A4 guys - I recommend a rebuild

[Guardsman]

For all of you with A4s, I would highly recommend getting your tranny rebuilt the first chance that you're able. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.
The guy who did my rebuild said that he found almost .004" of play in the pump housing (total of .072" of play with a .068" bushing from the factory), and .100" of play in the clutch housing alone, and said that's what he routinely finds from the factory. He said that they have one standard size of bushing that they use, and they don't bother with shims, they just throw the thing together, regardless of how much play is in it.
As part of the rebuild, I had him install several fix kits, one got rid of the delay going into first and reverse, another one got rid of the pulse width modulated tcc apply and converted it to a straight on-off apply. He also installed corvette servos, a 9-disc clutch pack (stock is 6 disk), a high energy band, and a mild shift kit.
This thing is amazing now. It's noticeably firmer, and accelerates much better. The shifts are not harsh, but sharp and firm. There's no more play in the driveshaft when it's in park (grab your driveshaft, and you can turn it a bit each way). It's beautiful :D .
In addition to the rebuild, I put a whisper lid and aluminum ds on. Now, I can accelerate at 1/2 throttle as fast as I used to at full throttle. A good rebuild will put you back about $1600, but it's well worth the money if you put a decent number of miles on your car, and plan on keeping it for a while.

[Nachius]

I recently had a full rebuild with High Energy Internals, which included kevlar bands and stronger/more clutch packs. I am VERY pleased with my tranny now.

Race Internals, Transgo stage 3, corvette servo!
Shifts like a monster I chirp the 1-2 shift when I'm not even at WOT sometimes!

I second getting the auto trannies rebuilt [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[jamie]

i think i'm just going to save up a month worth of checks and get a nice rebuilt tranny. shift kit, vette servo, tranny cooler. maybe something better than OEM parts. also going in will be a bigger converter and LSD and gears. its going to be a whole new when done. i'm hoping it won't set me back to much.

[Arctc Wolf]

LS1 speed sells race-prepped trannys.

[Arctc Wolf]

Did u get any of the heavy drums inside the tranny replaced w/ lighter aluminum ones? If I were to get my tranny rebuilt, I'd lighten it as much as possible, add more clutches, and put in a shift kit at least.

[Guardsman]

I think the stock drums are already aluminum, that being one of the reasons this tranny can't handle a lot of power (over 400hp).
Also, be careful with the shift kits, don't go with the full open line pressure unless your going to run a full race tranny, i.e., heavy duty everything inside. When people talk about shift kits damaging the tranny, that's what does it. A good tranny shop can work the circuits in the valve body to quicken the shifts, and that combined with the vette servos, and a modest increase in the line pressure, will make it shift quick and firm, but not beat the tar out of the tranny.
One other thing to do when you get it rebuilt is the fix kits, like I said in the first post, Superior Transmission makes them, and other companies may also. The fix kits get rid of known problems with the trannies, like the tcc slip, the delay going into first and reverse, etc.
Oh yeah, and make sure that you get a tranny for a V6, the LS1s use a different bellhousing. The guy who did my tranny tried loosening one of the bellhousing bolts for s&gs because he said he'd never been able to do it. He busted a Snap-On apex bit trying it. So, swapping bellhousings would be a difficult proposition [img]smile.gif[/img] .

[BillyCobin]

TransGo also makes a corrective shift kit.

Here is the superior kit.

[Camarorulz]

What is TCC? It feels like my drivetrain slips on the downshifts sometimes when I punch it in traffic. Its not the aftermarket converter, because it did the same thing BEFORE the converter. Any input as to what this is?

[Guardsman]

The TCC is the torque converter clutch. When you get to a cruise rpm and throttle position, the pcm locks up the tcc, which makes it a direct drive. This is for better gas mileage.
As to the slipping, it could ust be that the gear it's going into isn't accelerating the car very fast. My second gear is like that, when I'm already rolling, and it down shifts to second, it feels like I'm not accelerating, but it's just accelerating slowly. Mine usually downshifts to first at that point.