97 GT J-Mod help

tri5333

New Member
Mar 8, 2009
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Ready to try the J-mod but dont feel comfortable drilling the seperator plate and piecing together the components, did a search nothing current. Does anyone know where I can find a kit with everything needed so someone with no automatic experience can figure it out? I did the search but no one has a listing for a J-Mod kit.
 
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This is why Ive just about sworn off this forum, You think youve done me a huge favor by the Smart*** let me google that for you , as I explained I already did that and thats the response I got you provided nothing new what I was looking for is if anyone sold the kits already to go, I can install. If it was that much of annoyance for you then why waist your time and mine.
 
Tri5333:

For your model year, you need to upgrade the accumulator pistons and the springs. Refer to "Transmissions 101" plus A-Train's two how-to articles at TCCoA.com/Tech Articles/Transmissions for details.

I suggest that you give bc-automotive.com a gander. Darrin is THE man for our 4R70W transmissions, imho, and I know he offers modded valve bodies and or separator plates but I don't know the specifics. You won't regret it.

Like you, I had not had any experience with the valvebody in an automatic. I just read and re-read the three articles (mentioned above) and got very familiar with the procedure and then I was brave enough to tackle the job. You need a good quality inch-pound torque wrench and you need to keep things clean (lint free). Keep the brake cleaner away from your paint!! Take your time and take some digital pics as you go so you know what goes where. Especially those funny little filter things that fit in the valve body. Don't force any parts, either.

HTH,

Chris
 
Honestly, if you buy a J-mod "kit" (i.e. new valvebody and/or separator plate already drilled) and have the ability to install that yourself, then you can save yourself the money and drill the holes on your own as well.

The basics of doing the J-mod:
1. Remove pan and drain fluid
2. Remove the valve body
3. Remove the separator plate from the valve body
4. Drill a few simple holes in that separator plate
5. Remove springs from accumulators (if you like, I left mine alone and am very happy with it)
6. Do whatever upgrades are necessary for the pre-98 accumulators
7. Reinstall everything
8. Fill up with fluid
9. Ask yourself why you didn't do this mod years ago.

The ONLY step that buying a valvebody or pre-drilled separator plate would save you is drilling the holes in your stock separator plate. And honestly, that is ridiculously easy. Read over the articles posted by Trombone and Chris, mark the separator plate accordingly, and drill the holes. It really is so easy that a caveman could do it. It took me maybe 10 minutes to do that step.

All in all, the J-mod sounds much more intimidating than it actually is. I was scared to death of it initially, but it took me less that 4 hours start to finish to do it, and with the write-ups listed, it really isn't that difficult. And as I said in step 9, I can't believe I owned my car for 4 years before I did this. One of my favorite mods to date, up to and including adding the supercharger.

Best of luck.