kiloman_11

What TH350 complete rebuild kit do you prefer? I'll be buying sprag and hardened race as well. I was looking at the one from Oregon Performance Transmission, anybody use them? Looking for experience and recommendations.

Vintage Chief

Review these threads >>> https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...archid=4752801

kiloman_11

I have read through MANY transmission threads already. This is not a helpful answer.

70sgeek

Not that this response will be any more "helpful" than the last, but (1) "best" is a subjective term in context to just about any part you will ever inquire about and (2) you won't get much additional help by admonishing a responding board member for referring you onto other threads which might be helpful, not knowing you may have already seen them.

Lighten up on the attitude and you'll do much better on this site going forward.

kiloman_11

Subjective answers based on people's experience is exactly what I was looking for. It's a pretty simple question.

kiloman_11

It should be assumed that someone has already spent a significant amount of time searching and reading threads for an answer to their questions before making their own thread asking for input.

70sgeek

Whatever... Better keep searching and reading - I suspect all you'll get beyond this is crickets...

matt69olds

Chirp. Chirp

i personally wouldn’t spend the extra money for the high dollar rebuild kits that include Kolene steel plates, or the blue racing clutches. I have had good luck with Alto Red clutches, or my personal preference is the Borg Warner high energy frictions. I know Coan sells kits with those frictions, and last time I bought one it included Teflon rings. If your plans include a transbrake, manual valve body, or some other valve body that has fixed line pressure (no vacuum modulator) you definitely want to use Teflon rings. The steel rings will wear out and tear up the parts around it from the constant high pressure. Be sure to get a wide direct drum bushing, either buy a 5 clutch direct drum piston or machine your existing piston. Consider installing a low/reverse center support from a 700 trans. The roller clutch is bigger than the stock 350 part.

I don’t really have much faith in aftermarket outer sprag races. If you buy one, make sure it’s from a reputable place. The cheap EBay stuff is junk, I’d rather have a good used part the cheap stuff is made from inferior material, has a poorly done heat treat, etc. You need to understand what the roller clutch is ask to do. The drum has to spin backwards almost 3 times engine speed in first gear, then immediately come to a stop in second gear. It’s amazing they hold up as well as they do. The race needs to be hard, but not so had that it becomes brittle. At the same time, it needs to be hard enough to be durable for 100000 miles. It’s a fine balance. Best advice I have to keeping the sprag alive is to make sure the wave plate is included in the intermediate clutch, and make sure the accumulator spring on the side of the case is installed. I try and use the OEM orange spring.

Hope that helps, good luck

Fun71

Wow, you must not read many of the newbie posts. Many of them are questions that have been answered multiple times and the historical info is readily found in a simple search.

kiloman_11

matt69olds Thank you, that's what I was looking for.