Hey guys, I am in need of some help. I just purchased a factory tech valve body and I am having some complications. I just installed the unit today and I followed the instructions exactly, the unit really helped out with my 1-2 shift but unfortunately my 2-3 in horrible, it doesn’t act like it wants to shift to 3rd as quickly as it did before the install and on top of that it is very soft, so soft that It actually slips very badly under 75% throttle acceleration. The rest of the shifts seem to be very smooth and trouble free, but the 2-3 I am very concerned about, I am positive that it is not right. I have retraced my steps and I can not find any mistakes I have made. The only step that I am questioning in the 3rd step in the instructions

(as the instructions say) Step 3: Remove the 2-3 accumulator “bottlecap”, and the 2-3 accumulator piston. Replace it with the supplied bonded seal piston and install with no springs in it, be sure to replace the “bottlecap” . (this step can be skipped)

This is the step that I am questioning, I only found one spring when I disassembled the 2-3 accumulator, which I removed. Is there suppose to be 2 springs or just one. Everything else seemed to be just as the instructions explained, but I am afraid that there might have been a spring on the upper side of the 2-3 accumulator piston that I did not see, but I also don’t see how it would not have fallen out when I removed the piston.

Any of you guys out there that have installed this kit please help me out, I am very worried and I am hoping that I have not hurt anything already. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks

 

Join the club man. I just installed my Separator Plate kit today and found that step to be rather ambiguous as well. I used the "bottlecap" with my kit which looks like the accumulator cover for the 1-2, and now it stalls when I shift into first gear and I've lost my overdrive gear. I've got 2 voice mails and one email to Factory Tech, I'll post here if he helps me clarify anything.

 

Thanks for the reply man, I read your post in another thread and was wondering if the problems were related, but I wasn't sure about the kit that you installed. I have the complete valve body, and it sounds like you have just the separator plate. I am not very familiar with the separator plate but it sounds like both our problems are with the 2-3 accumulator area. Hopefully someone on the site can resolve our problems.

 

Well, no response from FT yet, but I know 1st thing tomorrow I'm going to drop the pan and VB and return everthing to stock to see if that solves my problem. If it does, I'll wait on hearing back from FT before I even consider putting the kit back in. Quick question for you, when you removed the 1-2 accumulator, did you have 2 springs (one inside the other) below the piston? I have 1 spring for the 2-3, and 3 for the 1-2. 2 big ones, yellow and brown and one small silver one that looked like it was inside the yellow. So I'm guessing the stock setup was: ( from top to bottom)

Brown Spring

Piston

Yellow spring with silver inside

Accumulator Cover

Is this what you had?

 

Ok these problems don't make sense to me. I installed a dozen of these kits before they ever went to the market and never had any problems unless I screwed up somewhere. Make sure you have the bottle cap in correctly and please make sure you torque the valvebody correctly.
Alan

 

Do you mean the bottle cap on the 2-3? Also, do we use the stock bottle cap or the one from the kit that looks like the cap for the 1-2?

 

Can you explain to me the correct way to install the bottlecap, mine fell out when I removed the original valve body and I had to try to figure out which way it went back. But I am pretty sure that it is in correct. So if you could explain the correct way to install the bottlecap I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

The bottle cap has a rest area on the bottom of it that looks like a nipple of sorts. The nipple goes down to rest on the valvebody (or pac man plate depending on year). When you install the bottle cap it must go completely in until it stops.
Alan

 

I am assuming we are about the 4R70w.......

I received the wrong installation instructions boxed with mine, and Anita Troyer faxed the correct ones to me.
Post a fax # and I will send mine tomorrow, or scan and post for me to verify.

 

That was the way that I assumed the bottlecap went because I could see where it had worn a small flat spot from resting on the old valve body. So I don’t think that my problem is with the bottlecap, but it does have something to do with that area. My instructions told me to reinstall the accumulator piston with no springs, I removed the only spring that I saw, is this correct? Is there more than one spring or is there only one? Any other ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

Leaving the springs out is an option. It should make the shifts a little too firm but it will still work. The bottlecaps are prone to not being in completely and ****ing sideways which will allow the piston to drop out of it's bore and ruin 3rd and 4th gears. I have done it.
Alan

 

2-3 has one spring


I thought the 1-2 was supposed to only have 2 springs stock? How come Debo had 3?

 

Alot of vehicles have 2 lower 1-2 springs and one upper

 

Just wanted to give an update on my progress with my install of the FTVB. I completely removed the valve body again and checked to see if I had made any mistakes, and I found none. So I re-installed the FTVB and made sure that everything was right, added fluid, and test drove. I had the same problem as before, 2-3 shift was really soft and sloppy. So I once again dropped the pan and removed the valve body to check to see if everything was in place, and it was. So at this point I am rather aggravated and I really need my truck for transportation. So I decided to re-install the original valve body and everything that came from the factory setup. So after re-installing all of my factory stuff I added fluid to the tranny and took her for a quick spin. Everything was back to normal, if not slightly better.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that I have received a bad factory tech valve body. This is a complete assumption, I am not trying to accuse anyone, but I have fought with this for 2 days now and nothing has worked, until I re-installed my original stuff.

The only thing I found throughout this complete ordeal is when I removed my 2-3 accumulator piston the first time, per the directions of this kit, I found that the piston looked like it might be failing. Parts of the upper and lower seals on the piston were cracked and part of the upper one had actually broken off. But I also had no problems before I began this install, my transmission shifted fine and acted fine, I just simple wanted some quicker shifts.

So as many people know the FTVB kit comes with a new 2-3 accumulator piston, which is the exact same one that is factory installed on a 2000 F150, So during this complete 2 day process I have been using the same new piston that was provided with the kit, so I know that my damaged piston had nothing to do with my problem. Also I used the new piston when I did my final re-install of my original valve body, when everything worked. So I can only assume that I am having a problem with the actual VTVB itself.

I am in the process of contacting someone about this problem but as soon as I get a solid answer I will let everyone know.

I would like to hear what everyone else has to offer to this discussion, so if anyone else has had any similar situations with there FTVB install please help me out with this problem.

 

So it was a complete valvebody and not a plate kit? I thought Gregg was only doing the plate kit now.