I found a low mileage '80e on car-part.com about 300 miles away so I took off work today and made a road trip to go and get it. As soon as I got home I rolled that puppy over on its back and tore into it to install the Transgo. Damn, I forgot how involved this shift kit is. I have put in a lot of shift kits over the years and the 4l80e is probably the toughest one.

Anyways, I have figured out how to re-wire the tranny plug so I won't need the conversion harness and as long as my crank spacer and flywheel bolts show up tomorrow I should have it done by this time tomorrow night.

This truck has 3.08 gears so it should I am expecting it to be a dog down low, but I bet 2nd gear is going to be an animal !! I guess we will know soon enough.....

 

Man, I thought the 60E transgo was bad. I can't imagine anything being worse.

Keep us posted on how it goes. This looks like a project for my truck very soon cause the 60E is acting up again.

 

Oh ... it is. That's why mine's still in the box, what .... 6-9 months after I got it all running with the 80e.

 

i have the 60e HD kit... havent even bothered to mess with it yet, other than watch the video.

 

I started by following the directions on the vid
and noticed i was taking things out I had no business taking out

Then I read the front cover and it said video for reference only
Boy did I feel dumb

 

that dude is pretty good at working on the impala

 

he came out alot cleaner than me too...LOL

 

The first transgo I put that came with a video was back in 1996 on a '95 Mustang. I carried the TV and VCR out to the shop and put the remote in a ziplock bag to keep the oil off it. I would hit pause, do that step then hit play, etc. I think it was that same dude too !!

As a sidenote, I got the shift kit done today, the '60 out, the new flywheel put on etc. A buddy is supposed to show up in about an hour to help me put the '80 in (my ankle is broken and I don't know if I can wrestle this big sucker onto the tranny jack by myself so I called in reinforcements !)

I have ran into the first snag. I tried to flash it with the same file that I use in the '02 truck and edit wouldn't let me do it. I am going to hafta call Speartech on that. Hope it isn't too difficult to get straightened out.

 

ya, that was like a kick in the face!

 

The 4L80-E kit has you drilling a bunch of precisely spaced holes in the valve-body. I can make a suggestion for the small one - stuff towels in there and mask off everything so you don't have to remove every valve to do it.



Also, magnets work great when drilling the pump:


Lots of internal mods in this kit too.