Well after six months I drove my truck tonight. I gave up on TCI a few months ago and cancelled my order for the input shaft/drum. They are still unobtainium from TCI. After a couple discussions with my transmission man we decided to use the stock shaft and drum out of my parts transmission. He has built hundreds of 700r4s and mine is the only one to break an input shaft. He came over in the middle of October and brought all the proper tools and we took the transmission completely apart. We discussed all the issues and which way I wanted to go with this transmission. We found the cause of the converter bleeding of and overfilling the transfer case. This is one of the most modified 700r4s he has ever built that is not in a drag car. I ordered another $400 of nice high performance parts and yesterday and today we assembled the trans. I installed it this afternoon and my grandsons helped me install the transfer case and drivelines. Ran it on the rack for a while to break it in and make sure we had 4 forward gears , lockup and a good reverse. The boys and I went for a nice long drive and it is wonderful, beautiful crisp shifts. While waiting for parts I went through the front end replacing axle joints, packing bearings and rebuilding the brakes. I completely rebuilt the front driveline and resealed the transfer case. There are a couple more things the old truck needs but not much, it is such a pleasure to drive this truck. I assembled this truck from several rigs back in 05. I gathered parts for five years before assembly began.
It is a good weekend!
Let it snow!
Cheers
Andy

 

Nice!!!

I swapped the winter wheels/tires on my Grand Marquis a month ago; and just did the brakes a week ago. I'm prepared for small snow storms. Got the Explorer for the larger snow storms. I would love to find a square body 4WD Chevy or Ford with a decent body and fix it up for winter driving.

 

Congratulations, Andy. I'm happy to hear your success story.

 

Nice, Andy....nice.