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With all the questions related to valve body upgrades, I figured while building one; I’d snap some pictures to show what gets fixed and upgraded on 68RFE valve bodies.
I know a lot take pride in doing things yourself.
There are some kits out there to “build” a valve body, but just replacing accumulators and adding a separator plate doesn’t solve much.
As nice as these kits look, these kits don’t address the biggest issue that plagues these valve bodies.
The solenoid switch valve.
Honestly, I don’t see much wear in accumulator bores on the anodized valve bodies.
First, I never use the bonded separator plates since I have seen the bonded gasket separate and end up in the filter.
This particular valve body came out of my personal truck.
I pulled it out at 16k miles and put in one I had built previously.
Just stating the miles so you can see how early these valve body wear.
I vacuum check the solenoid switch valve and the end plugs to see if they were worn at all.
When the ssv bore wears, it lets fluid leak past the valve and will lightly apply the clutch pack just enough to drag it and wear the overdrive clutches prematurely.
Those billet accumulators and shiny channel plate that come in these do it yourself kits do nothing to help with this issue.
All of these readings are fail readings in my book; the last one is shallow.
All of these spots should pull 20in of vacuum or more.
Now, this valve body worked when it was in my truck, likely because the bores were still around and hadn’t worn yet into an oval.
Once they wear, this would have resulted in an overdrive clutch failure.
So as you can see, just cause your valve body is low mileage doesn’t mean anything.
The next set of pics is setting up the valve body and reaming the valve body for an oversized solenoid switch valve.
To ream the solenoid switch valve, you have to use a special jig to center the reamer.
After reaming and installing the oversized solenoid switch valve, I re vacuum check the ssv.
I forgot to take a pic of the spool valve after reading, but just like the other two spots, it is well above 20in a vacuum after reaming.
I flat sand the upper valve body and reinstall either the original or a new separator plate.
I don’t use bonded separator plates as I’ve seen many flake off and end up in the filter and pump.
I drill and tap for extra bolts on the accumulator plate, replace the plastic accumulators and add a billet channel plate to eliminate cross leaks.
This is what all the big names and many of your local transmission shops are capable of doing.
It’s not magic or proprietary to one company; I’m not saying names.
Just a disclaimer this post is for information only.
I’m not a vendor here, and I don’t plan on becoming one.
I build transmissions locally and have more than enough to keep me busy, LOL.
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Originally Posted by CDIJeff
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