OUR VIDEOS GALLERY MEMBER SPONSORSHIP VENDOR SPONSORSHIP

User Tag List

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 30

Thread: Patrol GQ Auto - RE4R03A - Missing Gears Diagnosis and Repair

  1. #1
    Beginner waflyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    27
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 13 Times in 7 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Unhappy Patrol GQ Auto - RE4R03A - Missing Gears Diagnosis and Repair

    Hi all,

    As I mentioned in my 'Member's Ride' post a week or so ago (http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...-Roof-GQ-Wagon), my recently acquired GQ Safari has lost some gears in the auto transmission .

    Having not had it for very long, nor having had an auto before, I had no idea what gears it had dropped. When I bought it the oil in the dipstick looked and smelt good so in a fit of vain hope I wondered whether it was 1st and 4th that I had lost, meaning it could be a solenoid in the valve body or simple electrical fault.

    Out with the multimeter and service manual I checked all electrical components (solenoids, switches etc.) against specification. All was fine. Next, I drove around checkin the solenoid feed from the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) but again the electrical side was all behaving nicely to spec. Damn!

    Next, I thought hmmmm....maybe its a stuck solenoid (more hope rather than anticipation!). So, I got some fresh ATF, filter kit and valve body gaskets and start to strip down the box with it still on the truck to rebuild the valve body, but found this in the pan.....



    And that signalled then end of my hopes it was minor electrical fault! lol

    Looked to me at this point that some bands or clutches had been melted at some stage by overheating. It also smelled burned to all hell. Taking a peek up into the tranny sump I also notice that the reverse clutch brake band is burnt up and has no friction material left on it. This pretty much nails the problem as being a lack of 2nd and 4th rather than 1st and 4th (brake band is required by 2nd and 4th) so at least I know what I am dealing with.

    So at this point I kind of know the job is going to be a little bigger than I thought. So the plan changes to this:

    1 - Rebuild valve body and check all components.
    2 - Remove transmission from Patrol.
    3 - Strip transmission and check all parts for wear against the service manual.
    4 - Order and replace the required components.
    5 - Put box back in patrol.
    6 - If it works again, put on a transmission cooler.
    7 - Drive it for a bit.
    8 - If it is still good get a Nomad valve body from Wholesale Automatics and do a DIY lock-up torque converter mod to leave me with a solid box.

    Thats the plan anyway! I am going to be doing it all myself.....mainly just for the hell of it! I think I might be mad! I will update this thread as things pro/regress!

  2. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to waflyer For This Useful Post:

    AB (8th July 2012), NissanGQ4.2 (8th July 2012)

  3. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Posts
    Many

     

  4. #2
    Patrol God threedogs's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Melb
    Posts
    31,636
    Thanks
    10,350
    Thanked 9,963 Times in 7,394 Posts
    Mentioned
    113 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Good luck with that, big job ahead no doubt, look forward to updates
    04 ST 3lt auto, not enough Mods to keep me happy, but getting there

  5. #3
    Beginner waflyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    27
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 13 Times in 7 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    RE4R03A Valve Body Rebuild

    Started by rebuilding the valve body to standard spec. First job was to drop off the valve body from the AT. Here it is on my bench:



    Was full of horrible black gunge which I presume is clutch or band material. Gaskets are very fragile as well. Cracking the valve body open is piece of cake:



    The only things to be careful of are the orifice check valve, a little filter that nestles between one side of the valve body and the separator plate and a number of ball bearings (9?) that sit within the valve body assembly. The oil galleries within the valve body were in some places very gunged up so I set to work with degreaser and a toothbrush:



    All the valves themselves were removed and packaged up in bags and envelopes so they didn't get lost. Getting the valves out and back in again is a fiddly process that needs some patience. I wouldn't say it was difficult though.

    Re-assembly was the reverse of disassembly. Valves went back in one by one before I put new gaskets on between the upper and lower valve bodies and the separator plate. All the valves were liberally lubed with new ATF on reassembly.

    The solenoids then got a full work out (clean down, resistance check with multimeter etc.) before being bolted back on the valve body along with the cable supports and hydraulic pipe protectors. Again plenty of ATF was put around the solenoids and seals to ensure all sealed well.



    Given that I don't plan to put this back in until the rest of the rebuild is done, that pretty much signals the end of the valve body part of the job. All that is left is to put on the oil filter unit and bolt up the valve body and oil pan to the (yet to be rebuilt) box.

    The rebuild of the valve body was pretty easy. I am reasonably confident it will work . I reckon if you have AT troubles and are lucky enough for it to be a valve body related problem then most could tackle this. It probably took me about 4-6 hours all up over two evenings.
    Last edited by waflyer; 8th July 2012 at 06:18 PM.

  6. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to waflyer For This Useful Post:

    AB (8th July 2012), Ade (8th July 2012), soulburner2000 (11th April 2013)

  7. #4
    Beginner waflyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    27
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 13 Times in 7 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    RE4R3A Removal and Disassembly

    So, with the valve body removed (and rebuilt) and the brake band the apparent culprit for the loss of 2nd and 4th, me and mate start to drop the box. First up we jack up the truck at the front, drop both prop shafts and disconnect all the electrical cables in the engine bay. I managed to borrow a trolley from work to lower the box on that is pretty much the same as a gearbox jack. It fits the bill except that it wont drop low enough to allow us to drag the box from under the truck. However, it gets it close enough to the ground that with cunning use of a series of chocks we managed to lower it manually the last 200mm (with a few heart in mouth moments!).

    Daft things we forgot:

    1 - The exhaust bracket on the side of the N/S gearbox mount.
    2 - The four bolts connecting the torque converter to the flex plate (essentially the auto equivalent of the flywheel).

    Once we remembered these last few bits dropping the box off was pretty easy. Our job was made harder by not being able to jack the truck up as high was we would have liked due to the roof in the garage at my rented townhouse. Definitely recommend a proper gearbox jack if you can get one.

    Here is the truck jacked up with the makeshift gearbox jack in place:



    Few hours later and the box is out and on the floor:



    Took us most of a day (in between snags and beers) to drop the box. Next step is to strip the unit down and have look at the insides....

  8. The Following User Says Thank You to waflyer For This Useful Post:

    AB (8th July 2012)

  9. #5
    Rotaredom NissanGQ4.2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Lower Blue Mountains
    Posts
    10,630
    Thanks
    6,062
    Thanked 4,880 Times in 3,231 Posts
    Mentioned
    17 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Hi mate, good luck.....been through this all before, not a job for the faint hearted, have you seen the internals of the auto boxes before?
    Time is never wasted when your wasted all the time



    WARNING: Towballs used for recoveries can, and do kill people and damage property.

  10. #6
    Patrol Freak
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    1,253
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 264 Times in 214 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    I wonder if this will help save it from happening again.
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-RG4R0...-/200485056179

  11. #7
    Rotaredom NissanGQ4.2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Lower Blue Mountains
    Posts
    10,630
    Thanks
    6,062
    Thanked 4,880 Times in 3,231 Posts
    Mentioned
    17 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by 97_gq_lwb View Post
    I wonder if this will help save it from happening again.
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-RG4R0...-/200485056179
    yep they help
    Time is never wasted when your wasted all the time



    WARNING: Towballs used for recoveries can, and do kill people and damage property.

  12. #8
    Beginner waflyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    27
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 13 Times in 7 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by NissanGQ4.2 View Post
    Hi mate, good luck.....been through this all before, not a job for the faint hearted, have you seen the internals of the auto boxes before?
    Hi mate,

    Not seen inside of one before today. In fact it was your thread I think that made me decide it was DIY all the way. I don't need the truck as daily driver so the time it takes to do it is no issue, so it will be steady steady time wise.

    Started the disassembly this arvo, but realised I need a clutch spring compressor to remove the clutch packs. What did you do with yours? Did you buy a clutch spring compressor or make one?

    Cheers,

    Sam

  13. #9
    Beginner waflyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    27
    Thanks
    5
    Thanked 13 Times in 7 Posts
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Yep, one of these (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-RG4R0...-/200485056179), or the nomad valve body upgrade from Wholesale Automatics seem the go.

    On the other hand I was under the impression that with overheating being a common problem, a nice big oil cooler might be good preventative medicine?

  14. #10
    Rotaredom NissanGQ4.2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Lower Blue Mountains
    Posts
    10,630
    Thanks
    6,062
    Thanked 4,880 Times in 3,231 Posts
    Mentioned
    17 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Made one up Sam, but if you can buy one I would buy one, was a pain to remove the clutch packs

    Cheers

    Todd
    Time is never wasted when your wasted all the time



    WARNING: Towballs used for recoveries can, and do kill people and damage property.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •