Bulletproof C4 build

[lowbush]

I am moving the Bronco back to a C4, the C6 that was in it burnt up and the person that did the chassis that I bought, while not a Bubba smith job left some details of the C6 conversion undone and I decided it would be less work to put it back than to finish out the C6 conversion the right way. The big issues where shafts and he built a homemade adapter to the D20 which was custom and probably not long for the world.

Anyways I finally got the new (to me) C4 apart and found that the clutch pack and gear had welded themselves together. No big deal I knew this transmission had burnt up and I got it cheap because of that. I have all new gears and a valve body from Broader so tomorrow I start media blasting and powder coating.

 

[half cab]

Go get after it Low...

 

[Tram]

The '74 I just picked up came with a spare C4.. I may have to get it rebuilt and throw it in this winter.

 

[lowbush]

I may have to get it rebuilt

You might want to try doing it yourself and saving a little, they are a dirt simple design, if you are good with a wrench it's the perfect tranny to learn on.

 

[Tram]

You might want to try doing it yourself and saving a little, they are a dirt simple design, if you are good with a wrench it's the perfect tranny to learn on.

That's what I keep reading.. One of the best to start with.. Maybe I'll give it a shot..

 

[BluebroncoNC]

I am always amazed at folks who can tear into something like a Tranny and make it work afterwards. While I would have zero issues taking one apart... Putting it back together and it actually working with no parts left over eludes me.

 

[sprdv1]

I am moving the Bronco back to a C4, the C6 that was in it burnt up and the person that did the chassis that I bought, while not a Bubba smith job left some details of the C6 conversion undone and I decided it would be less work to put it back than to finish out the C6 conversion the right way. The big issues where shafts and he built a homemade adapter to the D20 which was custom and probably not long for the world.

Anyways I finally got the new (to me) C4 apart and found that the clutch pack and gear had welded themselves together. No big deal I knew this transmission had burnt up and I got it cheap because of that. I have all new gears and a valve body from Broader so tomorrow I start media blasting and powder coating.

You should get you one of the Clear Covers from TOFIC.... pretty cool being able to see the fluid levels.

 

[lowbush]

I am always amazed at folks who can tear into something like a Tranny and make it work afterwards. While I would have zero issues taking one apart... Putting it back together and it actually working with no parts left over eludes me.

I learned trannies because my grandfather did not know them and I got sick of him sending them out and us loosing that money. So I started working on the simple stuff and graduated from there. After learning them I am continually surprised at how many guys can build an engine from the ground up but have never even cracked the case of a tranny. There are some that are more complex than others that is for sure but they really are not that hard, all of them operate on the same basic principal. The C4 is 7 or 8 different parts (drums and gears) all in a row, you just take out each one inspect it, repair it if need be and then put them back. Honestly a valve job is probably more complex than rebuilding a C4.

 

[half cab]

My dad was an engine builder from the late 1950's through to the early 1990's and he rarely cracked open a transmission! Only ones I recall were manuals that he had worked on.

Where talking about a man who worked for several Tractor dealers in the 1960's n could take most any kind of farm equipment apart n put back together but stayed away from auto trans.

 

[Kbpony]

I was always scared of automatics until I brought my Bronco home. The C4 slipped so bad it could hardly make it up the drive. After getting some quotes that scared me worse, I gave it a try. Much simpler than the engine builds I had done. If you have the chance-go for it. Just work in a clean environment and put it back together in the reverse of taking it apart. My philosophy was "if I screw it up, I can always take it to the rebuilder and pay what I thought I saved." At least I would have learned something in the process.

 

[bax]

i have donor parts if needed.

 

[lowbush]

Well today was a blast. Sorry about the blurriness my phone was dieing and I only got this pic. I got the bell housing done so tomorrow I will finish the rest of the housing and start the powder coating process. I am doing Black Chrome with Chrome accents:

http://www.prismaticpowders.com/colors/PPB-4623/

http://www.prismaticpowders.com/colors/USS-4482/

I think it will look nice, I am a fan of flat blacks, but the gloss coats let the mud wash off a lot easier.

 

[lowbush]

i have donor parts if needed.

Me too pretty much all my stuff is getting swapped out for the high performance stuff from Broader. Roger I was actually going to see if you or Rob (please tell me I remembered his name correctly) wanted them. If not I was going to throw them in the free section.

 

[lowbush]

If it's not one thing it's another, the mixer chamber on the bottom of my portable blaster broke, the tube that drops the media into the chamber was cast into the camber. The good part is I think I can drill it and tap it for a standard 5/8 air fitting that is male to male. Does anyone know the thread measurements on standard 5/8 air hard lines I will have to pick up a tap to thread it. I though about just busting out the welder but I don't have any rods for brass and I figure tapping it will actually make it better. Anyways, it looks like I have to fix the blaster to finish fixing the C4.

 

[lowbush]

Well I got to searching and found an article on modifying the cheap portable sand blasters, mine is not an HF blaster but it is a Clark from tractor supply so same basic design for the mixer, well I found the article below and decided that a few fittings would be cheaper and less hassle than getting a tap and re-tapping the mixer. I had also heard that the modification makes the blaster much better. Which after doing the modification I can say is correct, it's night and day, it has more power and it never clogs, the only clogs I get now are in the hand nozzle which is pretty easy to deal with, just unscrew it, tap in out and back to work. There are some hand nozzle mods people say that make's it never clog at the nozzle, I am thinking I may do them too.

I left mine with the 3/8 valve instead of swapping it for the 1/2 inch valve because I did not want to deal with the height issue, I figure it's a straight drop down to the T and it's 3/8 out of the tank so it's not going to matter if it expands before the valve or at the T, the T is where it always clogs anyways. Leaving the 3/8 valve allowed me to stuff it all under the blaster and still wheel it around. I will post a picture later.



http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/hf-pressure-sandblaster-modification-234641.html

 

[lowbush]

Crap if it's not one thing it's another, the powder coating gun decided to not work today.

 

[lowbush]

I will post up some pics tomorrow but I am almost done powder coating. I broke my transfer case down today and blasted the case and put the first coat of powder on it. Tomorrow I break down the T style case Bax gave me to grab the lower gears out of and I am going to go ahead and powder coat that case and rebuild it for Roger. It's looking pretty good.

 

[bax]

Thanks Low That is very nice of you to do that.

 

[lowbush]

Well I have been doing a lot of telling so lets do some showing here are the pics of almost everything powder coated. I still have to break down the T-Style case and coat it and I have some odds and ends brackets and such to coat. I really like the colors it came out better than I expected it to.

I shot everything with Chrome and then I shot the cases and housing with Black Chrome topcoat which is a translucent black coat. So it give it this really cool metallic black color. Kind of like bronze metal looks but black. I have never seen anything like it. I then shot all the small parts with Clear Gloss which knocked the chromes shine down to an aluminum of stainless look. The contrast is really nice.

I am going to start putting the transmission back together, but I have to wait for the two gasket sets to get here from Tom's to put the two transfer cases back together.

Speaking of transfer cases, does anyone know how many ball and detentes are supposed to be in the T-Case. I only got one out of the J case and I seem to recall there being two in them, but there are actually 3 holes for them. I wanted to verify before I order new ones. (never mind I found the second one, it was in the drain pan).

 

[lowbush]

Thanks Low That is very nice of you to do that.

Not a problem, I figure since you where nice enough to call Rob and have him basically deliver the thing to me. The least I can do is put it back together and I am the kind of guy if it's going back together, it's going back together right. What color powder do you want on it. I have Black, White, Red, Chrome and Black Chrome. I am going to leave the internal pills out so it can be twin sticked if you decide to twin stick it, but I will leave the connecting tab so that it can be used for either.


Also I have to thank you for sending it over, I will give you the story behind it, I pulled the 20 to twin stick it a while back and I am the kind of guy that a twin stick turns into well while I have it out lets rebuild the whole thing. So it's a fresh rebuild, but since I had so many other things to do, I stopped myself from blasting it and powder coating it. Well I should have done it because it has driven me crazy ever since. So when I had to pull everything out, I decided that I was going to do it this time. But the catch was, I just put new gaskets in the thing, so it was driving me crazy that I was going to pull it apart again. Well then I devised a plan that if I found the lower T gears then it would all be worth it. So I have to thank you for giving me the justification to tear the thing apart again. I should have powder coated it from the onset.