We are in the process of shimming the accumulators on a spare transmission that will be going in a 99 GS300 that currently contains a dead trans. I have a few questions however before I set shims in place. The only writeup I could find on this subject was made for a mk3 supra auto (A340e) so the pictures there were useless to me. Questions for almost every picture below.

The door sill on the GS3 It obviously says A650E However
The ID plate on the side of the new transmission dosent have A650E anywhere on it, however it came from a 99 SC4 the plate reads as follows

Aisin AW CO. LTD

model no. = 35-50LS
Serial. = 99CJ-00629

Im guessing that this is infact a A650E? Hopefully

Here is what the trans looked like after the valvebody was off


I was told that one of the accumulators didnt need to be shimmed (overdrive im guessing) Which one is which in there?

the one in the middle needed some pushing to allow it to spring itself out. After it was released it looked like this


After pulling the center cap off


What came out from under the center cap


Inside the center peice (they all 3 look like this inside)



Lined up from left to right (left being closest to the driveshaft when in the trans)




Empty accumulator bores




Now another question is do I place shims

here(in the buckets)?


or here (in the bores)?



Now if anyone knows which one I dont need to shim thats what I really need to know. I am more than willing to make this a writeup once its all done and working.



Thanks In Advance
BJ

 

Planning to put anywhere from 8-10mm of shim in the needed accumulators in hopes to make the trans handle power a little better, or atlest till we can have one built big time. Doing the shims along with a B&M transcooler and whatever good fluid I can find local.

 

so does putting in the shims stiffen up the shifts a little bit since there will be less spring rate for the actuators???? I also very interedted if someone knows this!

 

Yes depending on how much shim you throw in there you can go from driving like normal to full on barking the tires in every gear change.

 

now will this change be all the time or just at full throttle?? I want my tranny to shift more like stock when the gears are shifting around 2-2500rpm but to shift stiffer at full throttle. will these shims do what I'm looking for? thanks!

 

the shims will make a change no matter what rpm im pretty sure. the goal here is to save the trans so the more of the shift you feel the less the trans feels.

 

this is not always true. I put a VB upgrade in my trans and it blew out the 2-3rd sprag. it's not strong enough for all the tourque our cars have! the stiffer shifts puts strain on the sprags!

 

I too have the VB upgrade and have always felt second to third could create a problem.Is there any correction or preventive maint?I dont remember or know about shims we just took out the old VB and put the new one in, in reverse order.What did it take to correct your trans?

 

full rebuild! the only way to prevent this is the upgrade the sprag from 2-3rd! the only problem i'm having is finding someone that makes the upgraded sprag! if anyone knows where I can get this PLEASE let me know!

 

Send it off to PFS or SRT to get the whole transmission race built. It costs around $1500 range or so.

 

SRT also do sprag upgrade too for $395 they do both VB and sprag for 695 but you have to send in your trannny to get done

 

+1

 

We already have a trans going off to get built just looking for a temp fix on the trans going in the car for now.

 

Level 10 has quite a few parts / kits for the transmission, I would check with them. They also built the tranny for the Lexus race team and manufactuered additonal parts that were needed for high HP cars. for instance they foiund that a plastic part in the transmission would melt after a while and so they made a metal replacement part.

 

yeah............but their rebuild is almost 5 GRAND!