Chrysler automatic transmission repair: solenoid

pack rebuilding

by Jeremy Schrag

nybody who ever stood on a street corner in the early nineties

waiting for pedestrian signals to change knows what the

infamous Chrysler A-604 (a/k/a 41TE) solenoid pack sounds

like. Bzzzz-tick!
Over time, this sound became so common that it was at one

point abnormal not to hear it. Still, as time went on, Chrysler

decided to do something about this and started making these

solenoid packs with better sound shielding. By the time 1996

came around, you had to hold an ear right up next to the

transmission to hear it.

Why am I waxing nostalgic about the annoying buzzing sounds

the older A604 solenoid packs make? Bear with me a moment, if

you will. In 2008, I finally found myself the luxury vehicle I had

always wanted - an Imperial, 1992 vintage, in Surrey, BC. The

first thing I looked at when evaluating the car was the state of

the transmission fluid. What I found was some very dirty

ATF+3 that fortunately did not smell burned. Reasoning that all

the car needed was fresh transmission fluid, I took a chance on

the car and bought it.

The symptoms appear: hard shifts, slipping

The drive home through the mountains revealed issues. The car

shifted pretty well, but would slam in and out of overdrive in the

mountains when transitioning between downhill and uphill

climbs. Most other shifts were noticeable enough that I knew I

needed to address the situation immediately when I got home.

And so I did. Going by the guide found elsewhere on this site, I

replaced the transmission filter and flushed out all the old, dirty

ATF+3 in favor of new ATF+4. Observing that the old fluid was

visibly full of metallic particles, and the magnet in the pan had a

big metal afro thing going on, I realized that I was probably not

out of the woods yet. However, three of the pan bolts were

stripped, hinting that the pan had been off before for service.

There was still hope.

With the new fluid in, the transmission shift quality was vastly

improved, but not all the way better. I quickly began to notice it

still had minor issues. When the fluid was cold, the transmission

would ever so slightly hesitate on its first few 1-2 and 2-1 shifts
of the day. That first winter, it would slip at stop signs. And so, I

did another fluid and filter change once spring came calling

again, opting for just a pan drop rather than a full flush. I

discovered almost as much material on the pan magnet as I had

seen the first time I did the job. Clearly, my initial flush didn't

get all the debris circulating through the transmission. I went out

and found an updated TCM, part number 4796124, and dropped

that in, too.

That's where my transmission stopped making progress, and led

me on the path to this article. The new fluid and TCM did

nothing more for the early morning shifting quirks my A604 was

still exhibiting. I sat down to think about this... what could be

causing the car to shift like new with the fluid at operating

temperature, and yet be so reluctant on its first 1-2 of the day?

Couldn't be the speed sensors, I had just cleaned them of their

debris. It had to be a low fluid pressure situation. Either the seals

were leaky, the pump was lazy, the cooler was blocked, the

hoses were kinked, or something else was to blame.

Further troubleshooting and the solution

I began to rule things out. To eliminate bad seals, I added Lucas

transmission fix, which has been known to help A604's with bad

seals. This did next to nothing. Initially, it would seem like it

was helping, and then the unit would go right back to the way it

was before. I checked the cooler hoses - not kinked. I stuck the

return hose in a clear bottle and watched as I ran the engine -

nice flow. I had the CVI values scanned - well in spec. No

transmission trouble codes. What else could it be? Was there

anything else I could try without having the unit yanked and

rebuilt?

Then one day, I went for a drive. I normally drive with the

automatic temperature control (ATC) system on all the time, so I

rarely use the windows. But on this lovely day, it was so nice
outside I wanted to enjoy it. I buzzed the windows down, shut

off the ATC, and shifted into reverse. BRAAAACK! I sat there

for a moment, stunned. Was that my solenoid pack?

I shifted into park, then back to reverse. Yes, that was indeed my

solenoid pack. I knew that the solenoid pack had little filter

screens in it to help keep the nasty stuff in the fluid from going

any further into the transmission, but like many people I had

been told that these rarely need replacement and did not really

contain any serviceable parts. It was something I just hadn't

considered as part of the problem.

Master Tech Chris Taurman wrote, some years ago: “Do not take solenoid packs

apart. This alters the calibration of the unit! If the filters are plugged up, replace it!” We

leave the choice up to you. This article is useful either way in showing how to remove

and replace solenoid packs.

So, we finally get to the point of this article. I had two choices -

either I could replace the pack or get inside it and find out why it

sounded like an Uzi. Replacing it would be expensive, but

would get me the newer, quieter style pack. On the other hand, if

I could just find those little filter screens brand new by

themselves, maybe I could save some money and have some fun

by taking the thing apart and seeing how it worked. I hit eBay,

looking for the filter screens. I knew that they could be cleaned,

but reasoned that new screens were probably an even better idea.

That's when I found this:

Yes indeed, I found a rebuild kit for the A604/A606

(41TE/42LE) solenoid pack. There were two varieties - late 80s

and early 90s, and 2000+ for the newer vehicles out there. Since
I was rebuilding one from a 1992 Imperial, I bought the one

above. Let me show you what was inside the bag.

Two gaskets for the pack mounting surface and separator plate,

eight little filter screens, two gaskets for the internal parts, three

rubber clapper valve seals, three new clapper valve springs, and

a new orange gasket for the pack connector. [Note: Marcos

wrote that the “clapper valves” are the pressure switches, and

Jeremy later wrote that, when the valves open, oil pressure
pushes these and forces the brass plugs up to the metal rings to

be grounded.]

Installing the solenoid pack rebuild kit

Now, I'll show you just how to do the job. This only applies to

the A604 and 41TE; those of you with an A606/42LE will have

to take extra steps to remove your valve body to gain access to

your solenoid pack. The rebuilding process should be similar

once you get to it, however.

Here, I've moved my radiator overflow tank and cruise control

servo out of the way for better access. My solenoid pack has

already been disconnected - you will need an 8mm nut driver or

socket wrench to do that. As you can see, I've already begun

cleaning around the area.

And I need to stress this right now - the A604 likes cleanliness

as much as a hospital surgeon does. You do not want any kind of

dirt getting down into the transmission case when the pack

comes off, and there are lots of places where that dirt can

collect, both in front of and behind the solenoid pack. Clean,

clean, clean around this area. Clean the hoses, the wires, the

mounting brackets, and anything else immediately above the

pack to make sure nothing goes awry when the pack comes off.

When you're done, clean it all again. Me, I used Brakleen on the

case followed by several sprays from the hose. I repeated this

process several times, wiping things off with shop towels as I

went. The above shot was taken in between cleanings.

Once everything has had a chance to dry, remove the input

speed sensor, indicated by the red arrow. You need a 1" socket,

a deep one, to do it. Mine came out of there with a generous

coating of metal shavings, so I cleaned it off well. Then I

cleaned inside the mounting hole. Then I pulled out the output

speed sensor and cleaned that, too. There's really no such thing

as "too clean" when you're dealing with an A604.

The yellow arrows indicate the long 10mm bolts that hold the

pack to the transmission. It is the sheer length of these bolts that

require you to remove the input speed sensor - they are very

long indeed, and that middle one won't come out (or go back in)

if the speed sensor is still there blocking it.

Here's a close-up of the input speed sensor, freshly cleaned. It

looks nothing like the output speed sensor, so there's not too

much chance of confusing them.

The pack shouldn't put up too much of a fight when it comes off.

The gaskets are all that holds it down, at least in my case. Once

it does come off, be ready with the shop towels. Wipe any dirt

and grime on the mounting surface away from the holes.

Remove any bits of gasket that might be trying to hang around.

If you think any dirt got down inside the holes, don't fool around

- get the shop vac and get it out of there. Yes, you will make a

mess of your shop vac that way, but it's better than making a

mess of the valve body, no? The solenoid pack is downstream

from the pump and filter. Any dirt that gets in these holes goes

right into the valve body and then through the rest of the

transmission before it gets back to the pan. You don't want that.

Take no chances.

Once everything was clean, I found it easy to place a big wad of

shop towels down on the mounting area, held down with the

socket I used to remove the speed sensor, to keep the area clean

while I worked on the pack. I reinstalled the speed sensor finger

tight so I could easily remove it again later for solenoid pack re-

installation. Though you can't easily tell by the above picture,

the area the pack mounts to is sloped down toward the

transmission. Any fluid will run down toward the curved lip,

like that bead of transmission fluid you see above.

Now that the pack is off, remove the separator plate and clean

all surfaces. You want it clean enough to eat off of. Above, I've

placed the pack so that you can see where all the little filter
screens go, indicated by the red arrows. These are press fit in

place. Remove them. We'll replace them after we get the rest of

the pack apart and clean everything up. No sense replacing them

without making sure we've cleaned everything we can reach.

Note that when you replace the screens, it is wise to do so with

the little black plastic legs oriented so that they don't obstruct the

flow of fluid. See those oblong holes in the bottom of the pack?

They are there because some of the holes in the transmission and

separator plate don't line up with the holes in the pack. The fluid

has to follow the oblong channels in the pack - it's best not to

block it in any way with those little filter legs. This should help

the pump maintain proper fluid pressure through the

transmission.
A quick up close shot of the filters that came out of my solenoid

pack. Three of them were particularly dirty, and I've arrowed

them in red. Most of the others had metallic debris collected

near the tips. You can indeed clean these filters and return them

to the pack, but I had new ones so I tossed these old ones.

To get the pack apart, there are six Torx T-25 screws to remove,

held in place with green threadlocker. Once they come out, the

pack will separate itself thanks to the pressure from the three
valve springs you see arrowed in red in the above picture (one

went AWOL as soon as it came apart).

In the case of my pack, I found that the above section - lid and

middle - wanted to come off as a unit when the screws came out.

Be very, very careful as you gently work the coils off the poles

inside the pack. There will be some residual magnetism in the

pack, and the four metal paddles you see indicated in green

above will try to drag some tiny valve pieces out of the pack. Do

not lose those. You need them.

Another thing to watch out for are the clapper valves. Indicated

in red, they just sit there when the pack comes apart. Don't lose

any part of those, either.

Before we go any further, take a look at the four poles in there,

over which the coils sit. See the debris on them? That's all

metallic residue. My solenoid pack was filthy with this stuff.

Remember, these packs work using electromagnetism. If your

fluid is allowed to get dirty enough, the solenoid pack will start

acting like the pan magnet. That is why my solenoid pack was

so noisy... it's been hoarding worn clutch material.

An extreme close-up of a valve assembly. See that little

triangular metal valve piece? Normally, those sit all the way

down in those holes on their beveled heads. I've posed this one

so that you can see how they go down into the valves, because

these are the very pieces that try to come out with the upper part
of the assembly when it all comes apart. They are very small.

Again... don't lose them.

A point of interest - the cover on the solenoid pack stated that

taking the thing apart would alter the calibration of the unit.

Replace instead of repair. I have to say... I don't get it. The parts

affected by the rebuild kit are all the same... there's nothing to

calibrate. The four little valve pieces like the one pictured above

are identical - they interchange. The clapper valves interchange.

The filters and gaskets interchange. Perhaps they are referring to

the remaining valve pieces being held in by those brackets in the

picture, I don't know. I didn't get that far into it.

Now that everything's been taken apart and thoroughly cleaned,

it's time to start using the new parts. Above, you see the major

components of the clapper valves. The brass piece on the right is

held inside the round metal valve on the left by one of those

three springs that pushed the pack apart earlier. A little rubber

seal separates the two parts.

Here, I've removed the rubber seal. It presses down into the

valve with the lip facing the indentation, seen here with some

red transmission fluid collected in it. Replacing these rubber

pieces is fantastically easy. Pry the old ones out, push the new

ones in, set the brass pieces back in the middle. Done.

Now, we get even further into the pack. The cover has to come

off, as you see above. In the top half of the picture are the
resistors and contacts where the coils connect. It's not a bad idea

to take your ohmmeter or multimeter and check the continuity

on these coils while you're in here. You should observe about

1.8 ohms per coil. If you find one shorted, replace the whole

pack - if you put it back in, it will probably fry the TCM and

drop you into limp mode. Likewise, if you find one open, also

replace the pack or you'll again get limp mode. But then, these

problems should manifest themselves long before you actually

get inside the pack. It's not that easy to do any real damage in

here.

Note that the black piece has rubber gaskets around the edge on

both sides. Replace them using the parts from the rebuild kit.
It's time to start putting things back together. In this shot,

everything has been cleaned up and the unit is ready for

reassembly. The four valve pieces indicated in blue are all in

place and accounted for. The three clapper valves in red have

been reassembled and set in place. Take the black piece, coils

facing down, and gently work it down into place. Go slowly -

the coils are socketed into the black piece, and it's easy to to
knock them askew. If that happens, the metal bars below them -

the ones the coils magnetize to activate the blue arrowed valves

- will move out of place and aggravate you when you try to get

them to go back where they belong.

If you did it right, you should see the above view. Look down

through the three clapper valve spring holes (red arrows) and

make sure those valves are still in place. Then, take your new

valve springs and set them inside the holes. They should go right

down and nest inside the little brass pieces of the valves.

Time to put the cover back on. Gently set it in place on top of

the pack. The springs will keep it from going all the way down,

but that's okay for now. Using threadlocker on the six Torx

screws - I used the blue stuff not having any green - press down

on the cover, and get all six screws started. Then, tighten them

down firmly. I could not find a torque spec for these screws, but

I don't think it's necessary. As long as they're hand tight with a

decent screwdriver, they shouldn't go anywhere. Especially with

threadlocker.
One last step remains at this point, unless you waited until now

to put the new filter screens in. Replace the connector gasket

with the new one from the rebuild kit. As you can see, my old

one is in bad shape, with a large crack above the round bolt hole.

I actually found transmission fluid in there once.

Now, there's only one thing left to do - put the pack back on the

transmission, using the new gaskets supplied. Don't forget the

separator plate, if you have one. Torque the mounting bolts

down to 105 inch pounds, double checking the torque on all

three before you reinstall the input speed sensor and reconnect

the pack.

You are probably wondering by now what the result of all this

work has been on my 1992 Imperial. Did it improve things?

Yes. It did improve things, rather noticeably in fact. My pack is

much quieter now, making the familiar bzzzz-tick it's supposed

to make. No more machine guns under my hood.

But what about my shifting quirks? Has this experiment done

anything to alleviate those? Well... yes and no. If the car has

been sitting for days, those initial cold 1-2 shifts are still a little

lazy. "Ho-hum, I guess I'd better shift now. I wanted to sleep in,

but apparently the driver wants to go faster." However, if the car

has not been sitting for days, has been used as recently as the

day before, the cold start hesitation is gone. It's just a bit slow on

the very first 1-2, but there's no major hesitation all the way to

the post office like there used to be. The transmission used to
bump shift when braking to a stop downhill at very low speeds.

That's been improved too - it still does it, but not as often. I

suspect this is more than likely due to the speed sensors re-

accumulating metal shavings, however, rather than low fluid

pressure.

Highway performance is both the same and different. This car

with ATF+4 has always shifted like butter at highway speeds,

and it still shifts like butter at operating temperature. But

somehow, it feels different. Perhaps this is because the TCM

now needs to re-adapt to a clean solenoid pack, I don't know.

I'm still not out of the woods yet on this car. As long as its

shifting quirks are still there, I'll be looking for ways to fix it

affordably. I'm allergic to rebuilders... I want to keep this A604

on the road as long as possible before I have to talk to one. My

next step will be to remove the Lucas from the fluid by flushing

it all out of there. I'm still dealing with a low pressure situation

that is likely not the result of the bad seals Lucas is supposed to
help with, and I can't have anything in there like Lucas that

might thicken the ATF+4 when it's cold. Also, there is still a real

possibility that there are lots of metal particles still circulating

through the system, from back when the car had the dirty

ATF+3. The main filter could be clogged yet again, for all I

know, even though I've only put 18,000 kilometers on this car

since I bought it.

At any rate, I do have to conclude that rebuilding my solenoid

pack made a difference with my cold shifting issues. At the very

least, it's quieter than it used to be - it will no longer scare small

children when I pull up to the ice cream shop. That's not a bad

thing.

More fluid and maintenance/repair information • More four-

speed automatic repair information • 41TE, 40TES, 41TES

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