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Subject: 5hp30 Valve Body Rebuild (lots of pics) Author: tse22 : member since June, 2009 : 24 posts Posted on: 2010-09-30 21:19:31

When I got the idea in my head to rebuild my valve body DIY style I had no idea where to begin. This will be my first write up for the board and will hopefully help others in my situation. I have no previous tranny experience except complete replacement on domestic cars (this was easier)

We'll start with the tools you'll need
first is a very large hex hey set 14 mm for the drain plug and I believe 17 for the filler plug. We could not find a set that big so we bought nuts and bolts used the bold with two jam nuts.
You'll also need a torx set I believe 27 was the most common (I'm sorry I didn't write the exact sizes down)
LOTS OF RAGS
drain pan
stripped screw extractor
lots of rags
beer (for after-do not drink while doing this!)
This is much easier with two people!

OK now the fun.

1.Lift the car, we used 4 jack stands to get it level.
2.Remove the drain plug and drain all fluid (save if it looks and smells reusable)
3. Remove the torx head bolts that hold on the pan (there will still be some fluid in the pan) we ended up stripping a lot of them and had to use a screw extractor or pound on a socket to remove them.
4.remove the 2 torx that hold on the filter Fluid will continue to drain for a long time.
5.remove the 8 solenoids from the VB
6.remove the 2 torx holding on the bracket that holds the sensor in place and remove the sensor.
7.remove the torx with the larger heads (these are the ones that hold in the actual VB and not the ones that hold it together.
9. remove the valve body (more fluid will drain and more and more fluid will drain.

Ok picture time



This is the valve body after we took it out




The solenoids




Bottom of the VB notice the torx you will be removing



All the torx removed




Pin holding the right housing onto the main housing- use a small
punch





Removing the right housing









After taking off all the torx lift up the assembly before removing the left housing, the bottom housing will come off as you lift it






After removing the left housing




The Left housing



Cleaning fluid




When you take off the covers make sure you hold them or the springs will go flying



A look at the parts inside the housing, every housing is different, make sure you are putting the right springs in the right places and make note if it was the valve or the spring that you took out first.


















Replace this gasket



Theres one check ball, the other is in the bottom housing

The directions are pretty self explanatory, this was NOT as hard as I thought it was going to be and hopefully this will give other people the courage to try it themselves.

Make sure that when you replace the gear selector it is installed properly so it fits in the channel and make sure its aligned as you put the valve body back into the transmission.

I hate to say this but installation in the reverse of removal!
easy as that. I estimate if I had to do this again it would take about 5 hours, as we did it (running for parts, tools, took a break to eat etc) it took about 11 hours- we weren't in a hurry.

I wish I had a good ending to this but after reinstalling everything and getting the fluid level back up we found there is some other kind of problem, it barely shifts and after third loses all gears and you have to restart the car to get into first again. We think its electrical or the torque converter went out. (I had the normal problems but this started happening and I thought it was just that the valve body got worse but it turns out I was wrong) Hopefully we can get it fixed soon!

This was done on a 1993 BMW 740IL

05/93 740il

• 5hp30 Valve Body Rebuild (lots of pics) (pic) - tse22 2010-09-30 21:19:31 (4550 views)
  • Nice contribution! How much was the kit and where did you get it? - DavidC 2010-10-07 00:15:50 (2722 views)
  • Congratulations for your service and thanks for posting the pictures... - mcf 2010-09-30 21:58:35 (273 views)
    • 4HP24 photos (url) - hairywithit 2010-09-30 22:17:00 (370 views)
      • Re: 4HP24 photos - joecer 2010-10-03 10:24:14 (233 views)
  • FINISHED (nt) - tse22 2010-09-30 21:38:15 (311 views)