Initial inspection of A500
Great advise....I will change both seals for the pump and tail shaft while it is out. I do have a few more questions if you don’t mind answering them for me
1) What do you like for a tranny pan gasket? Cork or composite? Do you use and sealants like RTV or gasket tack?
2) Would you replace the solinoid pack while I have access?
3) are any of the shift kits a must have when running a mild 340 stroker for basic street use?
4) which cooler port is the (hot) discharge and (cool) return between the front and rear ports.
5) any thing else you can think of???
Car set up 340 stroker, 650 avs2, eddy cylinder heads, 340 exhaust manifolds and 3.55 rear ended ratio. The tranny will be plumbed with 3/8 lines to an external filter then to the external tranny thermostat and to a plate and frame cooler and back.
Thanks in advance for your time.
1.I like the 42R series rubber over steel re usable gasket from the OEM.
2. I wouldn't replace the solenoid pack unless there was a problem already.
They are easy to replace later if a problem arises.
3. These transmission are basically a 904 that has the same soft and early shifts as any other stock 904, so the stage 2 Transgo kit works great to fix that.
When I put mine in I went with the middle of the road mods of the instructions so as to not make it uncomfortable in the shift quality when just cruising.
If I was doing it again I would put a stiffer spring in the 1-2 shuttle valve, but other than that I like it.
4. Front port for cooler lines is out to the cooler, and the rear port is the return.
5. Most tell a guy to do a higher end parts rebuild before it goes in.
For the guy that has not done one before I don't recommend that, because there are too many things that can go wrong when changing so much at a time.
I'm also not one to tell everyone they can do it at home either, unless they really want to. (There are a lot of us here that can help with questions and such)
I used to build them for a living (shop foreman/builder for a large chain) so I just did the swap with the shift kit and will go back in and fix or upgrade whatever I need to later if needed. (It's just a transmission and not even a 4x4 :D) but years later and probably 20k miles it still works as good as the day it went in.
I did my 5.9 Magnum and A500 swap in a weekend because I needed the car Monday morning.
The next weekend I built the automatic shifting system for it.
I only pay $150 for these transmissions, so if I need to replace it it's not a big deal.
BTW, what was in the pan on mine was pretty much exactly what yours has.
I rinsed the obvious stuff out with ATF, cleaned the pan out, replaced the filter and put it in.
I rinsed and blew out the valve body while I had it apart for the kit.
I’m hoping since this transmission was installed on a pick up truck that weighed 5400 pounds it will be OK behind the 340 on a car that weighs 3000 pounds. My internals in the stroker are a cast crank and cast rods. I won’t be sending her above 5500 rpm very often.
That's pretty much the way I looked at it when I put mine in, so all I did was to add the stage 2 Transgo kit.
(they are also rated for 5k lbs towing capacity, so add that to the things your 3000 lb car won't be doing.):D
