papayadialog

here are a handful of pdf's. if there are anymore i find on my computer i will upload them as well. the steps were pretty easy: 1) drain 2) pull front plastic shroud and pan 3) remove filter 4) CAREFULLY remove electric connections to solenoids (i cracked the clip on one and had to replace that harness for like 40 bucks, they are old and pretty brittle) 5) remove bolts all along the valve body which sits directly behind the filter (which bolts are pointed out in one of the pdf's) there are 3 pistons of some sort right above the valve body that are spring loaded so there will be some tension pushing it down, be careful and support the valve body when you get to the last bolt or two. 6) you can pull the valve body down, and don't forget about those pistons. two of the 3 came out. the bores are different so you will know which ones go back where. 7) follow the pdf's on disassembly. there are like 14 or 15 little check balls in there. while disassembling make sure you keep track of those. they will all fall out at once. use a tray with edges, and maybe some shop towels underneath so they can't bounce or roll away. i lost one and had to order a new one via lexus. 8) once totally disassembled i sprayed everything down with carb cleaner, cleaned my work station so everything was immaculate, and started reassembly. the trickiest part was getting the spring loaded pistons back in above the valve body while holding the 15-20lb valve body against the springs tension and threading the bolts by hand. the trick i used was to put the pistons in their holes with the springs in and i use a piece of electrical tape to hold them lightly in. wrapped the tape all the way up trans and tied it loosely to something. then i pushed the valve body up and lined up the bolt holes. finally i pulled the tape before i tightened the bolts after threading two of them a turn and a half or so. also when installing the valve body don't forget to align the shift linkage. you'll have to pull it back down again. toss on a new filter, torque down the pan, and refill... that was about it! changed the fluid a few thousand miles after and threw in a bottle of lucas. i went from a car that wouldn't shift past second to a fully functional car. cip0770.pdf cip2769.pdf TASC-TIP-08-06.pdf TASC-TIP-10-08.pdf U-140.pdf U140E-U241E-ZIP-Booklet.pdf

i just wanted to share my experience with you guys because i got so much useful info from here when i conquered this problem. i have an 01 with about 185k miles now, at about 160k i had the same p0770 and whirring like a power steering pump coming from the trans and i couldn't shift out of second gear. did a bunch of research, seems that the aluminum planetary breaks up because the car is too big and heavy for that little camry transmission. oh well. the car was given to me as a hand-me-down with a bunch of miles so i wasn't too upset about it. but i wanted the car to work. i did the fluid change/sensor swap which didn't really help. the car still bucked when shifting, etc. but there was quite a bit of debris in the trans pan when i dropped it... so i went one more step, and addressed the solenoid that was giving me the code in the computer. dropped the valve body, disassembled it, cleaned thoroughly inside and out and reassembled it. new fluid, and voila. truck works again. over 20k miles tested and true. truck has kicked every morning on the first 2nd to 3rd up shift now for about 5k miles. after that it is fine... not sure how long this will last, but i will certainly do it again if need be. my guess is aluminum chunks from the planetary are getting stuck in the labyrinth that is the valve body, keeping the solenoids from doing their job. i bench tested the solenoids and they all seemed up to par. there are companies that rebuild and strengthen valve bodies online, not to mention local trans shops as well. also online there is a lot of data online with fiches and what not to help. spent less than $200 bucks to have a working car again. changed the fluid and filter again after about 5k miles to make sure the fluid was mostly fresh. if you wouldn't change a valve cover gasket or something like that, this job may be a little much for you, but i had no experience with automatic transmissions at all before this. a nice clean bench and space to work and it only took me like a weekend after my parts were in. if i can help anyone save a few grand i'd be glad! i think i still have the .pdf files i used as info for the u140 in this thing. i can probably upload them somewhere all together to cut down on research time if anyone is interested. if for whatever reason this happens again i will certainly take pictures or the process, and if that fails you will probably see a later model highlander/camry trans swap. anyways, thanks guys because you guys made this thing work again! hopefully i can give back a little.