afracer

Yeah I saw that Soarer tranny, interesting with the exception of the tailshaft it looks absolutely identical to my A350E...I saw the side of it said 30-50, it's probably the same transmission honestly, but they want $165 extra for shipping and I'd have to swap the tailshaft which means pulling the entire tranny apart anyway, so since I'm doing that already, might as well see what I can find and replace myself. Each day I think about it more I think I can tackle this one without any/many problems. The rebuild kit just got here tonight. About time to take her apart!

afracer

I forgot about my Mark II 1JZGTE auto tranny I had laying in my shed. This trans is a J1 A341E, so it's all the same family of tranny as the others. It is very comparable (nearly identical) to the J3/Aristo/Soarer tranny in that it has extra clutch packs and such to hold up to the Turbo. It was in my Cressida when I bought it and I took it out when I did the R154 swap a couple years ago.

So I opened it up, tore it down and did the same to the A350E. It looks like the clutches in the A350 were pretty worn down and the filter and pan had a lot of trash in it. Also some nylon or plastic piece inside the low gear planetary unit had pretty much disintegrated all over the inside of the tranny as well. So I'm waiting for my manual to arrive before putting it back together which should be tomorrow.

I will be installing as much of the turbo tranny pieces into the A350 as I can...this means the extra clutches and all, along with the rebuild kit. The internals of the turbo tranny look much better with lots of life in the clutches too. Hope I'll have it back together tomorrow or Wednesday! We'll see!

afracer

Oy this tranny is a pain in the butt to put back together! I got the Lexus manual today, which is a lifesaver, but it's still tough. I've got it about 60% back together again, but ran out of time today. I've only really found one show stopper inside the tranny besides that nasty filter, and that was a melted/disintegrated thrust washer in the 1st/reverse planetary gear. I'm not convinced that would be enough to do what my tranny was doing, but we'll see. I was unable to get the extra clutch disk from the 1JZGTE tranny and some of the other small internals swapped over, but I did swap out some clutches that had some pretty good wear spots on them and have thrown the rebuild kit contents on as I'm assembling. Right now I'm at a real hard part trying to get all the teeth of the clutches lined up to get the OD pack back together...it's really tough because there's no way to know if it's seated all the way until you put everything in and can't get the snap rings in or something. Hopefully tomorrow evening I'll get it...I almost had it done today, if I didn't have so many snags!

afracer

Yeah, there isn't barely any parts that directly bolt in from the A341E. I tried to shove this part, that part, whatever I could, but nothing just goes in unless you're talking about swapping clutches and other small common internals. The A350 is different enough to make it fairly unique. Should have it back together in a few minutes and then comes the valve body.

afracer

Well, I've inspected everything else, all looks fine. Some guys were saying the 1-2 shift valve in the valve body are prone to breakage with similar symptoms, but everything looked fine in there and I don't know how something like that would even break in the first place but I guess they do. Anyways, the tranny is all back together and ready to go back in. I basically rebuilt it and inspected everything for proper clearance/operation and it all looks good now. Only three things I've found were a disintegrated thrust washer (they're nylon/plastic), a couple slightly worn clutch disks that I replaced, and a very dirty filter. BTW a trans rebuild kit really only includes a shat load of O-rings, rubber *****, nylon thrust washers, and valve body gaskets mostly. Didn't even come with a new filter so keep that in mind if you ever decide to tackle a job like this yourself. Probably be better off to go with one of the large overhaul 'banner' kits with new clutches and steels too, the FSM says if the disks look worn AT ALL replace them.

I'm a very mechanically inclined person and I had a rough time doing this project (first time) by myself. With another person it wouldn't be as bad because there's a lot of large spring loaded things held in with large C-clips/snap rings that are really hard to do all by yourself, but it can be done. Next post should be about having it back together and running hopefully!

afracer

Like I said, next post I should have it back together and running and I do. Actually finished around 4 pm but had to go trick or treat with the kids and road test it and everything. Whatever I did, I fixed the problem. I ended up using the twin turbo oil pump, torque converter, clutches, and maybe a few other smaller/different parts that I can't remember (anyone would have a hard time remembering if you take any longer than 2 days to do this job and all the little parts/pieces involved). I figured I'd use as many parts as I could from the TT trans since I know the TT trans was a good working unit with fairly low miles.

The car actually feels REALLY good, like better than it ever did before. Ended up getting rid of a vibration it had since we've owned it between 2000-4000 rpm as well. It shifts quickly and a little more aggressive than it used to, no slipping whatsoever. I used Dexron VI fluid as it said it's compatible with Toyota Type IV since there aren't any Toyota dealers close by, gulped down almost 7 quarts!

Anyway, my wife and I are ecstatic that the car is up and running again, it's been down since July due to our move from Texas to Arkansas and was my wife's DD. So the deal was once I got her car fixed THEN I can work on my cars, so FINALLY I can get the 1.5JZ Cressida and my SR20DET Datsun up and running! I've got 6 cars and this summer we were down to only 1 and now back up to 4 so I'm happy!