[swimmster]

It's funny about trannies and how everyone is afraid of them.. if you can rebuild an engine, you can DEFINITLY rebuild a tranny. and yes, I'm talking about automatics. With the exception of the valve body, think of the tranny pieces as a stack of parts. the ONLY thing you need ot do is take them out and lay them out in the order they need ot go in. Everything is in a sub-assembly. so just rebuild one part at a time. Take it apart on a dirty bench and put it back together in a "clean room". that's all. 90% of the tranny parts can be washed in the dishwasher. trans fluid is more mineral oil based than petro oil. Your dishwasher won't know the difference between tranny fluid and cooking grease. except for the obvious odor. The valve body is pretty easy as well.. just do it in order. take it apart somewhere that you can lay all the pieces out and know where they go. better yet, lay them out and take a picture. cause you will want to put the valves, etc in the dishwasher too. Wash the valvebody in solvent and then the dishwasher. reassemble using clean tranny fluid or vasoline to hold in things like checkballs, etc.. For those worried about check ball placement, it's almost always very apparent where they need to go. It's really no more difficult to build a tranny than it is an engine.