JL, you are very right about the transmission being not that hard to work on. I found that to be true with a lot of larger transmissions. Never been in a 5r110. But since the 4r70w is a newer AOD, and the AOD is one of the more complicated ones to work on I'm sure about what you said!

Nice writeup, it's always good to know what the cause is and the fix.

 

What I liked the most..no servos with god-awful heavy springs to compress,and no bands. I can definitely see how this trans can handle much more power/torque than it's predecessors.
JL

 

I would like to replace the snap ring in my trans if its reasonably easy and inexpensive. Were you required to completely tear down the trans to replace the snap ring or are you doing other maintenance / inspection while your in there?

 

It requires a teardown. The troublesome snap ring is located in the rear of the trans. It's really not too bad,and was much easier than I had planned on. If you've ever torn down a trans before,it's easy. If not-then it might be a bit intimidating.
JL

 

Well,it's done. I've got a total of 6 hours in removing the trans, tearing the trans down to replace the ring, reassembly of the trans, changing a leaky rear main seal and reinstalling the trans. I did have a bit of assistance from a friend when I needed an extra pair of hands, but most of it was done alone,and with hand tools. I did use the impact for some of the really tight bolts like the flexplate to crank,etc. If I had a set of metric slide hammers, it would have gone faster-I had to be creative in a substitute for pulling the front pump out of the case.
I inspected the clutches for wear when I had it apart, and with 61K miles on the truck, it literally looked like I had assembled and took it for a run to the store before tearing it back down. Perfectly clean and no discoloration or any kind or heat makings on the steels, etc. This is reassuring, because the first owner had pulled a 8000 lb boat regularly in the 33K miles he had it(really nice guy-I contacted him not long after I got the truck), and the 2nd owner had installed a gooseneck hitch and pulled only god knows what with it for 15K miles. I'm fairly confident in this 5R110 now-especially after seeing the condition of the internals and knowing ther truck's past useage.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd rank this a 5-6 if you've ever been inside of a trans before,and a 7-8 if not. The manual states that it takes 18 qts of Mercon SP to refill the trans, it took 16 qts-I'm sure there's probably 2 qts in the cooler and what I couldn't get to drain out of the converter. I also changed the external filter element during this job. It's an odd looking thing-looks like a miniature roll of toilet paper, and is an expensive too. It lists for $38, and my cost was $20.
Altogether it cost me less than $300 for the fluid (I got 20 qts so I would have some extra), the filters (internal and external), the snap ring, the pump to case and solenoid valvebody to case gaskets, 3 cans of brake cleaner, the rear main seal, a tube of Ultra-Black RTV(for the rear main seal plate), a bag of OIL-DRI to clean up my mess, and 2 rolls of blue shop towels. Not bad at all when I'm seeing what some of te dealers are wanting to charge for the same work.
JL

 

I've never even seen the inside of any automatic transmission so this would be way over my head... I'll just cross my fingers and hope that my snap ring hold's up. Thanks for the info!