Help with transmission diagnosis

[2002V70XC]

Xfingers,
I hope you can return the wrong wiring harness that you purchased otherwise that would be a total waste. You should have used a 2003 xc70 model to look up the part number because that year they replaced A stamped with B stamped valve body. 2006 might have got the C stamped one, im not too sure.
I think butt connectors would be perfectly fine for this application.
One trick that i used to align the engine to line up with bolt holes and such was to use the floor jack with a piece of wood to jack on the oil pan. Then release the eye hooks from support bar so that the engine is totally sitting on the floor jack. From there, you can use the floor jack to try and push/turn the engine to get it aligned. You might need to do that to align the front hydraulic engine mount.

For the metallic stuff in my fluid, i think it was from the bad shifts doing the damage to the tranny. I do have an inline filter setup on the return line though. Im going to do a flush to give me extra hope. I should be able to get the job done tonight after work. Will report back on the outcome.
All the best to both of us!

[Brett San Diego]

That Titan crimping tool is the one I ordered along with the Molex connectors in your link. The youtube videos make it look pretty straightforward. I'll give the connection a firm tug and if it holds heat the shrinkwrap with a lighter. I've already got the new VB in place so if there's enough room for the tool I'll try to make the splice on the spot. If I need more room, I'll remove the VB and then crimp the wires. I definitely will have to splice the 2 wires to the SLS solenoid. I may leave the harness out of the retaining bracket at the top and re-route the wires to the SLT and S1 solenoids in order to avoid having to lengthen them with butt splices.

I highly recommend taking the extra 20-30 min to remove the wire harness from the car and doing the splicing on the bench. Much, much easier. Just take care to clean around the harness connector where it enters the transmission case before removing so dirt doesn't fall in when removing the connector.

I also recommend taking some unneeded wire from your donor harness and practicing a few splices until you are happy with your technique before you go cutting up your own harness. The wires are small, and if your butt connectors are the typical 18-22 gauge size, they'll be a bit oversize for these wires.

Brett

[2002V70XC]

Will report back on the outcome.
All the best to both of us!

Well, i did the first test drive at 11:30pm after getting it done.
It was the first time driving my car without worrying about the gears kicking or rough shifts. It was very smooth on pickup and it seemed to improve the overall power of the car. I did some hard acceleration ofcourse. It was going above 5000rpm quite a few times.
Even though I'm very happy with the outcome - it ran and shifted gears nicely, im still worried about the damage that has been done to the tran. And I don't know how long this valvebody would be functioning before acting up.
For now, I'll keep driving it because i can't afford an upgrade yet.
I'll need to drive it somewhere far to really test the tranny.
This is so far the best job that I have learnt to perform on my car. Really appreciated all the guidance provided by you guys from this forum. Thank you!

Keep up your spirit Xfingers! I hope the valvebody would solve your tranny issues. Cheers

[Xfingers]

Thanks for the tips and encouragement. Congrats, 2002V70XC, the preliminary results are positive!! Have a beer!

This wiring harness situation is PITA but I'm trying to stay focused and do it right. If buying the 2003 harness would have solved my problems, that would have been the way to go. I thought I checked in VIDA and it was the same part # as the 2002 but I could be wrong. I will return the 2006 harness so all is not lost (15% re-stocking fee).

My plan is to practice doing some crimps on a spare wire from the used 2009 Equinox harness I bought. Then get under the car and see if I can do some quality splices with the VB in place. Brett, it sounds like once I get under there I'm gonna be like: "Yeah, right". If that's the case, out comes the wiring harness. I saw one video and it appears to be a "friction fit" of the harness where it enters the trans case? It can be gently pried out with no bolts to remove and nothing to unclip? The wires of the harness are pretty small. Any problems stripping them? I've got a basic wire stripper that I'm hoping will do the job. Maybe this is another reason why you recommend removing the harness when doing the splices.

[Brett San Diego]

My plan is to practice doing some crimps on a spare wire from the used 2009 Equinox harness I bought. Then get under the car and see if I can do some quality splices with the VB in place. Brett, it sounds like once I get under there I'm gonna be like: "Yeah, right". If that's the case, out comes the wiring harness. I saw one video and it appears to be a "friction fit" of the harness where it enters the trans case? It can be gently pried out with no bolts to remove and nothing to unclip? The wires of the harness are pretty small. Any problems stripping them? I've got a basic wire stripper that I'm hoping will do the job. Maybe this is another reason why you recommend removing the harness when doing the splices.

I was originally planning on soldering. There was no way I could solder under the car with limited room to manipulate and hold the wires, so I removed the harness.

There's a clip to disconnect the shifter lever cable from the gear position switch, and then there's a couple of bolts holding the cable in place. There's one bolt holding the harness on the transmission then you pry it out. It's got an O-ring seal. The other end of the harness has two connectors which are obvious.

No problem stripping with a standard electrician's plier, but I was working on my bench.

Brett

[FirstVolvo]

I highly recommend taking the extra 20-30 min to remove the wire harness from the car and doing the splicing on the bench. Much, much easier. Just take care to clean around the harness connector where it enters the transmission case before removing so dirt doesn't fall in when removing the connector.

I also recommend taking some unneeded wire from your donor harness and practicing a few splices until you are happy with your technique before you go cutting up your own harness. The wires are small, and if your butt connectors are the typical 18-22 gauge size, they'll be a bit oversize for these wires.

Brett

It's good you mentioned this Brett, about the wire size being small and the 18-22 gauge (red) connector being a bit oversize. I'm finding out with the project I'm working on, which requires a small wire size, the crimp connection quality is dependent on the correct connector size, the wire size and even the insulation thickness and hardness. The crimp tool for insulated connectors doesn't crush the connector opening down to nothing, it leaves a slight gap (see photo) and this is probably to protect the insulation and also to protect from cutting the the wire. With very small stranded wire and if the wire is not twisted the crimp connection may not crush down enough to hold the small strands tightly, even with the wire gauge size in range for the connector.

What I did to improve the crimp connection for my project was to strip the wire back twice the length needed, loop it back and twist the wire together to increase the diameter and this made all the difference. I can pull on the crimped connection and it holds until the wires breaks. I'm using 22 gauge wire, which is the smallest size for the red connector range.

What gauge would you say the wire is in the transmission harness? Is it smaller than 22 gauge? If smaller than 22 gauge then smaller wire size connectors and a different crimp tool may be needed, most tools are in the 10 to 22 gauge range. The connectors and tool I suggested assumes the wire is not smaller than 22 gauge.

Xfingers, since you have the same crimper do practice as Brett suggests and see if the connection holds tight. Pull on it good, the connection should hold until the wire breaks. Also, with the small wire gauge it's becomes even more important not to cut any strands when stripping the insulation.

[Xfingers]

FirstVolvo, I like your suggestion of doubling up the wire. I think someone mentioned it in a youtube video as well. I don't have my wire strippers so I can't say what gauge. The insulated wire itself looks like it would fit tightly into the crimping area of the butt connector. Once the insulation is stripped off, though, the thickness of the metal wire which would receive the crimp I can't say. Tomorrow I'm gonna practice a few crimps and then go out to the car and see what I can do with the VB harness.

On the Titan crimp tool I just received, to the right of the word "TITAN" and near the handle, I think there's an adjustment that allows you to change the size of the gap + or -. I believe you remove the phillips screw first.

[FirstVolvo]

The adjustment doesn't change the remaining gap/opening after crimping, I believe it adjusts the crimping force on the connector but doesn't crush it beyond the opening in the tool for each of the different connector sizes. Let us know how the practice crimps go.
Just a side note, I past the 10K mile mark since valve body replacement and it's still shifting great. Hopefully your efforts will reward you with the same good results.

[Xfingers]

Latest update:

The crimping tool and Molex 191640013 insulated butt connectors arrived. I did a practice splice on a wire from the Ebay used harness I bought. Stripping off about a 1/4", I felt the bare wire was pretty robust and fit nicely into the metal tube of the 18-22 guage connector; no need to double up the wire strand. Even though the first crimp wasn't perfect and some bare wire was exposed outside the metal tube, the overall splice was very strong and held together after some firm tugs. I used a lighter to shrink the insulation and it sealed nicely around the connection so no liquid could permeate.

Going underneath the car on my back and looking up at the VB wiring, I decided it would be easiest to remove the wiring harness and work with it off the car. Big mistake. To pull out the wiring harness, first the PNP switch which sits on top of the VB and covers access to the harness had to be removed. Pretty easy to get off with the airbox out of the way - there's 2 bolts and 2 nuts. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the wiring harness to detach from the VB housing. There didn't appear to be any clips or catches. I tried wiggling but no luck. A youtube vid shows a mechanic separating the harness from a Nissan VB by prying up on it with a screwdriver. When I did this and increased the force, CRACK! A small piece of the plastic anchor of the wiring harness broke. (Brett, I think you removed the harness successfully. Any pointers?) I said enough, guess these splices will have to be done in place. Time to replace the PNP switch. This is where things got ugly. I had to reinstall the switch 3 times. Originally, I removed the PNP switch with the valvebody out of the housing and maybe this was a mistake. The linkage from the PNP to the VB shifted lower into the housing so when I reinstalled the PNP switch, there was barely enough threads to get the nut onto the gear shifter cable. OK, removed the switch, pushed up on linkage and tried a second time. Now I could get that last nut on and as I tightened it, the linkage was drawn up higher and more bolt threads appeared above the nut.

Time to reinstall the new VB. Couldn't get the holes to line up with the bolts. What? The valvebody needed to shift about 1/8" inch to the left but I couldn't get it to budge. I had no problems on the first install. Is that linkage to the gear selector cable impeding movement? Took the VB out, removed the PNP switch again, and with a 2x4 and a hammer lightly whacked the linkage from below. Reinstalled the PNP switch and this time the VB lined up with the bolt holes in the housing. Now to do the butt splices with the harness in place. This proved to be one of the more pleasurable parts of the job. Even though you have to do some crimping under the car, you still can do the work of lengthening the wires on the bench. I was able to get the original wires of the SLS and S1 solenoids to reach the new connector locations; only the blue/red wires to the SLT had to be lengthened. I cut off the SLT wires and clip and spliced in a longer length of the corresponding clip/wires from the Ebay harness. I crimped one end of each of the two insulated connectors onto the new wires before getting under the car. Now I just had to crimp the other end of each wire onto the existing harness. It wasn't hard to line up the crimp tool, I made two crimps I was happy with, gave some firm tugs on the splices, and then heat shrinked the insulation. I plugged in all the connectors and was then able to relocate the harness into the guide in the solenoid retaining bracket.

Replaced the trans pan. It was just as finicky to get back in through the subframe as it was to get out. I had to lower the front subframe a good deal with the bottle jack and 2x4. Threading the pan bolts was tricky, even more so than the VB bolts, and required lots of patience. I put everything back together following Astro's guide except for the skid plate and radiator protector. Could not find the location for the wiring harness on the passenger side. This was hard for me to locate when removing and now I have no clue where it is. I guess that wiring harness has moved around some in the engine bay so when I get underneath the frame, it's nowhere to be found. I think I can find the hole for the 10mm bolt, so I ought to be able to reach up and feel the harness with my fingers. I'll try again.

Replaced the trans fluid and coolant. Went to fire up the engine but it turned over a few times and wouldn't start. Tried again and dead battery...The car's been sitting around for about a week waiting for parts. This battery's about 3 years old and may be towards the end of its life. It was getting dark so I decided to call it a day.

Today and tomorrow will be cold and rainy. I've got some work commitments to catch up on so I'll probly get it jumped this weekend. Is there any reason to expect that the car could have trouble starting after this repair with the engine being raised and lowered a few times? Maybe I should put the car in the run position for a few secs to let the fuel pressure build? It cranked about 8-10 times but didn't catch. Maybe just because the car's been sitting around for longer than usual...

[FirstVolvo]

Sounds like you've made great progress. About the car not starting; how long did it crank before the battery was too dead to turn it over? I'd check the connectors, such as the MAF connector that were disconnected and possibly hoses (vacuum and boost) that may have been disturbed. If all connectors and hoses look good then fully charge the battery and try it again.