My buddy's transmission swap story finally clicked for me

Was talking to a guy at the parts counter who said he rebuilt a TH400 for $400 and it outlasted his buddy's $3,000 brand new 8-speed. That just hit me different because I've been chasing new tech and ignoring how solid the old stuff really is. Anyone else start looking at old school gear ratios differently after a conversation like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny_lee9d ago

Oh wait, I gotta nitpick one thing a little. That TH400 rebuild for $400 probably didn't include the torque converter or any machine work, so it's not really a fair comparison to a brand new trans that comes with everything ready to bolt in. Still love hearing stories like that though, the old stuff really is tough as nails.

colescott9d ago

Jenny, I get what you're saying, but I think $400 for a TH400 rebuild with a stock converter is a pretty fair price if you're doing it yourself. A lot of those old transmissions didn't need machine work unless something was really wrong. I've pulled apart TH400s from the 70s that just needed new seals and a band adjustment. So yeah, the converter might add another $100, but you're still under $600 for a bulletproof trans. Compare that to a new 4L80E for $2,500 and it's not even close. @jenny_lee these old units are cheap to fix because they were designed simple.

dylan4639d ago

Yeah Jenny, I was actually reading an old issue of Hot Rod from like 1998 the other day where they did a budget TH400 build, and they mentioned the same thing about the converter. But they also pointed out that those old torque converters are super simple to rebuild too, like $60 for a rebuild kit and you can do it in an afternoon. I think colescott is spot on about the simplicity factor. These old transmissions have like half the parts of a modern one, so even if you have to get the converter serviced, you're still way under a grand for something that'll handle 500 horsepower easy.