I adjusted the bands on my 48RE today. It wasn't to bad, took me about 3 1/2 hours start to finish. It wasn't difficult, but it was akward at times. I thought the front band, which is on the outside, was going to be the hardest, but it wasn't to bad, a little hard to reach. The rear band was a little more akward, a little tight to get the tools in, but I finally got it.
It seemed like there should be some kind of tool for the rear band. Maybe a metric eight point socket? The front band takes a torx, but the rear band I ended up using a really small socket that would grab a hold of the adjusting screw. I have a couple of eight point sockets that I used on Torque Flights years ago, but they were to big for the adjusting screw in the 48RE.
I should have measured how much fluid I took out. I spent at least 1 hour getting the fluid to the correct level. I think when you add fluid, it clings to the dipstick tube, and you get false readings. My first attempt at refilling gave me a moment of panic, the truck would hardly move. I added another quart, and thought I had overfilled, but I ended up adding two more additional quarts before I got it right. I ended up adding 5 quarts total.
Anyone thinking of doing this, its a good idea, and not that difficult if you have the right tools. A inch pound torque wrench is needed. My bands were badly out of adjustment. I have about 110,000 miles on my truck, and I'm betting the bands had never been adjusted. The fluid had been changed in the past at 75,000 miles, and the fluid was in good shape, and there was very little debris in the pan. I've rebuilt transmissions in the past that had a lot of material in the pans. I was starting to get a little bit of shuttle shifting, so I'm hoping this will cure it, but so far so good.
Thanks for everyone that has posted about adjusting bands in the past, the old posts helped.
It seemed like there should be some kind of tool for the rear band. Maybe a metric eight point socket? The front band takes a torx, but the rear band I ended up using a really small socket that would grab a hold of the adjusting screw. I have a couple of eight point sockets that I used on Torque Flights years ago, but they were to big for the adjusting screw in the 48RE.
I should have measured how much fluid I took out. I spent at least 1 hour getting the fluid to the correct level. I think when you add fluid, it clings to the dipstick tube, and you get false readings. My first attempt at refilling gave me a moment of panic, the truck would hardly move. I added another quart, and thought I had overfilled, but I ended up adding two more additional quarts before I got it right. I ended up adding 5 quarts total.
Anyone thinking of doing this, its a good idea, and not that difficult if you have the right tools. A inch pound torque wrench is needed. My bands were badly out of adjustment. I have about 110,000 miles on my truck, and I'm betting the bands had never been adjusted. The fluid had been changed in the past at 75,000 miles, and the fluid was in good shape, and there was very little debris in the pan. I've rebuilt transmissions in the past that had a lot of material in the pans. I was starting to get a little bit of shuttle shifting, so I'm hoping this will cure it, but so far so good.
Thanks for everyone that has posted about adjusting bands in the past, the old posts helped.