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Rebuilding and swapping a 46re into my 03 Ram

10K views 41 replies 7 participants last post by  YeahItsAHemi 
#1 ·
I may as well start my own thread since I will be attempting to rebuild the trans myself, I've never gotten into a transmission before. It looks fairly easy to pull out-replace-put in, I just need to really watch any certain clearances and upgrades to handle the power. Just as a quick background this will be going in my 03 Quad cab with a 392 stroker, and its getting a manual vlavebody with a TCI Outlaw shifter.
 
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#2 ·
I started laying out parts and seeing what I had to work with. First problem I ran into was Keith suggesting to add 6 springs to the direct drum to beef it up to handle the 5.0 apply lever. I found a guy parting out transmissions, he has a whole drum for $10, I'll pick that up and steal some springs from it

Another issue that's going to be fun is guessing where all the little seals and parts go, the majority of them are all unlabeled :facepalm: I think this is the seal that gets upgraded around the direct drum, I just don't understand why it wasn't upgraded in the kit since they sent me a new drum with a regular seal already installed
 
#3 ·
Do you have the 46rh service manual? It has alot of information. I bought one from ebay to help me understand how it works.
 
#4 ·
I have the older Rh manual downloaded on my computer, but it’s very hard to follow. I’ve been thinking about grabbing the ATSG 46re manual but haven’t yet
 
#5 ·
I’m going to go meet a guy soon to pick up those springs, I think he’s got a lot more random parts and transmissions. Would there be any good parts to grab if he happened to have a 48re or something similar? I’m sure I can get stuff cheap if he has anything good
 
#6 ·
does he have 518/46 4x2 trans or case?
 
#7 ·
Rick what’s the difference between a 4x4 and 4x2? I’ll find out what he’s got tonight. I messaged him earlier and he said he didn’t have any diesel trans
 
#8 ·
Tail shaft,
I had a 46RE a few weeks back, but I traded it for TKO 600 that's in need of some TLC
It's only a matter of time before 428 in the 2014 take it's toll on the 65RFE
 
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#9 ·
Well I did luck out on this trans, it had a brand new rebuild done on it before I started, so all the bushings look fresh :thumb: I'm probably going to order the snap ring kit to make sure the overdrive snap ring is new, I don't want that to break after its all done
 
#10 ·
A simple way to beef up the OD clutch. (I love this transmission)
Description
PATC #8S / #D12970A. Overdrive extreme duty Mega Spring. This is the large spring that holds the overdrive direct clutch engaged when the transmission isn’t in 4th gear. Fits 500, 518, 618, 46RH / RE and 47RH / RE transmissions. Needed for high horse power / torque motors. Just like the original spring but 1/4 inch longer.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Yep its definitely the mega spring. The one on the right came out of the trans, the left is what came in the kit, looks to be about 1/4" longer
 
#11 ·
I believe that’s the spring that’s included in the stage 3 kit already. It says the mega duty spring is included
 
#12 ·
That sounds like it...
 
#15 ·
Next thing is the direct drum, the old setup only had 3 clutches. The build kit came with a brand new drum and a machined backing plate. I could only identify 5 clutches that goes into it, I thought reading Keiths thread he said there could be up to 6. But 5 clutches fit right into the drum so I'm assuming thats all that goes in.

Old vs new




Two different backing plates provided in the kit. I think the machines one on the left goes with the new drum, the right one probably goes in the old drum if you decided to reuse it. That's my best guess
 
#17 ·
My manual only mentions 5 plates and 5 frictions. Doesn't mention 3 plates or frictions.
 
#19 ·
#20 · (Edited)
Ok I rechecked the kit, I must of had the wrong clutch pack set for the direct drum. I have a set of 7 clutches that are ribbed, which I'm assuming is the direct drum, and 5 smooth clutches which should be the forward drum clutches. They are the exact same size, just one set is ribbed and the other is smooth, and the count is different.


Now the new drum has two grooves machined in for snap rings, is the top ring for the extra clutches and the bottom ring for the stock setup? Looking at the stock drum it just has the one groove, And it only had 3 clutches to begin with. This picture is the new drum where you can see the two grooves. I measured and the bottom grove matches the stock location
 
#21 · (Edited)
Also I have two steel that are thicker then the rest at .086, and 11 of a thinner type at .067. I'm not sure if these are just for fixing clearance issues, or if they need to be backing plates somewhere. All 13 are the same physical size, just different thicknesses.

 
#22 ·
Direct drum finished up with 6 clutches


Forward drum with a thin backing plate ended up with 5 clutches. I still need to check the clearances, I gotta pick up a set of feeler gauges
 
#24 ·
Are you talking about the center post of the drum? I had a small seal about 3" big in a baggie that was labeled as the improved direct drum clutch seal. It was bigger the the stock seal. What I'm talking about are the two notches that the snap rings go into. When I put the 6 pack of clutches in with the new machined backing plate it lined up perfectly with the top notch in the drum for the snap ring.
 
#27 ·
The new drum had one installed. I pulled it out to compare it with the improved one, it was a bit smaller. So I put the improved seal in and put it all back together :thumb:
 
#28 ·
Getting some work done finally! I'm waiting on the billet 4.2 lever to show up from Cope, so I can't get much more done until then. So one question, I am trying to get my measurement for the overdrive piston thrust washer. I did my math and got 1.835 (including factoring in the .500 thick measurement for the bar the service manual says). The manual says I should be using a .183-.185 spacer, and the one that was already in the trans is .214. So it seems to be .030 thicker then it's supposed to be? Any suggestions?

I found some awesome rebuild videos. Now this guy is very dry, and terribly slow, but he's extremely thorough. If you set the speed of the video to 1.5 it's alot easier to follow along. It has helped alot with identifying where all the replacement o-rings and some things that are easy to forget putting everything together. There are about 10 videos on the 46re and they are pretty long but cover complete teardown and rebuild
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZM6975gX3M

 
#29 ·
Figured it out. I ordered the Sonnax overdrive shim kit, comes with a .175 washer and 3 .010 spacers. That should get me the .185 I need.
 
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