marvin5881

I have a 1998 LS 400
I've gotten underneath the car and removed the transmission fluid pan. I'm not sure how to remove the solenoids after that point, I can see them clearly but also looking at them I can't see any obvious ways to remove them. The connectors plugged into the solenoids also don't budge when I pull on them. Specifically I'm removing the Lock Up solenoid, does anyone know how I can remove solenoids in this car?

leftybp

this may help

leftybp

more help ?????????

Nad1370

^^^
Nice pics.
Looks like the valve body has to come down since each solenoid is bolted down from the top side.

Losiracer2

When I did my lockup solenoid, I had to remove the transmission filter and then there was a 10mm bolt that held in a bracket, securing the solenoid and the one adjacent to it to the transmission. You'll have to slide it out of the housing as well once you get the 10mm bolt off.

LS400FAN

I'm just curious as to why you removed the solenoid, what was the tranny doing or not doing to cause you to replace the solenoid? This would be good to know if I ever need to reference it. Thanks much.

marvin5881

I've noticed it take me 10 seconds to shift from reverse to drive, after a 10 second wait, the car shifts. The shifting action itself is smooth but it takes 10 seconds for it to start. I got a bluetooth scanner and it gave me a error code for the Shift Solenoid SLU.

jaaa

Have you changed it out yet? And if so, did it help? I saved all my solenoids from my bad transmission when I swapped it out. It didn't seem like it would be too hard to change them out underneath the car.

LS400FAN

jaaa....if you get the time could you share your experience swapping out your tranny? Such things like yr and mileage of your LS, and what issues were you having with it at the time, and how big of a job was it for you? Thanks.

jaaa

My Ls400 is a 1996 with currently 250k miles. At the time of the trany failure it had around 230k if I remember right. My transmission never stopped working, but it was losing a lot of transmission fluid out of the weep hole by the bell housing. I did some research and found several people who had replaced the seal didn't fix their leaking problem. I didn't want to go to the effort of dropping the transmission, trying the seal, and then finding out it didn't fix it- so I found a used 1995 with 110k miles on it. Didn't have a guarantee, but it only cost $100. I'm not an experienced mechanic, just your usual DIYer that does his own oil/brake/plugs/intakes kind of things. First problem I had was getting my car high enough off the ground to slide the transmission in and out. I initially thought that I would put my HF jack stands on large landscaping stones to get it high enough. I think that would have worked, but I ended up using my neighbors jack stands that were very old and went up quite a ways. I did all the work but one thing. My exhaust was original and I didn't want to fight the nuts on the front of the cats, so I took the car to an exhaust shop and had them remove all the exhaust for me(took him over an hour as he was trying to save the studs for me). $60 or so there. I had to drive 10 miles home through city traffic(boy was that loud at the stop signs). I was somewhat surprised as he was able to stuff all of the exhaust parts into my trunk. As for removal, I just used the online tutorial that had a step by step procedure. Only tools I had to buy was a 3 foot extension to get the upper bolts out of the top of the transmission. I just used(actually I modified it so that the board was attached to the jack) my HF jack with a flat board on top of it to pull out the transmission. On the replacement transmission, I had trouble with the torque converter sliding out slightly as I was jockeying it up and in. I ended up taking it back down and taking it to a transmission shop to have a technician reset it back into place. I played with it for hours trying to get the gears to line up. It took the transmission guy about two minutes to spin it into place. It was a little hairy jacking it into place, but I took my time and didn't force it. You have to make sure the torque converter stays in place as you do this. My transmission was a little different than the one in the tutorial, but it was close enough for me to figure it out. I didn't get one of the driver side transmission bolts in there exactly right(which included a bracket), so I had a little trouble with the cable that goes to the engine. I'm sure I didn't route it correctly, but in the end I made it work all right. Here is the tutorial I used: http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/trans...n/removal.html
I was 67 years old when I did this so I think it took me a total of around three days with all the fumbling around I did. Had help from a neighbor when the time came to drop it and install it(he maned the jack as I guided it in and out). No doubt a young person with greater knowledge than me could have done it a lot faster. But, I think most of the neighborhood betting was against my actually getting this to work!

jaaa

Here is a picture of both of them sitting in my garage. I used this opportunity to replace the guibo(SP?) joints that I had been putting off because I didn't want to drop the exhaust.

LS400FAN

Thanks a bunch good buddy, I can imagine how great you felt when everything worked. Btw, was it the seal that caused the leak in your case?

jaaa

Just for fun, I tore the transmission apart to look at it. I found what looked to me like bearings that had high temps for long periods of time. I harvested all the solenoids, but never found a cause for the leak, but then again, I'm just a duffer with almost no knowledge about transmissions. And yes, it was quite a kick to see the wheels spinning when I fired it up while it was still up on jack stands.

Banshee365

Well done on the trans R&R jaaa. That's not an easy job for anyone to do by themselves. If you were having a big leak from the converter seal you really have to replace the seal AND converter. The sealing surface on the converter is usually grooved and will forever leak with a new seal. The input seal is also pretty fun to replace with the pump in the trans as the input shaft is stuck through it. You have to get creative with pulling the seal out and be very careful not the mar any of the soft aluminum on the pump. Personally, if I were to replace the seal on a known good trans, I would remove the pump and disassemble it to drive the seal out from the rear. I could do that much faster than replacing the seal as it sits in the trans all together.

That is interesting about the bearings. Those bearings are very very hard. I haven ever seen them damaged. You would almost have to run it in a lack of fluid situation for a while. How far down into the case did you go and which bearing(s) did you find burnt?

LS400FAN

Wow Banshee, you seem to definitely know what you're talking about, my hope is that I won't ever have to tackle this problem. But I'm pushing 320k miles on my '98 and 270k on my '95 LS, it's the '98 that concerns me most, my '95 is bullet proof, fingers crossed it hangs in there for another few years, otherwise I will just have to roll my sleeves up, suck it up and get 'er done Thanks for your input.