7/12/10Talk to Brian and he said it was a trans issue and not the engine. I said that I would drive it over if it would not hurt the tranny. He said that it would not, just might kill the motor every now and then if I was going to slow and did not have it in "n". He said something about a solenoid or an electrical circuit was keeping the torqe converter enguaged.

I do need to get a temp gauge on the trans. I will talk to him on where and how to put one on.

1/19/10
This BTS Trans would not die....
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d1d1e1; COLOR: #d1d1e1" SIZE=1 itxtvisited="1"><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->On Wed I was planning on driving the 265 miles from Mid MO to Lead Hill AK and have Brian work on the Tran torque converter problem. I was planning on camping in the area and do some rafting and asked him about pulling my camper down. Brian said that if I could get er going, the trans should be fine. Going forward is hard enough starting out... backing up to my camper at home I heard a big clunk and the truck stopped about three feet away from the camper and almost stalled out. It was still running but would not move backward. It would move forward and I pulled up several feet and took a fast run backward..... something bad was going on with the transmission and I found out later that a shaft going through the transmission had snapped in half. After getting er going and about 30miles down the road, there was that bad smell of burnt tranny oil. I knew that it was a goner some time down the road and had no choice but to keep going. After 125 miles and I filled up the tranny with 7 qts and heading down the road. I called Brian at BTS and told him what was going on and He said the plan will now shift from the torque converter to a complete overhaul.... if/when I can make it there. I never ran the tach over 2,000 rpms.... the speed would average about 50mph, 60for the high (down hill)and 20 for the low (up hill)... but it kept going, up hills and down in the valleys. we had started out at 6:00 in the morning and pulled into the BTS drive way at 12:30 noon hour.

Now for the warrenty.... Brian completely overhauled the tranny at no cost.... removal, rebuild, replacement, fluids... nothing. I felt really badly about the tranny going south after only owning it such a short time. I had the first one shipped to me and had it installed. Brian said as bad as it was with the shaft broke and the torque converter stuck, it still shows how well it is build and that he was in a way glad that I brought it back to him that he could put everything to BTS standards, because there was several things that upset him that the installer did. Cross member bolts were missing and wrong shround bolt that had several washers on it instead of the right bolt. The fly wheel bolts were also not torqued down and he questioned if they had 'blown out' the 7.3 cooler...

Brian had said that it would take him Wed after noon and he would finish it up on Thursday morning. My wife and I camped at a Corp of Engineers Camp Ground on Bulls Shoals lake about 2 miles from BTS Shop. On Thursday morning I called him about putting in a 6.0 trans cooler while he was working on it.... he told me that he had put a 6.0 cooler on it the night before as he would not want my 7.3 cooler on because of all of the trash and stuff that had went through it and it was not an issue of whether I paid for it or not..... I said that that was why I called... I want it... I will pay for it.... cost? 400.00 + 50.00 for the hose kit.

Talk about Service and I felt really bad about tearing up the transmission. When he picked me up and took me for a test drive back to his shop, he said that they also drained and replace the oil in the transfer case. (I found out later and he did not tell me, but his guys filled up my radiator holding tank and the windshield washer fluid...yes I knew how much was in both before I dropped the truck off).

So what did I have to pay for the removal and rebuild and install + fluids and the attention to the transfer case? 0...

The only cost that I had was for buying the 6.0 cooler... They installed it for Free (they wanted that 7.3 cooler out of there).


I drove a wounded and burning BTS over 260 miles and only God knows how much further it would have went (and He an't talking to me about that).

I give Brian and all of his employess a big Thank-you for what you have done for me and my 7.3.
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Brother Les

If I can get the wife to buy into keeping this truck for the long haul and spending the money on one of these stellar transmissions, I need to know which one will work best for me.