Major tranny problem (TH350)

[V-DAWG]

"F"
My wife is going to kill me!

The used TH350 I put into my FJ-40 is busted. In reverse, it violently leaks near the tail housing. I just spoke with a tranny shop, and they said it is common in 4x4's because of the t-case stressing it out. They also said it can't be welded because the slag may go into the housing and interrupt a piston back there.

Has anyone just welded it anyway? and did it work? The crack isn't even visible until the fluid is coming out of it.

The same shop said it would be $675 for a rebuild with a used housing. That includes everything.

I am probably just going to sell the vehicle when it is up and running. Should I go with anything fancy like a reverse manual valve body for bling factor, or just leave the tranny stock? What rpm stall convertor are people running?

If you know of a good/ used TH350 let me know. It will be mated to a NP205.

Dang I ramble...............................

HELP ME PLEASE! I need to get this thing going without spending much more money, or my wife will be collecting my life insurance.

 

[DaveB]

The last time I was out at the pick n pull there was a 1980 blazer that had the th350/205 combo in it. Not sure if it is still there however. It was on the last row of trucks.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Contact Ilean, he has had his share of tranny welding... not sure if he pulled the guts out though...

 

[way2nosty]

I've Tigged them before, just behind the Stator assy. Common place to break, You Don't have to weld it with super penetration, juststop the leak, then put a small piece of Al on top of it then 1"x1/8 etc tap it so it sits next to the trans, then weld all around it a little at a time to keep it from gettin too hot, The tranny shp just wants to sell you a rebuild.

 

[Caleb]

trannies are hard to weld on because they are very pourous. Doable, but hard. Like Cruiser said, contact ILean, he had his T400 welded up (and maybe his T350 too?). I knwo you should really fix the problem but what about some silicon? Would that possibly work?

 

[Caleb]

oh, also about the manual VB. After having one, I would do it again for sure for a trail rig. For a rig that sees street time I would look into one of the combo ones that you can still put it into drive and it will be an automatic cause it would suck to miss a gear or forget to put it into 1 at a light or ??? which sounds silly but its WAY easy to do on an auto

 

[way2nosty]

trannies are hard to weld on because they are very pourous. Doable, but hard. Like Cruiser said, contact ILean, he had his T400 welded up (and maybe his T350 too?). I knwo you should really fix the problem but what about some silicon? Would that possibly work?

Tigging helps with the pourous casting, the last one I did, I drilled a 3/16 hole at both ends of the crack then took a 3/32 cutoff wheel and cleaned out the crack then spotted both ends then did a series of spot welds at about 1/2" intervals until it was all the way across, then filled in the middle then pulled the heat down on the torch and finish welded it.

 

[way2nosty]

most of the times I have seen this is caused by a broken motor mount and a "fabbed" transmission mount where the transmission can't move around so the engine moves, and the trans is mounted solid, the aluminium neck of the transmission is the weakest link and it breaks, I would most definatly check to make sure these conditions don't exist or it'll just do it again.

 

[Bud]

you can get one for $400 (rebuilt) from what used to be Clearfield auto parts, but is Parts plus in Clearfield, just trade in your core plus you get a new torgue convertor. TSO transmissions in Roy is awesome, did a hell of a job on my TH350 after I found out the pump and one of the bands was busted, they reuilt and did a shift kti for $450. Very happy with the job they did!