Kelley's Tahoe - New Transmission

So, I mentioned before that the transmission in the Tahoe went out on our trip home from Houston.  Big BANG and all sorts of noises, as we are flying at 75mph down the freeway.  Kelley was freaked out as we made our way to the next exit and pulled into a parking lot.  Looked under the truck, nothing obvious so I knew it had to be inside the transmission.  I tried driving a little further, but ended up losing all power and pulling over onto the shoulder.  A call to AAA, and a 45minute wait for the tow truck, but we were loaded up and headed back home.  Luckily, Trey was right behind us and we got to ride with him instead of in the tow truck.

Now that we were home, I was on the hunt for a transmission.  I wasn't about to pay a shop to swap it out for me.  Can't be that hard, right?  I ended up looking all over the internet and settled on one from Mad Dog Performance.  Stage 2, 500+hp rating, crisp shift kit, corvette servo, beefed up internals.  Made a quick call, and had one headed my way the next day.

So, while I am waiting on the new transmission to arrive, I still have a TON of work to do on Treys new Jeep.  I'm looking at well over a week of solid night work just to get both vehicles complete.  The trans arrived the day I was finishing up the Jeep.  Now it was time to dig into this swap.

Just to get to the trans required removing the Y pipe of the exhaust, rear crossmember, driveshaft, and some random brackets.  Of course, one of the exhaust flange bolts stripped out and was the biggest headache of the entire process.  But exhaust was out, crossmember was out, driveshaft was out, and I was working on reaching the upper bellhousing bolts.  Don't remember how many extentions I had on that ratchet, but it was quite a reach.  A little help from a floor jack, a good nudge, and busted trans way laying on the ground.

There was no way I was going to be able to get the new one in with a standard floor jack.  So I stopped at Harbor Freight and picked up a transmission jack to make things a bit easier.  After installing a few new studs in the exhaust, and blowing out the trans cooler lines, the new trans went in pretty well.  Everything lined up, bolted back together, and looked good.  Add fluid, and fire it up...problem, problem.  Wicked clicking sound.  Definetley not a good thing.  I was pissed and frustrated.  I called it a night and ran through my head what it could possibly be.  I thought I had it figured out, so I went to removing the entire transmission again.  Luckily, much easier this time.  My suspisions were correct.  One of the flexplate/torque convertor bolts wasn't snugged down completely, and was clipping the head just a bit.  New bolt, snugged down, and we were all good.  No more clicking, everything seemed good so I took it for a lap around the block.

The new trans is definetly a HUGE step up from a stock unit.  More solid, more smooth, more responsive, more of everything.  Minus a small oil pan leak, everything was back together and Kelley had here Tahoe back.  Got a new gasket, fixed the leak and she was 100% again.  In fact, the Tahoe was so much better that Kelley got a speeding ticket the next day.  WTF?