If you do any towing or heavy hauling with your truck, you have surely given some thought to ways to upgrade your transmission. If not, brace yourself for heartbreak when something lets go. Luckily, there are companies like Goerend Transmission that offer many transmission upgrade parts for select Ford, Chevy, and Ram transmissions.

Let’s start big and say that although you probably will not rebuild your truck’s transmission yourself if ever required, knowing what goes into the rebuild is a good idea. A Master Rebuild Kit is intended for a professional transmission technician who has the proper equipment to clean, inspect, test, and rebuild a transmission. Keep in mind, Goerend is not a technical or training service. Customers of this kit are expected to have access to and be proficient with necessary equipment such as scan tools and pressure gauges. This kit does not include every part that may need replacement.

When you need to rebuild your transmission, and you likely will someday, a Master Rebuild Kit will get you just about everything you need.

When you have upped the power output of your engine, you can bet the input shaft of the transmission will do its best to wrangle that power, but why chance breakage? Goerend also has transmission input shafts for many transmissions and the piece of mind they offer is worth the expense.

Turn up the juice in your engine and you’ll likely twist the transmission input shaft. If you upgrade to a shot-peened billet shaft, you can rest easy knowing you have alleviated that concern.

Inside every torque converter, you will find a stator. This piece of the torque multiplication puzzle directs fluid through the various vanes to force the transmission to turn. When it comes to torque converter failure, the stator is usually the first place to look. Stators are only as strong as their weakest link. Other aftermarket converter manufacturers may use a billet stator, but will also use the weak, factory one-way roller clutch designed for stock horsepower applications. The stock factory inner and outer races that make up the one-way roller clutch can barely hold up to stock conditions and can easily crack or strip out when used in medium- to high-horsepower applications. When this happens, the stator will start to freewheel, and the converter will lose all torque multiplication. A damaged stator race will also greatly reduce vehicle drivability.

Torque converters assembled using Goerend’s billet aluminum stator are built with lugged outer races that will not strip out. Both the inner and outer races are wider and more substantial than OE to increase surface area and holding power, while preventing cracking failure. The steel outer ring is pinned to the stator, preventing it from being displaced and destroying the converter.

While you might be on the fence about a transmission upgrade with the Goerend parts I have outlined, it might be worth a second thought. You can either pay a little now to upgrade, or a lot later when the OE parts come apart in grand fashion.