Transmission rebuild

[rauan]

I have 2023 Ram 2500, in process of restoration from the flood. We’ve flushed the transmission ~6-7 times until we got clean oil. However, I have not driven it yet and was planning to change the oil after a couple of hundreds of miles. What would be your recommendation on that?
If at the end my transmission is still damaged and needs to be repaired I was thinking if it makes better sense to rebuild it or just swap with another one. I hear a lot about rebuilding stock 68RFE transmission for better towing capabilities.
Does anyone have experience here? Also does anyone know if there is a good shop around Anchorage Alaska for transmission repair/rebuild?
I wish there was a way to retrofit the new ZF 8 speed transmission. I am afraid it is too early for that.

 

[rauan]

Ok, does anyone know a reputable shop in Houston then?

 

[rauan]

I would really appreciate if anyone has a recomendation to share about transmission rebuild shops in Houston.

 

[DammitDave]

I would really appreciate if anyone has a recomendation to share about transmission rebuild shops in Houston.

Apparently nobody want to talk about this kinda thing, I just tried to start a similar post about a 68rfe (fail) and nobody has anything to say.

 

[rauan]

Apparently nobody want to talk about this kinda thing, I just tried to start a similar post about a 68rfe (fail) and nobody has anything to say.

Seems to be the case. I ended up choosing a shop near by the place where my truck was located. They rebuilt the transmission and the truck is on its way to Alaska now. I can't say anything good or bad about that shop, but it sounded like they know what they are doing when I spoke to them. It was a gamble, but rebuilding a transmissionin Alaska is 3 more expensive.

 

[npace]

Well, FWIW, I don't have any shop recommendations, but if it were me, I would keep the 68RFE - the ZFs aren't all they're cracked up to be. I could tell you about the Ford 6R80 that I had to have replaced at only 6 years old - that transmission is a ZF 6HP26. I realize that the torque flight is based off of a different ZF transmission, but the reason virtually all manufacturers, from Ford to BMW to GM to Ram are switching to ZF is for cost savings, not end-user reliability. The new torque flight should be better out of the box than the 68RFE, but the potential failure points in the 68RFE are well-known and documented. Personally, I'm going to wait for a while, and when it comes time to change the fluid for the first time I'll do a valve body upgrade with better accumulators and put in a deeper pan with drain plug and a cooler bypass. All relatively easy to do yourself and will make the 68RFE pretty much unstoppable at stock power levels, which are plenty for my needs.

There are a lot of diesel mechanics and performance diesel shops out there that prefer a built 68RFE over other transmissions, including the allison, because if you're throwing the kind of power at them that they are, the 68RFE in built form does better than the other ones in built form, and they're all going to have to be built at that point (beyond the billet valve body plate / accumulator "built" is a billet torque converter, uprated clutch packs, and case housing reinforcement).

The only other thing I'll add is that if your transmission was flooded, a flush may not take care of everything, as water / mud could still be sitting in the torque converter - and replacing that is a pretty big job.

Good luck to you, and let us know what happens. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

[rauan]

I received the truck in Anchorage and driving it for the last month or so. I am not very happy with the shop as I found out that pan was wet after some time. I also found put that they didn’t put a deep pan, but put back my original one. I hope they did everything else as they promised. Unfortunately the hope is only thing I have
However, the truck drives ok so far and I did tow my fifth wheeler once. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[npace]

I don't think that the 68RFE is nearly as bad as it's been made out to be. Yes, there are some potential problems with it. But... if you aren't adding power or trying to increase pressure line commands, it should still last a while. I've been towing with mine, as intended, and it's fine. The forums and the internet in general has a way of overblowing the potential problems associated with specific vehicles.

 

[T143]

Well, FWIW, I don't have any shop recommendations, but if it were me, I would keep the 68RFE - the ZFs aren't all they're cracked up to be. I could tell you about the Ford 6R80 that I had to have replaced at only 6 years old - that transmission is a ZF 6HP26. I realize that the torque flight is based off of a different ZF transmission, but the reason virtually all manufacturers, from Ford to BMW to GM to Ram are switching to ZF is for cost savings, not end-user reliability. The new torque flight should be better out of the box than the 68RFE, but the potential failure points in the 68RFE are well-known and documented. Personally, I'm going to wait for a while, and when it comes time to change the fluid for the first time I'll do a valve body upgrade with better accumulators and put in a deeper pan with drain plug and a cooler bypass. All relatively easy to do yourself and will make the 68RFE pretty much unstoppable at stock power levels, which are plenty for my needs.

There are a lot of diesel mechanics and performance diesel shops out there that prefer a built 68RFE over other transmissions, including the allison, because if you're throwing the kind of power at them that they are, the 68RFE in built form does better than the other ones in built form, and they're all going to have to be built at that point (beyond the billet valve body plate / accumulator "built" is a billet torque converter, uprated clutch packs, and case housing reinforcement).

The only other thing I'll add is that if your transmission was flooded, a flush may not take care of everything, as water / mud could still be sitting in the torque converter - and replacing that is a pretty big job.

Good luck to you, and let us know what happens. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

I would like to point out a few things. The 6R80 is not a ZF gearbox its a copy of the ZF 6HP26.
I work on vehicles with different variations of ZF gearboxes and for the amount of failures I see its not even enough to make a noise about, the most common failure I see if you want to call it a failure is poor maintenance and 8/10 of those are using the wrong oil.

 

[npace]

I would like to point out a few things. The 6R80 is not a ZF gearbox its a copy of the ZF 6HP26.
I work on vehicles with different variations of ZF gearboxes and for the amount of failures I see its not even enough to make a noise about, the most common failure I see if you want to call it a failure is poor maintenance and 8/10 of those are using the wrong oil.

Is it the wrong oil, or is it "lifetime" fluid like in the BMWs? - The point here is that I don't think it's fair to blame owners on poor maintenance for some of these things; the average consumer who buys a car and gets told by the manufacturer that they never have to change the transmission fluid isn't really responsible for poor maintenance.

Yes, the Ford 6R80 was not manufactured by ZF, as Ford licensed the design and then actually made enhancements to improve the reliability, such as the ratchet style low one way clutch. The 68RFE failure rate is a lot lower than forums would have you believe as well. Even big name aftermarket suppliers who are in the business of selling upgrades will tell you that if you're keeping the vehicle stock (as intended) you can go a very long time with no problems. While I'm sure that there are failures and exceptions, and a bunch of people can jump in here and chime in with anecdotal evidence, it still isn't statistically a huge portion of these trucks. For instance, the owner's manual says not to tow anything with these trucks for at least 500 miles, and then not to exceed 55 MPH for the first 500 miles of towing, or it can lead to driveline damage, including the transmission. It wouldn't shock me to learn that some of the failures were with people that did not follow this.

Anyway, kind of a long post, but I'm not saying that the ZF is a bad transmission, or that the 68RFE is better. My basic point was, and still is, that the ZF isn't an inherently better design, as it will still have weaknesses, they'll just be different. Any and every design has it's own set of compromises, limitations, and potential failure points.

 

[T143]

Is it the wrong oil, or is it "lifetime" fluid like in the BMWs? - The point here is that I don't think it's fair to blame owners on poor maintenance for some of these things; the average consumer who buys a car and gets told by the manufacturer that they never have to change the transmission fluid isn't really responsible for poor maintenance.

Yes, the Ford 6R80 was not manufactured by ZF, as Ford licensed the design and then actually made enhancements to improve the reliability, such as the ratchet style low one way clutch. The 68RFE failure rate is a lot lower than forums would have you believe as well. Even big name aftermarket suppliers who are in the business of selling upgrades will tell you that if you're keeping the vehicle stock (as intended) you can go a very long time with no problems. While I'm sure that there are failures and exceptions, and a bunch of people can jump in here and chime in with anecdotal evidence, it still isn't statistically a huge portion of these trucks. For instance, the owner's manual says not to tow anything with these trucks for at least 500 miles, and then not to exceed 55 MPH for the first 500 miles of towing, or it can lead to driveline damage, including the transmission. It wouldn't shock me to learn that some of the failures were with people that did not follow this.

Anyway, kind of a long post, but I'm not saying that the ZF is a bad transmission, or that the 68RFE is better. My basic point was, and still is, that the ZF isn't an inherently better design, as it will still have weaknesses, they'll just be different. Any and every design has it's own set of compromises, limitations, and potential failure points.

The new ZF for the HD trucks will most probably produce a fault or two because its now in the real world and its hard to try and compensate for the lowest common denominator.
Lifetime filled means for 200-250,000km no service required for normal use. Not your life time lol
Fine print says in harsh conditions and towing every 100,000km
Seems very simple to me and what we advise our customers and have not met a customer that had a problem with that. We have 6HP26 boxes over 700k on them for normal vehicles imaging if they were haulers what the km’s would be.
I have to confess my 68RFE has only one concern I absolutely hate, its the gear change from 3 to 4 its way to harsh for my liking, everything else is amazing but my truck is almost one year old with 35,000km on the clock.