Need a trans rebuilt for a 2004 Monte Carlo SS 3800 non supercharged.

My kid's car and she loves it so we need the trans either rebuilt or swapped out with another rebuilt. Not going racing. Just need it to work. We are in Crystal Lake 60012 zip.

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Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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Jun 16, 2007
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kids got good taste.

do yerself a quick favor and pull back the carpeting on the rear strut towers inside the trunk, look for rust/delam.

this will be a good indicator of how long the chassis has left (dont worry, i drove for years with nothing but 2 4x4 chunks of wood holding my 97's strut bucket down wedging it between the package tray and strut mount.)

post some pics of what you find, right now the used market sucks for buyers but the W body is a good platform with few pitfalls besides the 4t65e transaxle and hub bearings triggering abs/traction lights

rockers forward of the C pilar and rear wheel arch spotwelds are good indicators too.

best place i can suggest is my old stomping ground, Harry's on Rand in palatine (just north of Lakecook rd on rand)

if you buy a low mile trans online, keep all inventory numbers/stock numbers with you to verify against the item your delivered/pick up. avaid all pressure washed transaxles, water contamination is the primary killer of JY transaxles, oily and black grime are good. i highly recommend that as a cheaper solution, you minimize risk of future labor costs if YOU pickup the trans/engine in person and can inspect for rust on splines (water-no good) and correct stock number. some folks dont wanna move 6 transmissions to get to yours....so you get the most recent one yanked.....

some yards will let you go through the "pile"

once you get the one you want, verified its your low mile/year/make/ratio......

then ask for the price with no warranty. then decide whether you feel lucky. most yards will only hold onto something they can verify, they gotta have a warrantyable item for the shops that call.....verify the good one, then possibly get it for half off.

the plain and simple fact is that most JY warranties will require you to present the car for inspection before they will rememdy it (ie the car has no 3rd/4th gear)....guess the tow bill on that one.....sometimes saving the $ upfront on a 50/50 bet is a far better play.

this works far better if your the labor. but even with a warrantied trans, your still gonna pay labor...again.

ive won this game about 80% of the time.

regards, James
 
Thanks--- I will check the strut towers.. She got the car when she was 15. Paid $1100. Over the last 3 years SHE replaced the oil pan gasket, starter, water pump, one front wheel bearing, front brakes and rotors, ignition switch, radio, gauge cluster and other things I can't think of. She loves her car but the trans replacement I believe will cost more than the car is worth... The focus and experience she's had working on it far ourweighs what all the parts cost.... Great experience for her. I did buy a known good trans but it is from the wrong year... 1998 and 2004 are not interchangeable I now know. It's a solid car that is just starting to pop over a wheelwell but smooth, quiet and no rattles....
 

Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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ive put a 97 trans into a 2004.

all you have to do is make a few soldering connections....the earlier trans pressure switch assembly isnt used on the later cars. the only thing you have to do is splice the trans range switch harness onto the 5 wires that go into the trans on the 04.

the 98 trans has the range switch bolted to the outside of the trans and the 03+ use an internal unit.
 
um, did they give you the 98 trans? they should have given you the correct IMS equipped trans if you gave em the 04 MC info, take it back and they'll likely correct it....but if its a good one, it might be worth keeping. is the Tq converter anything other than rusty steel? blue or greenish?

I bought it used off CL from a dude that crashed his 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix. Saw the car. Said it had 35k and was a GM reman. Paid $350. I was unaware that one size doesn't fit all... My bad. The fluid in it still looks new.

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Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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On my 04 I actually made a plug-and-play harness by just clipping some pigtails off cars at the junkyard.

To make it plug-in play you just need the male pin portion of a 4t80e harness, the female 4t65e pigtail, along with the range switch and harness from a 2002 and older transmission.
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Here you can see the range switch which has to be installed around the shift selector shaft. The only thing with this design is that you sometimes have to futz with it to adjust and make sure that it's clocked properly. On the 2003 and newer Transmissions GM moved the rain switch internally to prevent this issue arising while on the assembly line causing production delays and costing them $0.50 more each car
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Also GM change the terminology to denote the year break. the range switch on the old cars was referred to as the IMS the internal mode switch on the 03+
Well that is a great idea. And it will give her another reason to go to the junkyard by us. She had to lie and say she was 16 the first time she went lol. When we have the two ends we'll be back here! Thanks very much...
 

Turbocharged400sbc

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TFP switch as referred to in the mangled old pinout drawings is referring to the pressure switch manifold assembly that was part of the powertrain control computers diagnostic functions for the earlier Vehicles GM decided to forego a lot of those on board diagnostics and save money by deleting those switches in the newer Transmissions.
Those switches inside the older transmission will just sit there and won't cause any issues since they won't be hooked up and your harness won't even have the wires there
 

Turbocharged400sbc

3800 & 4T80E > ALL
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Also for posterity and anyone searching for this info in the future it is much easier to put an older transmission in a newer vehicle than a newer transmission in an older vehicle. You can do it but the only good way is with pulling the bottom pan and side pan off and swapping the internal trans harness as well as drilling the pressure switch manifold holes and installing the pressure switch manifold assembly
 

aj8

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Jan 12, 2013
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