My experience with upgrading my 47RE

[Rebelrodder]

Hey all!

 

This post my fall into the category of post whoring but I'd like to risk that in the hopes that it may help somebody else out when trying to decide what to do with their 47/48RE when it needs a bit of help.

 

I want to be very clear here, the transmission in my truck had just a hair over 100k on it when I was contemplating this. I also know how it was driven since I know the PO of the truck. He didn't flog on it and took it in for service at the dealer every 25k just like clockwork. I felt very confident that it was in reasonably sound shape.

 

I was experiencing TC clutch lockup slippage on the stock TC. It started when towing my 32 foot travel trailer but as the clutch started to really go south I had to pedal it even when the truck was empty. Clearly a tired clutch situation. Since this was my first auto truck and my first diesel I wanted to be absolutely sure that the transmission wasn't slipping as well. After reading a whole lot and watching a boat load of You Tube videos I figured I was in the know.

 

I decided to call RevMax for the parts based on recommendations here and at CF. I opted to go for their Stage 3.5 TC and their towing valve body. I also added the apply lever, band strut and anchor, second gear apply piston, accumulator and the low/reverse servo. Pretty much all the standard goodies! It all went together pretty well but I must say that for my first transmission job, doing it without any gear head buddies and in my driveway was a bit of a challenge! The only thing that didn't go well was the low/reverse servo. I wound up with the version for an early 727 series transmission which is much bigger than the one in the later 727 based transmissions. I'll swap that out in the future when the trans comes out for a rebuild. At the same time I replaced the trans cooler at the front of the truck with a Derale 4 pass unit hung in place of the original one. I added a fan boosted Derale 8 pass unit under the bed just behind where I hung my AirDog. A temp gauge is my next addition but for the moment I'm trusting those coolers to keep me in the green. Just how in the green remains to be seen!

 

The results of this far surpassed my wildest expectations! All of the parts fit well and my truck tows much better than it ever did before. The new TC locks up and holds just fine while towing though I do not have any power mods to speak of. The Hypermax programmer is very mild. I am under no delusions that the TC will hold up long term with big power under the hood but, for now it's great! Case in point, in 2012 we towed over the Oregon Coast range from Portland to Astoria for our annual camping get together with family and friends. Limping the TC clutch for most of the trip netted 9.8 mpg round trip. After the mods we took the same trip in 2013 and got 11.5 mpg with no TC clutch drama. That's a very nice increase! This trip is pretty hilly and slow so a lot of it is done in third gear. Out on the open road when I can get into OD should be a bit better.

 

In short, a nice TC/VB combination will do wonders for your rig. IF your trans is tired and needs a rebuild, don't skip that part!

 

Jerrod

[War Eagle]

I did the transmission ugrade on my 47RE (2000 Ram) and it was a great improvement. 

 

My original trans gave me just shy of 170k and I have nearly 70k since the rebuild and it has been rock solid.

 

Every performance parameter you can measure has improved with this upgraded trans.

[joecool911]

I've got 180,000 on my Trans. Put in a new TQ at 149,000. Runs great. Change fluid every 20k or so. Thinking about a new valve body.