hi guys, well my tranny was mighty tired and I decided to have it rebuilt. I contacted 2 truck restorers who were recomended. Both said it was easy and they would NOT do it :-( Really surprised me. Contacted 2 other places and they said about 800 to 1,000 bucks!
Called around some more and had a bunch more folks tell me its easy - so I bought a rebuild kit from Novacs - spelling, my instructions are still in the garage,and I am giving it a go. This is the heavyest stuff I have ever worked on. So far though its going ok, the kit was almost 200 bucks - I am ok with that, its seems ok and the instructions are fairly good, but could be better for some one on their first try.
Funny things so far - most of my tools are not big enough, usually working on motorcycles - not 2 ton truck parts. I needed bigger hammers,pullers, presses, punches - my standard tools looked like toys when trying to work on this stuff.I bought a book when I first got the truck - how to restore your Chevy truck. I turn to transmission section and it says its to complicated for the normal shade tree mechanic :-( funny.
Then today was really something, I am abit of a worry wort and really trying to do it correct and not screw up so that I can get my truck back up. Its my newest muti wheeled vehichle. Well I had a couple questions and just wanted to check with someone who knows. So as per the Novac instructions I called their "techs" ask them some of the things I was wondering about - the guy says , I dont know, we dont rebuild them here and I have never rebuilt a tranny!!! I was just flabergasted, the guy was nice but seemed to know less than me. He told me they have had trouble with people not knowing how to rebuild them and maybe they should not even sell the kits for the sm420s! After my shock I thought it was quite funny.
I bought a digetal camera and am taking pictures as I go and I think I am ok - plus I know some folks who could assist if needed, much more experience and skill. But thought you would get a kick out of my experience so far. Anyways cross your fingers for me and I will keep you posted, Tom.
