My BTO 700R4 is DEAD Dead! (Update)

[Evolution1980]

So...now I'm in a serious funk. And I don't see a very sunny resolution.

The other day I was driving home on my last drive of the season. All of a sudden the car seems to drop into neutral. I coast to the side of the road. Put the car in it's various gears...1-2-3-D-(N)-R...NOTHING! Only Park works (because it's mechanical...) The car gets trailered home.

After checking everything over my mechanic drops the pan. And here is where my story starts it's headfirst dive into blackness...
Guess what he finds in the pan??? Any takers???
He finds the front pump! One of the vanes in my trans pan.

*I need to pause my story because I'm feeling tears starting to well up*
*SIGH*

So that's all I have right now. I'm not expecting a lot of support from Bowtie. I'll give them a chance, but in the grand scheme of things, it's beyond their 1-yr warranty, so it looks like I'm big-time in the hole now...
I guess that's about all there is to this story right now. Whatever the end result is, the trans is gonna have to come out. I guess my only source of sunshine right now might be that I could possibly put my OEM TH350 back up in there. Dunno...I have the winter to mull over this. But the money required to fix this is definitely going to pinch the CruiseFest '07 funds. And no, this isn't a joke like last year. This is serious!

:cry

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Sorry to hear about this Andre. Maybe BTO will step up. We'll be thinking of you.

 

[RodsnRides]

Bummer!

Wow-that's not good. But, seriously, I do not recommend going back to the TH350 unless it's that's simple and you just have to drive it more. You are just doubling the work (remove, install, remove, install). Painful. I know, because I took a perfectly good running 383 from the wagon and put it in the Corvette. Then, I had the wagon's 350 built and stroked to 383 and installed it in the wagon. It's a motor thing for me-I could have put the original wagon motor in the 'Vette, but wanted to keep the two together, so to speak. Thus-double work. :crazy

How much can it cost to rebuild the 700R4? Unless the case is gone...? Cruisefest isn't until next June-you should be able to come up with the bucks before then, I would think, what with Moderator pay and all...

Or, you could have some cash generating "Blender Fest" parties...

Good luck. I feel your pain. :cry

Rick
:gap

 

[bossvette]

first you need to know if your 700R4 is a standard legnth or Corvette legnth, if its a standard legnth I would just swap it out with another trans. I am waiting on one from Ricks neck of the woods $499 with a 12 month 12,000 mile warrenty for my Blazer.
the 700R4 should be plentiful if it is the standard legnth. If you want to rebuild it yourself I have two laying around for parts.

 

[Evolution1980]

Well, just got done with a "chat session" with one of the techs at Bowtie. A new pump will cost me $149 shipped. And they are willing to help me determine the cause of the failure. As figured, "transmission is out of warranty" so...we'll see. Back to the troubleshooting. They want to know what the run out is on the flexplate as well as the gap between the tq conv and flexplate with the tq conv pushed all the back towards the trans, and to check the crankshaft endplay. So that's where I am thus far... Oh well...

At least it was the last drive of the season and not the first one...

I appreciate the support guys. This thread will probably go cold now until I have some significant updates. That will be a while I figure. Until then...

 

[Evolution1980]

first you need to know if your 700R4 is a standard legnth or Corvette legnth,If you want to rebuild it yourself I have two laying around for parts.

I believe they work with Corvette 700R4's for their rebuilds. As for getting parts from you, "thanks for the offer", but if I'm going to have it down and rebuild, I'm putting in new/strengthend parts. (Which it's already supposed to have being their Level 3 transmission)

 

[MsSchroder]

Dang, Andre. I'm not sure what you're talking about, but it sounds bad.
Can you explain in English?

Something about ... your transmission in your vette died?

Tammy

 

[zachh]

No more bad news about BTO transmissions... I just ordered $2300 of parts/ trans.... Im doin it myself. A good time to be had! Good Luck... look on what little of a bright side there is, ya live in Ohio, Ya got about 5 months to fix it!
Best Wishes
zachh

 

[22229stingray81]

Sorry to hear the sob story Andre! Hope everything turns out okay...

-Tatortot

 

[wishuwerehere82]

Andre,

Here's a good site for parts and upgrade info and pricing guidelines. $31.38 for a 13 vane(instead of the 7 vane OEM) front pump and lots of extra goodies to upgrade with.
http://www.bulkpart.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=2
I assume that your mechanic is going to do the repair or at least do the R and R .

 

[GerryLP]

Andre,

With the stress and the confusion, you'll probably forget one important thing later on. Flush the tranny cooler lines and cap/plug them as soon as you drop the tranny. All the metal produced has made its way to the cooling lines and radiator.

NAPA has a CRC tranny cooling lines flush that works great, and it will force the metal shavings out. I filled the bottom 1/2 " of a preserves jar with metal when the tranny thrust bearing got contaminated with old metal shavings.

Leave the lines connected to the radiator, and flush them and the radiator channel using the CRC can. The can has a clear tube with a plastic fitting that'll fit the line "B" nuts.

GerryLP:cool

 

[Evolution1980]

Tammy, I'm not techincally savvy enough to be able to explain the "main pump", nor much else inside the trans. My best edjimicated guesstimate is that since the transmission works by applying fluid at high pressures to make things inside work, this "main pump" that generates pressure has failed. Thus no line pressure, thus no worky insides transmission.

Zach and Nate, thanks!

Pete, yep...my mechanic is the only one besides occasionally me that turns a wrench on my car. (The exception is C4C5Specialist.)
Besides $100, I wonder what the difference is between BTO's hi-perf pump and the one listed on that site??? Makes me question both places...

Gerry, good call on the flushing. Although I'm sure my mechanic will do that. He's pretty much OCD about making sure everything is completely exact, correct, and planned out. If anything fails on the car, I guarantee it's not due to his work but to driver or manufacturer error. Sometimes it's frustrating when I just want something to be done, but "good enough" isn't in his vocabulary and in the end I know the initial problem will never need to be revisited (more or less).

 

[82ColEd]

That shucks, Dre.. Sorry to hear..

 

[Art Jett]

I believe they work with Corvette 700R4's for their rebuilds. As for getting parts from you, "thanks for the offer", but if I'm going to have it down and rebuild, I'm putting in new/strengthend parts. (Which it's already supposed to have being their Level 3 transmission)

The one I got from them is not a corvette transmission. It would not work with an 82 crossmember. I had to buy one of theirs. Luckily, it fit perfectly!

 

[fine69]

So...now I'm in a serious funk. And I don't see a very sunny resolution.

The other day I was driving home on my last drive of the season. All of a sudden the car seems to drop into neutral. I coast to the side of the road. Put the car in it's various gears...1-2-3-D-(N)-R...NOTHING! Only Park works (because it's mechanical...) The car gets trailered home.

After checking everything over my mechanic drops the pan. And here is where my story starts it's headfirst dive into blackness...
Guess what he finds in the pan??? Any takers???
He finds the front pump! One of the vanes in my trans pan..."
:cry

Andre,

I'm sorry to hear about your dilemma... on the bright side (yeah, right!), the tranny failure didn't cause an accident or anything and you're safe... also, hopefully you'll be able to ascertain the why this happened and prevent it from repeating.

Hang in there, bud!

Ralph

 

[Curtis]

If you are thinking about replacing your 700R4 with a performance unit, you need to contact Maddog Transmissions. I got their unit for around $1200. It has the good stuff in it and I have definately tested it out. I beat on this thing every time I drive the vet, and my son denies it, but I have seen him thrash that red rocket real hard burning tires in three gears. Just drop Lou a note if you want. maddoglou7742@aol.com

 

[BLACKDOG]

jeez Andre ... what crappy news to hear :cry I just hope it's a fairly e-z, and not a very expensive fix for you.
As far as it effecting you in not getting to the FEST ... that just ain't gonna happen.
The blenders will rise again
Keep me posted.

The DawG

 

[grapeknutz]

Makes me wonder if the torque converter was jamming the pump gears or if the TC was not installed correctly!

 

[try2pas]

Are there other 700R4 suppliers?

Evolution, I too have an '80 with a ZZ4. Are there other suppliers of 700R4s besides Bow Tie that supply a good transmission? Thtat's next on my list to put in a 700R4 although my vette mechanic questioned whether it was as strong of a trany as a TH350. Maybe it isn't? And you say you have the level 3 which is their strongest I believe. Isn't there a Raptor transmission outfit that will supply a new 700R4?

Dave

 

[Evolution1980]

Evolution, I too have an '80 with a ZZ4. Are there other suppliers of 700R4s besides Bow Tie that supply a good transmission? Thtat's next on my list to put in a 700R4 although my vette mechanic questioned whether it was as strong of a trany as a TH350. Maybe it isn't? And you say you have the level 3 which is their strongest I believe. Isn't there a Raptor transmission outfit that will supply a new 700R4?

Dave,
any transmission can be built up enough to handle the power. In their oem/stock format, putting it behind a ZZ4 with 405 ft/lbs of torque is probably gonna tear it up after a few good launches. BTO still has a "Level 4" which is made for the dragstrip. The Level 3 that I have (which might even be their "Level 2" now) is rated to handle more than the ZZ4. I figured I had room to grow. My belief is that I may have just encountered a mfg defect on a specific part and that's why it failed. The root cause is still to be determined.
I think I've heard of Raptor and even visited their website. I likely did a google search for 700R4's and likely came across their page.