I finally had a few hours to spend on my truck today. I pulled the 4l60 and stuck the '80 in for a trial fit. There is an "ear" on the pass side that hit the header keeping the tranny from going into place. A quick hack form the sawzall took care of that! Then came the crossmember. I guess the 2wd is different from the 4wheel 'cause mine don't look like Parish's and I had to completely remove the "hump" and then add a plate to the rear to support the '80's mount. I re-boxed the area where the hump was and angled the new plate to where the pan will come off the 4l80 without pulling the crossmember, should help with fluid and filter changes in the future.

I had to get a special conversion U-joint to go from the stock driveshaft to the turbo 400 style slip yoke. I am still waiting on a converter, yoke, shift kit, flywheel, etc and to figure out the electronics. I have a unique situation having an '02 truck with electronic throttle. I am going to convert to a cable throttle as part of this conversion, but that entails a whole new cruise control system, losing the traction control, new air intake piping, new IAC and TPS wiring, etc etc... A simple trans swap has snowballed quickly, for sure. But I think it is gonna be worth it once it is done.

I will try and get a couple pics of the crossmember before I put it in for good. That damn thing took me 3 hours to build-I feel like I need to show it to somebody!

 

sounds like fun, take any pic's you can think others might want to see and i will add them to the swap page that i made. this will be soo easy for everyone else huh.

 

Right on! I am getting ready to start the process on mine....Had the trans in to check fit......Now I am waiting on a few more tricks for the trans Keep us posted on your 80 conversion, hopefully we can help each other out!!

 

L-Eater:
I have a 4L80e in my 96 behind my 402 stroker motor. The biggest problem you will have is the computer. You will have to have the computer reflashed with a vin # for another truck that has a 4L80e or the computer will still think it has a 4L60 and it won't run and shift at all. The 4L60 is a PWM TCC (pulse width modulated torque converter control)and the 4L80E is not. This means you willl have to change the connector on the transmission harness and you will have two less wires connecting to the transmission. If you are going to do this yourself, you will need complete wiring schematics for your truck, and some wiring diagram knowledge. Also the inside of the 400 yoke needs to be machined inside so it will slip nicely over the o-ring on the tailshaft of the 4L80E and move in and out to allow for rear axle housing movement.
Hope this info helps, I had to learn the hard way!
Raylar

 

I got my harness and programming from http://www.speartech.com/

They have everything you need for the harness and tuning!

 

hey raylar, speartech has the computer and wireing part figured out for us, they make it prety easy and i am 99% sure the new 4l80's are pwm for the TCC. when i put in the tranzgo shift kit it spacificaly said that is one of the features the kit would get rid of. somehow it makes it into an on/off set up so no more sliping all the time.

 

My transgo is supposed to be here today-thats a story by itself-their listing only goes to 1998, but transgo says the kit will work on trannies through 2003. It took 3 days and a lot of phone calls to get that settled! I am having the problem with the electronics part. My truck has ETC and Speartech tells me no 2002 models were made with ETC/4l80e so that has to go which means a lot of little stuff has to be changed-for instance my Whipple has a 90 degr elbow bolted to the inlet that the TB bolts to. The cable throttle Whipple doesn't use this-the TB bolts directly to the blower. So I have to remove the 90 but then my cold air piping won't work anymore! I am having to add a cruise control module and the associated wiring.

So can someone tell me what goes on the left side of the dash on a 2wd truck where the 4wd buttons are on a 4wd? Mine has a traction control switch there, but that is going to have to go and I will have to put something there to cover the hole. Do 2wd's without traction control just have a plate there, or something else?

 

There's a little "pocket" there. You can't put anything in it, it just takes up space.

 

Thanks, scream. I got the "pocket" ordered this morning. I called about the converter and it is supposed to ship today or tomorrow. Speartech is shipping me what I need on that end, so with any luck I could in theory be driving it to work a week from today! I can't wait to get some track times. I have a new motor that only has about 500 miles on it-I haven't even wound it out yet. I hate changing so many things at once-it will take forever to iron out the combination, but thats just how it worked out.

 

How in the hell do you get in touch w/ Speartech? I sent them a couple of emails about what all it would take for the 80 swap and never got a response. Didn't see a phone number anywhere.

Mind posting/PM'ing me what kinda cost was involved on the harness/programming?