Thanks everyone for the replies so far.
I do not know of any reputable automatic trans shops in the area. I have personally dealt with two of them and to say they least they were worthless theives (I will not mention or pm their names).
zout, I'm in total agreement with you here, as I've been burned before myself. Unfortunately waaay too many mechanics these days can't or won't perform the quality of work I expect. I'm happy to pay a bit more for someone who will actually do things right but it's hard to know what you're getting into until it's too late most of the time. Hopefully someone has a shop they trust that they can point me to
SPECIALTYLC said:
You will also need a new transfercase, as the 400 and 700 dont interchange.
Thanks for the heads up. I think changing the output shaft on the 700r4 is also an option right? This is part of what I'm hoping to save myself from if I can find a reputable shop: I'm sure I can figure it out eventually, but I suspect I won't like the extra time and $$$ it's going to cost me to blunder through it on my own
WELCOME!
I recently replaced my flexplate (flywheel). It is not all that difficult if you decide to do it yourself. If you were to do this yourself there is a lot of information here to get you through it. The trans swap I would imagine has been docutmented as well.
Before you change the flex plate I would try to get a good relative position to the starter. Shimming the outer bolt alone will move the starter closer, inner/both will move it away. That way when you go to your new part you will reduce the likelyhood of re-grinding it as well. A new starter gear may be due. I used a paint marker to better understand the meshing of gears: starter to flexplate in addition to the TM spec'd clearance. Both showed my starter was too far away.
Be sure to use New Factory GM starter bolts @ correct torque with the correct front starter brace. Do the DogHead Modification to your starter relay.
Matt, thanks for the advice/encouragement. Most stuff I'm not afraid to just tackle myself and I'm fairly confident that I could figure this out (eventually, with a few inevitable hiccups and detours along the way). Mostly, it's that the time I'd have to sink into this project is a bit more than I'm ready to commit to at the moment. That said, I haven't entirely talked myself out of just doing the project myself yet, if I can't find a shop I trust to do the work I'll probably end up biting the bullet and doing it myself
The doghead relay mod is next on my list of things to do, honestly I'll probably end up fixing that before I sink the money into the transmission swap. I suspect that the failed relay may actually be the root cause of my flywheel problems. The relay was gone when I bought the truck, someone bypassed the starter system through a toggle switch on the dash which controls the starter now. The relay must have failed at some point in the past and if it stuck with the starter going that might have been the beginning of the end for the flywheel. I've got the relay in hand, just need to take an hour or two to get it installed.
-lowside
