I just picked up a 79 corvette with a bad trans. th350. The guy I got it from gave me another TH-350 with the car that he claimed was good. Didn't bother to look too closely at the tranny, just loaded it up and was on my way. Well I just started looking it over to see if there were any obvious issues with it before I pulled the bad tranny and installed this one and found it to be bad as well. Fluid and all that looks fine. But what bothers me is what appears to be a crack on the top of the bellhousing, as well as some scars on the inside. Here are the best pictures I can get of the damage. My question to you guys is this: Is this going to be a detrimental issue to the transmission? Or as long as the internals function right will this bellhousing issue not create an issue? Not sure if this is an area where a crack would be bad news or not. Just some notes: This is not going into a high power or race application. 1. This is a bone stock 1979 corvette with an L82 that isn't rated much over 200hp from the factory. 2. Im unsure of the original application of the transmission in question. The number is C4U142111. I haven't had any luck identifying it. Any input here would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if more information or pictures are needed. thanks!
What's your opinion on using this tranny? Also what do you think caused the damage? The crack on the top coincides with the internal damage....same location. Torque converter or flex plate failure of some sort?
Just swap the guts into the good case. All it would require is a new pump gasket, snap ring pliers, rear tail shaft seal and possible tail shaft bushing.
If I were to do that would I also need the clutch compressor and etc tool-wise? i've never torn into an automatic before. I've been considering attempting a rebuild on one at some point just to get my hands dirty but as of right now I don't have the scratch for a build kit and the tools (Or i'd just make a go at rebuilding the existing one).