what shoud I expect to pay

i have a 400 that i just got, and would completly rebuild it for you, new converter, shift ket etc, prolly run about $1000 for the trans

Do you want it for a chevy or jeep?
 
Im going to answer based on a few assumptions.
1) th400's needing rebuilds are everywhere and cheap
2) A rebuild kit and new TC is <$200
3) A monkey who can read and follow directions can rebuild a th400 pretty succesfully.
4) Not sure who said 203 were rare or desired(unless for a doubler set up), but...

I wouldn't give more than $500.
Hell my transmission guy only gets $300 for a th400 bench job and warrants it for 1 year no questions asked, its almost not worth doing the work myself.
 
203-th400 is a pretty rare combo and alot of people want it to build doublers. It also requires the right output shaft, so you can't just get any old 2wd 400. Thus it cost more than $300.

SkyHiK5 said:
I wouldn't give more than $500.
Click to expand...
You might walk away with a deal, most likely, you'd just be walking away.
 
Hell my transmission guy only gets $300 for a th400 bench job and warrants it for 1 year no questions asked, its almost not worth doing the work myself
Click to expand...

Just for labor? Thats about right for labor, i figure 5 or so hrs at $60. Most trans guys could prolly do it in three. Is he installing a shift kit for that kind of money? I really like the kit for the 400's, it doesn't take too long to install and really cleans up the shifts

Does he take the trans back out if it fails under warrantee? Or does he pay you the labor time to take it back out?

If i do a benchjob and it fails i take the transmission back out and fix it! I towed a dodge back from durham to wilmington a couple weeks ago! IMO warrantee is everything when it comes to transmissions

The problem with benchjob transmission builds is that you never know what your getting into until its apart. 400's tend to totally destroy themselves when the go bad. I;ve seen many many many 400's were the cases were destoyed. So the parts add up, lately i haven't been able to even buy a new converter without turning in the old one first! So save those converters and cores!
 
No believe it or not, thats the whole works, parts and labor.
Tim says they take him 1.5-2 hours.
He is 55 and been doing them forever, I can not come close in 2 hours its 4 no matter what for me.
I really hope no one ever finds my honey holes down here, all this talk about rare 400s and hard to find parts....damn
 
yeah my local guy rebuilds them and installs the shiftkit for 400.00, 350 or 400 ,he built the 350 in my racecar three years ago and it's still there,the shiftershaft seal just started leaking
 
I know around here the th400/203 is hard to come by. My friend had one for sale that I was going to by then he shit me on the deal but I found another one. What reverse manual valve body should I be looking for to use offroad? Any other good mods for this tranny...?
 
Chad a th400 is about perfect in factory form, in terms of strength. The manual VB is nice if its your preference, look at a good after market TC and some cooling upgrades.

About the only negative is the anemic 1st gear ratio, but even that is liveable.
 
Thanks for the info man.. you ever get those jeep projects together?

What is a cood TC for crawling as well as a good REV MAN Valvebody? Also I am running a doubler with 5.13s so that should help the crappy first gear ratio
 
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