TH400 Amateur Build

[TXChevy]

Lol BIG FUN !

Well today I got the side brackets made. Not really much to look at unless you figure in all the added work!

Here's one side test fit, you can also see the engine support. Both sides fit well, I'm satisfied with the engine location.


The support setup worked well, allowed for small changes to dial in the mounts.

Original mounts on top, new mounts on the bottom. You can see the difference - a lot of extra work and aggravation - but it needed to be done right.


I'll get them painted and installed, then back to our regularly scheduled program of finishing the transmission!

 

[TXChevy]

Drivetrain Installation Completed ......

Truly a trip down the rabbit hole, but I"m glad it's done and everything looks good.

Headers are still off, waiting on new gaskets. I'm using Remflex 2036 round port graphite gaskets - I really like them. They are extra thick and seal very well. Unfortunately, they are a bit brittle so removing the headers caused some breaking of the gaskets. Not cheap, but hopefully this time the headers will be on for a long time.

Here's the money shot - everything is bolted up, crossmember back in place.
I also made sure that the engine mounts are positioned so that there's some weight on the transmission mount, but not too much, meaning that there's not too much weight bearing down on the transmission bellhousing, nor too little so that the transmission tailshaft is pulled down at the rear mount. Sort of a balancing act.


I was playing around with the phone camera, sort of a fisheye view.


Driveshaft is positioned correctly now, plenty of clearance for rear axle movement, as well as clearance to handbrake assembly/cables.
I'll now go back and look at driveline angles.


Shows about a degree lean on the engine, but I realized the car is also slightly leaning by that amount.
Needs a bit of air in the tires after sitting for so long.


I wanted to give a bit more detail on my temporary engine support setup in case anybody else deals with a midmount plate or similar setup. This lets me support and adjust the engine without having to use a hoist. Figuring the loads, this is well able to support the engine - I didn't even see any deflection.

This is the wooden base support. It rests on a scissor jack.


Here's the support bolted onto the vertical brackets, engine mounts in place and scissor jack removed. It's just hanging there.


This is the driver side vertical bracket that will remain in place, doesn't interfere with exhaust.
Looking at the engine mount and vertical support bracket from the front of the car.
That's the tube for the relocated oil pressure sender.


This is the passenger side vertical bracket that will remain in place.
Looking at the engine mount and vertical support bracket from the front of the car.
That's the starter cable going through the bracket.


There's a little bit of trimming that will be needed on the dust shield that attaches below the bellhousing, very easy.

I suppose that (I don't plan to!) the engine mount plate and the vertical support bracket could be made from a single piece of plate.
Incidentally, I used .25 plate for these plates/brackets and engine mounts - very strong.

So now it's on to the transmission cooler and cooler lines, the vacuum line for the modulator and installation of the shifter cable.
If you look on the other thread, the console area gauges, wiring, and shifter are all done.

 

[Indycars]

I also made sure that the engine mounts are positioned so that there's some weight on the transmission moun

How would you adjust the load on the trans when you only have two points of support? One mount at the bell housing can't be moved and neither can the trans mount.

 

[TXChevy]

Shims if needed. The crossmember and axle worked fine before in their positions, the engine can be adjusted by add or remove shims of different thicknesses at the front or rear mounts.


This is the engine mount setup. You've seen a ton of info on the rear mounts. The front mounts each have three 1.5" diameter x .25" thick pads cut from square vibration isolation pad, one 1"x .25" 90A durometer, 500 psi rating from McMaster Carr. These were chosen for minimal deflection. They work great. If needed they can be changed for different thickness, but right now it all sits right.


The engine is very secure but not hard bolted to the frame.

 

[TXChevy]

Transmission Cooler....

Here's the comparison between the old and new coolers, should be able to keep the unit at a nominal operating temp.


Started fitting up the new cooler, this is the back side. I don't like those tabs, I'll make some nicer triangular versions. Even though they're mostly hidden, they'll get re-done, because I'll know lol.


I also spent a lot of time figuring out cooler line materials and routing. I think I've got it sorted out.

Taking a week off, needed a break before this car turns into a job!

 

[TXChevy]

Transmission Cooler .............

Got back to it today, did a bunch of miscellaneous but needed things along with moving ahead with the cooler.
Got the shift cable installed, now the shifter actually works.
Connected the downshift solenoid and installed the temperature sender in the pan, so now I've got a functional transmission fluid temperature gauge.

I made some nicer brackets for the cooler, installed using my favorite method - rivet nuts.


Installed on the car now, you can see a big difference in this cooler vs the old one (besides the cardboard).


Old cooler


Now that the cooler is in place I can start on the cooler lines.
There will be a hard line portion at the cooler, going under the radiator support.
Then braided lines all the way to the transmission, all AN fittings.

I always start with nicely straightened and clean tubing, just makes for a better looking installation.
I used my homemade tubing straightener that works great - these were cut from a coil.


I stuck an extension in it just to show where the tubing goes.

 

[Indycars]

Looks like it screws into the side tanks on the radiator, but those must be threaded bosses???

 

[TXChevy]

Looks like it screws into the side tanks on the radiator, but those must be threaded bosses???

When I ordered the radiator I included sketch of where I needed mounting brackets for radiator and for the transmission cooler bracket.
Its just 4 aluminum angle brackets, 2 each side for the cooler assembly, welded to radiator. Holes in each for 5/16 button head bolts. I opted no rivet nuts here so I could have a slight adjustment if needed to level out the cooler.

 

[Indycars]

Now that's thinking ahead!

 

[TXChevy]

Transmission Cooler ......

While I'm waiting on delivery of the PTFE braided hoses I made up the hard (Ny-Cop) lines at the cooler.
I decided that the best cooling line configuration would be hard lines at the cooler, connected under the radiator support to braided lines running all the way to the transmission.

I also bought an inexpensive fluid pressure gauge for the transmission, very important that I can verify pump operation at that first start.
If I keep it in the car for a while, I'll replace the rubber hose with a 4AN braided line.


3/8 hard lines at the cooler.



These will be covered with black braided sleeving and attached to a support bracket at the radiator support.
I'll put 6AN fittings at this end for connection to the braided lines.


Progress measured in inches. I'll be having back surgery in the near future and unfortunately I'm going even slower than usual.

 

[TXChevy]

Dipstick Tube ......

I had not looked forward to installing the universal dipstick tube - I figured I'd probably have to cut or rebend it.
But in a great change from the previous series of tasks, the tube fit like it was made for the car.

Back on post #158, I had identified the tube that I had bought, and given some info on the instructions that came with it for TH400 installation.
It also has a nice locking dipstick.


Well marked and spot-on for getting the correct level in the pan.



The tube has a bracket spot welded to it, but it also includes an additional stepped bracket.
Turns out that the stepped bracket attached to the bellhousing bolt bolts up perfectly to the dipstick tube bracket. I was shocked.

This is looking through the tunnel access panel at that bracket bolted connection. If you look closely you can see the black dipstick tube with bracket overlaying the stepped bracket. Everything bolted up very nicely.


The other important things were that the tube is retained fully into the rubber grommet and that it's accessible from up top.
Both were exactly right, good secure fit and the top of the tube is located perfectly.


Gotta give this a 5 star rating!

I also got the 1/4 in. vacuum line installed for the modulator.
I put a reducing tee into the 3/8 hose to the brake booster, simple.

EDIT - Sort of a stroke of luck I guess, but that plastic tee broke at the 1/4 outlet. Better now than later.
I'm replacing it with a brass tee.

I used 1/4 ny-copp tubing for most of the length, with hose at the top connection and a rubber elbow at the modulator.

 

[Indycars]

Nice and tidy!

 

[TXChevy]

Getting squared away on the cooler line routing - changed my mind again. I didn't really like how the braided lines sat, the PTFE lining seems to want to keep a bow in it unless heated. Needs a lot of clamps.
So I decided to use ny-copp with heat sleeve almost back to the transmission, then just short sections of braided.

So the hard lines at the cooler are now sleeved and installed.


A bit hard to see, lines under cooler.


AN fittings at their ends. Section 2 hard lines will connect here. Much easier to break the routing into sections.


Made a bracket to hold the ends securely.



Transmission cooling lines will be in 3 sections.
Section 1 is done, at the cooler.
Section 2 will be ny-copp from cooler along frame rail towards transmission.
Section 3 will be PTFE braided to transmission to allow for drivetrain vibration.

 

[Grumpy]

love the obvious detailed thinking and clear detailed pictures you've posted

 

[TXChevy]

Cooler Lines.....
Waiting on some more 6AN fittings but I went ahead and worked on the 2nd section of cooler line tubing (3/8 ny-copp). Routing from cooler in front, then back to transmission.

I always start with coathangar wire to get the basic bends figured out. Then I bent one set of tubing, tweaked it as needed, and verified fit in the car.

Then I used the first tubing line to duplicate for the second line, allowing for different lengths to let it sit next to the first line.

Turned out ok, I'll add heat sleeve before flaring/fittings. Only needs one clamp set, conveniently located at an existing hole in the frame.
Headers are loose in the pictures.



The last section 3 will be short lengths of 6AN PTFE braided hose. I also located all couplings where I can get to them when headers are back in place, and up in front under the radiator support.

 

[TXChevy]

Transmission Pressure Gauge ......

As shown before, this was the kit, nothing special.


Installed the rubber line into the pressure port. Plenty of extra length on the hose.
These are all brass or who knows what metal, so I went really careful on tightening. I only made them "tight enough" - I'd rather have a little drip than snap the adapter off at the transmission.


And now I have a transmission pressure gauge for that first start. It's upside down, but no big deal, the pressure numbers are easy to read.


This will not stay in the car - all I want is to verify start-up pressure, along with pressures for each gear selection.
I have zero trust in the chineseum fittings and hose so this kit was bought just for very temporary use.
Once pressures are verified, I don't really need to constantly monitor transmission fluid pressure, just temperature (middle gauge in the panel).

 

[TXChevy]

Cooler Lines .......

Section 2 is now done and sleeved with heat resistant material.




This gets installed tomorrow along with the short sections of braided PTFE hose to connect to the transmission.
Planning also to install headers and exhaust, which is the last of the to-do's before I can (finally) see if the transmission actually works.....
It's been a real trip down this rabbit hole!

 

[Indycars]

Wow, you must have been a professional tubing bender in a previous life.

 

[TXChevy]

Transmission Cooler Lines ...............

Finished - finally.
So after all the moaning and groaning about these hard lines, I reverted back to my original plan of using PTFE braided hose/AN fittings.
As you could see in the post above, I had the Section 2 hard lines done and ready to install, which I proceeded to do.
But then I saw that the upper control arm was going to rub on the lines as the suspension moved downward. Clearance was very tight.

So I got tired of all the revisions and installed two 5 ft lengths of 6AN PTFE braided hose from the transmission all the way to the AN fittigs under the core support. Essentially there are two sections of cooler lines - first section from cooler to core support, second section from core support to transmission.

Braided lines done, very simple.
I've used Evil Energy stuff before, this was a complete kit, 10 ft 6AN hose, two fittings each of straight, 45 and 90 and three line clamps.


Installed along the fender, I like this location better as its even further from the headers.
Allowance made for easy radius bends, you don't want to kink the hose.


Heads back to the transmission AN fittings.


At the front, the hoses curve down towards the core support.


And connect to the core support hard line fittings from the cooler. No stress on the hoses.


We then re-installed the headers and exhaust.




This has been a long list of things needed after we bolted the transmission in place, lots of stop and starts, mostly my fault.
Last today was installing the plugs and wires. I'll revise the plug wire lengths later, they were initially done longer than really needed.


So that's it.
Tomorrow is the day - we're gonna start this thing up and see what happens.

 

[Grumpy]

I hope it exceeds your expectations and you find ZERO issues!