B&M shift kit install

[marvelrunner]

Hey everyone, I just recently put a B&M shift kit that I bought from Summit for like $50 with shipping. I put it on my 1996 Camaro 4L60E. It was the 70360 package. I did some searching first and found this writ up that helped, http://www.fullsizechevy.com/forums/...all-4l60e.html
Following the instructions that the kit came with was also real easy to follow and understand.
The first thing I did was jack up the car on both sides and supported the car with jackstands. Next I put big pieces of cardboard under the car because I knew I was going to end up spilling trans fluid. And make sure you have a pan big enough to catch the trans fluid that comes out when you remove the tranny pan. I had to move the pan I had on the floor around and ended up spilling. I did what the instructions said and removed the back bolts first and moved forward leaving the front three untill the end. The pan didnt drop straight down when I removed the last bolt so I had to tip the tranny pan sideways and let the fluid come out before I could angle it enough to one side to remove it.
Here is a pic of what you will see.

Next you need to take pics or draw a sketch of where all the connections on the valve body go. This is to make sure that you know where they go when you put everything back together.
There are these two in the front.

These three in the back

And one to the side that slides off and I didnt get a close up pic but its easy to spot and remove. Next you have to set the wire harness aside by tiying it down. I just loosly wraped a wire around the wire harness and moved it over to one side and wrapped the other end of the wire around the exauhst pipe.
Next is the removal of the bolts that hold the valve body. The instructions tell you which ones to remove. Leave the center one untill the end and remove it with one hand while holding the valve body with the other. Becareful to do this slow and that you have a pan on the floor ready because there are seven check balls that might fall out. In my case they stayed in the valve body. Remove them from the valve body and put them in a safe place. Next remove the 1-2 accumulator housing and seperator plate bracket.
Here is a pic of the 1-2 accumulator housing

[marvelrunner]

Re: B&M shift kit install

And here is a pic of the seperator plate bracket.

When you remove the seperator plate there is a check ball that will fall out make sure you catch it and save it.

And here is what the trans will look like when everything is taken off.

Next you have to remove the boost valve. This took me a long time because I didnt have the correct pliers to remove the snap ring. I managed to just bend the snap ring enough with a screw driver and pull it out. The instructions tell you what needs to be removed and the spring that needs to be changed. Then you can put the boost valve back in with the new spring and new snap ring that is supplied in the kit.
Now you can remove the 3-4 accumulator piston from the transmission.

I just removed the little metal stick first and then turned the piston and moved it down untill it came out.
At this time I also removed the piston from the 1-2 accumulator housing. I first turned the piston around in circles and pushed it up and down in the housing but it didnt want to come out. So I blew into the hole on the housing and it popped out.
Here is a pic of the housing.

I decided to go with the street level stage and just had to put in the spacers and no springs back in to the accumulators. The instructions show how to put it back together and I doubled checked to make sure I put it back correctly.
Next you have to work on the seperator plate. Clean it and scrape off any old gasket that is left on it. Check and double check the holes that have to be drilled out. I marked it with a sharpie. And you also have to plug up a hole using the supplied plug and anvil. Just giving it a good couple of hard hits is fine enough to keep the plug from coming out.
Then you can replace the filters that are on the plate and make sure that they are on the correct side.

[marvelrunner]

Re: B&M shift kit install

Next you can put the check balls back into the valve body by using a dab of petroleum jelly. Also the one check ball that fell when the seperator plate was removed. The instructions have pics that show where they are suppose to go.

Put the new gasket that is marked with a C first against the trans then the seperator plate then the gasket with a V. Use some of the petroleum jelly to hold the gasket from moving around. Hold them in place with the bracket and bolts. Next put the 1-2 accumulator housing back on.
I then put the valve body back on and realized that I couldnt get to the bolts on the seperator plate bracket to torque them down and had to remove the valve body again.
So torque down the bolts on the bracket down first before you put the valve body back on.

While you put the valve body back on you have to connect the manual valve link.
Here is a pic of what the link is suppose to look like.


Put all the bolts back on and if you forget where one goes the instructions have a detailed pic of where everything goes. This helped me out alot. After torquing the bolts down then you can connect the wire harness back on.
Next put the transmission pan back on with the new gasket.
I decided to paint it red just because I had extra caliper paint.
Heres a pic of the pan painted red


Now just refill it with Automatic Transmission Fluid. I went with Valvoline Max life.
Drive it around for a while and check to see if it needs to be refilled before going to hard on the transmission.

This was a pretty easy thing to do, it just took me one day to do. So if you have any questions about this feel free to ask. Later

[crazytrain65]

Re: B&M shift kit install

Very nice write up

[ssms5411]

Re: B&M shift kit install

Nice writeup, seems like the Transgo kit, once you get the PCM tuned, it will wake it up even more, I know mine did. Alot of people have some good info. for tuning for the trans.

[SixShooter'00Camaro]

Re: B&M shift kit install

Great write up man.