Alright I was taking the shifter "arm" off my TH400 and I snapped off the fawkin nut that holds the arm on. Anything I can do short of replacing the whole shift rod that goes into the side of the tranny? Can I replace the shifter rod without pulling the tranny? Ill have to pull the valve body tho...Im trying to remember when I last rebuilt a TH400...are those stupid little ball bearings positioned such that you cant replace the valve body upside down? ie, does the whole tranny have to be upside down for them not to fall out? Im about ready to tear my hair out...

ben

Alright I was taking the shifter "arm" off my TH400 and I snapped off the fawkin nut that holds the arm on. Anything I can do short of replacing the whole shift rod that goes into the side of the tranny? Can I replace the shifter rod without pulling the tranny? Ill have to pull the valve body tho...Im trying to remember when I last rebuilt a TH400...are those stupid little ball bearings positioned such that you cant replace the valve body upside down? ie, does the whole tranny have to be upside down for them not to fall out? Im about ready to tear my hair out...

ben

no.

yes.

you shouldnt have to pull the valve body, but lemme go check....nope, you dont. fawk its cold out there.

You need to pull the nail out. that will be fun, all in itself, because its close to the pump. it might take some bending, but you can get the nail out. once its out, the shaft will slide right out the side of the case.

take off the oil pan, take off the nut holding the rooster comb on, then take out the nail, slide one out, slide one in, reverse order.

awesome thanks thats a huge help...that makes me feel a lot better that I dont have to pull the valve body! I dont really remember the nail and other parts that hold the shift rod in but Ill figure it out when I pull the pan..

thanks

awesome thanks thats a huge help...that makes me feel a lot better that I dont have to pull the valve body! I dont really remember the nail and other parts that hold the shift rod in but Ill figure it out when I pull the pan..

thanks

remember, some of the shafts are metric thread on the nut end, so get the nut too when you get the shifter shaft.

should have an o-ring on the shaft as well depending on year, good time to put a new one on.

Im not sure what year its from. I bought it from the junk yard and it actually said "4.3" on it, and the only apps that used a TH400/4.3 were I beleive 1988-1989 (??) chevy 1500 base model work trucks. So its probably from around there..

I had another TH400 case, the original one from the CJ that I had to ditch because it had the AMC bolt pattern; of course I threw out the shift rod from that one, go figure. Hopefully its not an expensive part...

I think I have one in my broken case you can have if its spendy local. Should only be a couple bucks shipping.

and if you cant get poorboys, i have a shitpot full of em kicking around here.

thanks ill keep that in mind; Ill check the auto parts stores first and then if not, the parts dept at the $tealer.

I was just reading through this post and I did the same thing on my 400. Would any of you guys that said you had a shift rod still have one or know where I can get one.

Thanks Ben

i probably have a couple sitting around.... how many do you want?

How much would I owe ya for it Grumpy? Also I was reading in one of the earlier posts that you have to have the tranny upside down to install the valve body. Well I bought a Reverse FMVB and was going to install this in my 400. I just got everything put together and under the buggy. Am I going to have to pull everthing back out when the VB finally shows up?