Valve Body Training

[badsect0r]

Soon I am going to have a go at rebuilding the valve body in my 535i. So I though I would get some practice rebuilding the one out of my old 525i first. As that car was written off by a truck whilst parked outside my house last year, the ZF 4HP22 from it, is, shall we say "expendable". The 525i was an '89 model with a fully hydraulic version of the trans, so there are some differences between it and the one in the 535i which is the later 4 solenoid, 7 pin, electronic/hydraulic (EH) version. There are however more than enough similarities to make this a worthwhile excercise.

So after a lot of study I finally bit the bullet and started pulling the thing apart today. Cleaned up all the parts and am planning to leave it for a few days to see if the systems I have in place allow me to put everything back in the right place.

So far I am happy with the results. It's certainly made me more confident, ready to tackle the 535i. These things are not as complex as you first fear when you start your research.

Photos below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB1.jpg
4HP22 with pan, filter, valvebody, torque converter, and bellhousing removed.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB2.jpg
All the cleaned bits of the valve body laid out, note the tub of degreaser for cleaning parts.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB3.jpg
A few of the ancillery valve body components all nice and shiny, checkballs and cups in place ready for assembly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB4.jpg
Main valve body plate, filter and o-ring.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB5.jpg
Main valve body, without checkballs and cups.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB6.jpg
All the bolts are placed in a "map" of where they came from. Checkballs and cups are taped to a page of the ATSG manual in their respective positions.


**** Days Pass ****

The weather was pretty crap today so I decided to continue with my valve body rebuild. I would like to document more of the process with photos, unfortunately I don't want to handle my DSLR with ATF soaked hands. So you kind of jump straight to the endgame. When I do the 535i I think I will organise an assistant to act as a second pair of eyes and photographer.

Photos below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB7.jpg
Rebuild complete. It's a really good idea to have a comfortable work position, and stay organised! There are so many tiny little pieces to misplace and or mixup. It has also been pointed out to me that the area should remain free of distraction.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB8.jpg
The 535i patiently waiting for her turn. I think she wants in out of the rain.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VB9.jpg
The bolts remaining are those that mate the valve body to rest of the transmission. I used vaseline to hold checkballs, cups, springs, spacers, shafts, and plugs in place during assembly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VBA.jpg
This is the top of the reassembled valve body, the side that mates to the transmission proper.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VBB.jpg
This is the bottom, pretty much all that goes here is the filter.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/VBC.jpg
Success! Reconnected to the transmission, and no mystery bits left over.

[shogun]

Nice pics, Jason. Thanks in advance for pics and DIY instructions when you start with the 4HP22 of your 535.
Is it difficult to source ZF parts in Australia? For example the main gasket or in case a sping in the valve body is broken?

[badsect0r]

Nice pics, Jason. Thanks in advance for pics and DIY instructions when you start with the 4HP22 of your 535.
Is it difficult to source ZF parts in Australia? For example the main gasket or in case a sping in the valve body is broken?

Initially I tried ZF Australia (http://www.zf.com/corporate/en/company/locations_worldwide/asia_pacific/australia/locations_au/sites.jsp). They were willing to sell me a full transmission rebuilt kit only, AU$179.00. I asked them if they could supply the main gasket for the valve body by itself, they had no stock and no ETA.

After talking to a few people at local transmission workshops I was pointed in the direction of Motospecs (http://www.motospecs.com.au/index.php?page=contact). They were able to supply 4 different versions of the main gasket. Three were listed for the 4HP22 and one for the 4HP22EH, as they could not tell me which of the three I needed for the 525i hydraulic version I got all three. They were about AU$5.00 each. It took them 24 hours to deliver them to me via courier:-

Part # : Application
ZG-4005 : 4HP22
ZG-4025 : 4HP22
ZG-4105 : 4HP22
ZG-4205 : 4HP22EH

As it turned out the main gasket in the 525i valvebody was in perfect condition and I was able to reuse it. The whole thing was pretty clean really. The car had done 254,000Kms, I do not think the transmission had been serviced previously and was working perfectly when the car met it's untimely demise.

Photo below, the 4HP22EH gasket is in the lower left of the shot:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/MainVBGasket.jpg

The Pan Gasket and Filter can be had from pretty much anywhere, all the local chain stores such as Repco, Autobarn, Supercheap & Bursons carry them. The cheapest I found was a wholesaler by the name of Imparts (http://www.imparts.com.au/).

Filter was AU$14.92 and the Pan Gasket AU$8.82. Part numbers are clearly shown in the photo below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70956744/PanGasAndFilter.jpg

I won't know if I need anything else at this time. Once I get the 535i unit apart I'll know more. I am hoping it's simply blocked, but if I need a checkball or spring, I think Motospecs (http://www.motospecs.com.au/index.php?page=contact) will be my supplier.

[genphreak]

Looks good! Excellent project.... Great pics!

Will you be able to test to see if it made much difference? Or will she be packed and stored until a car needs it?

I've a 5HP30 and a 4HP22EH sitting here, both looking for the same treatment when I get to it- as well as a new A-clutch et al... I guess that's the hardest part once you have the Valve body down-pat- which it looks like you sure do... :)

[BigKriss]

Good work on the trans rebuild. I want to try that one day!

[badsect0r]

Looks good! Excellent project.... Great pics!

Will you be able to test to see if it made much difference? Or will she be packed and stored until a car needs it?

I've a 5HP30 and a 4HP22EH sitting here, both looking for the same treatment when I get to it- as well as a new A-clutch et al... I guess that's the hardest part once you have the Valve body down-pat- which it looks like you sure do... :)

Spurred on by my success so far the trans from the 525i which you see above will now be used as my test bed for a complete transmission rebuild with clutch and steels replacement. After that I may canibalise it for parts on the subsequent 535i rebuild.

Having practised on the valve body from my defunct 525i, I have sinced tackled the valve body in the 535i. In the course of sourcing some information I was assisted by a gentleman by the name of Shogun who I am sure you guys are familiar with. When he found out my plans to rebuild the 535i valve body he requested that I document the process for his website.

So here it is:

ZF 4HP22EH Valve Body Rebuild (http://twrite.org/shogunnew/files/jason/4HP22EH_ValveBody/4HP22EH-Valvebody.html)

As I am sure most of you know the rest of Shogun's website (http://twrite.org/shogunnew/topmenu.html) makes for interesting reading for any Bimmer owners out there.

So a big thank-you to Shogun and Hairywithit for hosting my "how to" on their site. Hope some one finds it useful.

Since the overhaul the 535i shifts much more smoothly and it doesn't hang in 3rd as long. Subsequently I have improved fuel economy as a result.

[shogun]

trans flushing the DIY way

The idea is from our Japanese wrenching buddy "Take" and last weekend he, Hairywithit and their humble servant Shogun were called by a shop to solve the hard shifting problems on an
E34 550 = E34 with M70 V12 engine with ZF 4HP24.
So we went there to his shop as we wanted to have the trans and fluid cold, so it is easier to remove the valve body and clean it up. After diassembling the valve body and cleaning it, cleaning the solenoids, installing new balls, we flushed the system the Take way.
For that I bought a 2 meter long plastic hose with inner diameter 26mm, a hose clamp for that.
So we installed the cleaned valve body again, installed the trans filter again and installed on the suction pipe of the trans filter the plastic hose which led into a bucket with fresh trans fluid.
Trans pan of course not installed. Then we lowered the lift as much as possible to avoid too much ATF splashing. Then the engine was started and the trans pump sucked the ATF from the bucket thru the plastic hose into the system and the old ATF was pushed out from the torque converter, ATF cooler and lines etc, we ran the engine till fresh fluid came out from the trans.
Some weeks ago we even shifted on another car thru all the gears, but that makes a lot of ATF splashing onto the floor, so we are thinking of making a kind of plastic sheet funnel to avoid to much splashing onto the floor.
After doing that, we installed a new filter, filled up the trans fluid and the shifting was again super smooth. Here some pics on the site of Take with Japanese info, but you can change the language

Deep In E32 (http://e32b12.blogspot.jp)
As usual, do it at your own risk. But we have done that now on several transmissions and with all we had success, cleaning valve body and then flushing the trans system.

[shogun]

More pics by badsect0r from his E34, repairs, mods, latest is conversion to 5-speed on the Australian justcommodores forum
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/miscellaneous/193303-stigs-1992-535i-m-spec.html

and here http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=25982

the no longer working pics in his above posts are now on my website with the complete write up

[shogun]

More pics of various valve bodies and info
http://images.1233.tw/zf-transmission-valve-body/

Electronic Transmission Control P1
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/1734f56d1eb91a37f1115c7d.html

PDF Technical Service Information - BMW E34 5 series Website
www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Trouble/Data/ZF%20Tech%20Guide.pdf

PDF Electronic Transmission Control Introduction
www.ge39.com/files/electran1%2B2.pdf

[PDF] Troubleshooting – 5 HP 18 EH automatic transmission
www.all-trans.by/assets/site/files/5HP18.pdf

Driveline and Chassis technology - Transmissions with mechantronics, lecture by ZF in Birmingham
Business unit „Automatic transmission“
The 6HP gearbox-family
Hints for the repair shop
General hints
gearbox change gearbox change
change of a mechatronic
‹ change of a oil pan and filter change of a oil pan and filter
‹ changing or adding oil
http://www.apra-europe.org/dateien/downloads/APRA_Birmingham_Hans-Peter_Bach_ZF_Transmissions_with_Mechatronics.pdf

[shogun]

ZF 4HP22 on a E32 735iA had no reverse, usually the problem is then the check ball lost (because it became too small over the years) or bypass main plate problem, forward and reverse change by check ball in main plate. Last week we replaced the ball on the 735, as you can see the valve body check ball deteriorated, too small like this. Pic new and old (smaller one)
8188

[shogun]

copy that link, big file, 12 MB, valve body tech guide http://parts-at.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ZF-Tech-Guide.pdf