RE: [Chevelle-List] Restoring Problem, Transmission Bad.

[Mark Weber]

Bill, thanks for telling this story.  I can feel the frustration.

 

Looks like your problem was fixed by spending more time and more money on it.  The two key elements I have found that are required to work on your own car.

 

Good luck with your test drive.

 

Mark

71 SS

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Bill Vander Werf
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 11:15 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Chevelle-List] Restoring Problem, Transmission Bad.

I had a problem with a turbo 400 I had someone build for me. It sat about a year too. When I ran the car I couldn't figure out why my motor kept eating up the thrust bearing. I spent more time being anal with the details of this motor than any motor I ever built yet I kept finding large amounts of finely ground bearing material in my oil filter after I put the trans in gear for even a few minutes on jack stands. I never even drove the car any further than the end of my street because the trans wouldn't go into 3rd. Everyone told me I had a bad converter causing the thrust bearing problem. I thought it was a bigger problem than the converter because it wouldn't go into third. By now I was ready to change religions if I thought it might help so I borrowed a used converter I knew was good and installed it. Same problem.

This time I took the trans out again and took it to a guy who came highly recommended at the race track. Turns out the first guy put the sprag (for second gear I believe) in backwards and it ate up some clutches and a band. I'm told I was lucky I didn't crack the case even with the little amount I drove it on the street.  The governor was also screwed up which sent aluminum debris everywhere. My brand new B&M torque converter is full of metal particles and crap from the bands and clutches. He tells me the trans was causing the converter to put a giant load on the flex plate hydraulically whenever the trans was in gear. I hope he's right.

I spent another $400 to have the trans redone and I bought a new torque converter from ATI to the tune of $600. Total cost was right at $1000 to be right back where I started. My wife thought I should take it back to the guy who built it to have it repaired........I don't think I would let him touch my lawnmower at this point. I'll consider the cost of the first torque converter and trans rebuild an expensive lesson in who "not" to take your transmission to.

I pulled the motor and put a new rear main bearing in once already and I still need to put in another new main bearing because the end play of the crank is now at .012 and it's supposed to only be .007. I'm going to make sure the problem is fixed before I pull the motor again though.......this is supposed to be a fun hobby, right? At this point I figure would have about a million dollars in labor in my car if my time was worth 5 cents an hour.

The trans is back in and I hope to drive it tomorrow and not find anything in the oil filter that doesn't belong there afterwards.

I always did everything from paint and body to building engines but for some reason I never got into upholstery or automatic transmissions. I guarantee you, the next step in my automotive education is to learn automatic transmissions. I already bought a book.

Bill Vander Werf
 

Mark Weber wrote:

I need some opinion from some other people about a problem I have with the transmission in my 71 BBC SS I am restoring.The background: Bought rebuilt TH700r4 that was built to stand high horsepower and torque during summer of 2001, installed into frame and it sat for about 1 year.  Did not get the body on the frame until spring 2002, and did not get the car on drivable (hood on, aligned, insured etc) until June 2002.  With only 150 miles on the car, the torque converter blew up during a 2 - 3 shift last Friday and pumped metal through the trans.  During the previous 150 miles, the shifts were pretty soft.  It has shift kits and many other components that were supposed to give it a good firm shift.  A trans shop I talked to this week said a weak pump would cause low pressure and mushy shifts.  I suspect that was a problem too.The problem:  The company I bought it from says that's too bad.  The warrantee was 6 months and they have to stick to this.  They offered to rebuild it and put parts in for cost and go easy on the labor charges if I ship it to them, 2000 miles away.I am not an unreasonable person.  I halfway understand where they are coming from with having to draw a line somewhere.  Does anybody else have a similar experience with a problem that showed up later due to a long restoration time period?  Or, is this just bad luck and that's the way it is?I don't think I got anything in writing about starting the warrantee once the car is drivable.  I will check my email box at work tomorrow though, maybe there is something there.I have not talked to the owner of the place yet. But the guy I did talk to supposedly got his instructions from the owner.Guess I need to whine to somebody.  Bummed because I can see the first 150 miles I put on the car ending up costing $6.67 per mile for transmission repair alone :( Does anybody have any advise?Thanks for listening.Mark71 SS