much less gray film on everything, and I have not had to wash out the pan. A simple wipe out with a rag and reinstall it! Best of all, when rechecking the band adjustments, they have not changed. I take note of where the adjustment screws are, then using my Snap-On digital tech wrench, I torque the screws to exactly 72 lbs. in of torque. Backing the screws out the proper number of turns, I look at the adjusting screw marks, and they are in exactly the same place! Perfect! No band adjustment change in 50K miles! I am both pleased and amazed!

This is a picture of the Borg Warner Solenoid installed in the valve body, replacing the smaller one from Mopar. It fit perfectly, and at the same time I replaced the Mopar pressure transducer. I understand why it a good thing to replace both of these about every 50K miles as I was just beginning to experience what I call "confusion shifting" again. Here's what mine feels like when it does this. When letting off the throttle to coast around the curve on an interstate cloverleaf entrance ramp, slowing down around 23-25mph, then pushing on the throttle for moderate acceleration, the transmission can't decide which gear it should choose. It downshifts to from fourth to second, then down to first for a brief moment, then finally lands back in second and accelerates normally after that. I travel that entrance ramp every morning going to work and it becomes obvious when it occurs. When it begins to act up like this, I now know what is wrong, and now how to remedy it.

This solenoid/transducer change seemed to provide much more positive shifting from 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to third. With the same amount of throttle for normal acceleration as if accelerating in traffic, the vehicle tends to accelerate a bit quicker. The shift points in relation to the vehicle speed seems to be much more consistent than before. 1st to 2nd on level ground (truck only) occurs about 15mph, and 2nd to 3rd occurs at 26-27mph. When very lightly accelerating, as if going down a slight incline, you will hear the engine change tone when it upshifts, but now it changes gears so smoothly, you never feel the upshifts.

Now, addressing the differenced from the 3-4 accumulator spring change. I had never hear of this recommendation to change this accumulator spring, and with the inexpensive price, I opted to purchase this spring. They advertised it to have thicker coils than the stock spring, and that some original OEM springs actually had broken. I removed the cover over the spring/accumulator piston and removed my OEM spring (which was still intact) and removed the accumulator piston. (If you do this, go ahead and remove the piston from the bore. If you don't, and leave it up in there, it could fall out and get damaged. Pull it out and put it in a rag or pan for protection until you're ready to replace it.) I compared the OEM spring to the one I just purchased, and I used calipers on both. The spring coils were the same thickness. My OEM spring had a purple swatch of paint on the coils for some sort of identification. The new Cascade spring was different from my original only in the free length. It was about 0.070" to 0.080" longer than the original spring.

I installed this new spring from Cascade when I put the solenoid/transducer back in, and finished the service to the transmission and transfer case. Leaving the drain plug out and draining it for 9 hours allowed quite a lot of fluid to drain out. I initially put 5 quarts in the transmission and started the engine and put it in neutral. I ended up putting just over 9 quarts of ATF back in to get the fluid to register about 1/3 of the way up in the hatch marks on the dipstick at idle in neutral.

Test drive. I noticed that what I called the "confusion shifting" was gone. I also noticed some changes in the 3-4 shifting from the spring change. It has helped the 3rd-4th gear shift by seeming to move that shift point up about 4 to 5 mph under normal acceleration, (now occurs about 39-40mph vs. 34-35mph) while still allowing it to easily shift into 4th gear if you remove your foot from the accelerator to coast. Under hard acceleration such as when attempting to enter the interstate, the combination of these parts seems to keep the transmission positively in the gear it needs. Quality of shift changes are smooth, yet solid. I am very pleased with this combination and hope it will continue to provide good service for at least another 50K miles.