So last Friday, as I was leaving work, the transmission was slipping real bad in the brown truck. It's been doing this for a couple years, but only on cold starts. Once it warmed up, it was fine. But no longer...

So I took it to the local transmission shop, and the guy looked at it. I explained the symptoms, and he said most likely clutches and seals. Which, after much research here, made a lot of sense.

So I left it with the shop, and estimated a week to ten days. It's Yuma, so it's always a wait for parts. Anyway, Thursday morning I get a call from the shop: "the transmission is out, but we really should replace the flywheel". I said ok to that, and they said it'd likely be done that day.

Thursday afternoon, I get a call, and it's not quite ready, but should be ready by lunchtime on Friday (today). So this morning, about 11:30, I get a call that it's ready..."Road-tested and it's all good"

So I have my boss drop me at the shop. The tech comes out to speak with me and says the seals and clutches were, in fact, the problem...nothing broken, just worn out. Then he splits for lunch and the office manager takes my money.

I go out to the street, where the truck is, and fire it up. Apparently they've installed a supercharger, cuz the truck now has a helluva whine. I pull right back into the driveway, and the office manager says "well, that doesn't sound good". Then she followed that with "well, the guys are gone to lunch now, so bring it back after lunch". As it was actually driving ok, I did exactly that. I went to lunch, and then took it back.

The tech came out, and said "hmmm...bad pump. You want to bring it back Monday and we'll pull it back out?" No, I'm leaving it here, but you'll give me a ride back to work now. They really wanted me to take it home, but I was having none of it. I insisted they keep it, and give me a ride back to work. Of course, I "won" that battle.

The tech that drove me back to the office was the guy that had actually done the work on mine-presumably the junior mechanic. We spoke at length about the rebuild. He talked a lot about management pressure to turn cars. I talked at kength about how they're going to do the job correctly-I don't care if it takes another day or two. By the time we got to my office, we were in complete agreement.

Hopefully, they can fix the darn thing correctly the second time. As Murphy says, "there's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over". I'll add "never trust a job finished Friday afternoon"

 

did they put a new pump in when they rebuilt it?

 

It's a little late now, but if asked at the outset a good transmission shop will show you the worn frictions and steels when it is disassembled. And would shown the flywheel before its replacement....

.. not to say that a scummy shop would portray parts other than your own but a decent shops will do the right thing to build a relationship or maintain a reputation.

 

In fairness to the shop, they did offer me the chance to inspect the flywheel before they replaced it. Although I declined, they did show me the flywheel when I went to pick the truck up. It's possible that it wasn't mine, but it looked quite familiar from when I had the engine out last year.

Also, I didn't ask to see the frictions and steels, as those are the parts I expected to be bad, and which they said they replaced.

Google searching this afternoon didn't turn up much on a "whine", but the few results I found did seem to indicate a forward pump. Although not necessarily a bad pump, but possibly out-of-alignment.

I hadn't specifically asked about a pump (didn't know I needed to), as the job was to include "all parts for a rebuild". I suppose the pump is a "hard part", but it must have been fine when I took it in, as this whine is entirely new.

 

I hope this doesn't mean that the gas tank I put into my truck this afternoon is going to fall out tomorrow. Hope the shop gets it right all the way through and doesn't charge you for the second removal and reinstall.

 

A pump wine could come from a torque converter that was not fully seated in the transmission. When this happens it is usually easy to notice when you install the transmission because the torque converter hits the flex plate before the bell housing hits the engine. When the two are forced together without being seated it does not take long for the pump to start eating itself. Hopefully they do not find any metal in the system. All it takes to cause valve body parts to hang up is a human hair, so metal bits would only be worse.

Sometimes lining up the pump rotors and torque converter flats can be a pain in the ***, especially to those less experienced.

 

Unless I have time to do rebuilds here at our shop we usually take customers cars or at least the transmission to a local shop. They have been in business for over 40 years. The father who started the business is only called in on much older vehicles which is usually what we take in. We do a lot of restorations on 50's and 60 model vehicles. But typically its the Mom who runs things. All the boys there are family and they are well schooled in proper rebuilds. The Mom doesn't hesitate to hold their pay until its done right and the customer is fully satisfied. Its great having a local family run business where you know its going to be done correctly the first time.

 

My lift was getting put on today. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a clue phone calls as they ran into some items that are needing replaced for example front brake lines. They also replaced additional bushings and sway bars at no additional cost but need a few more hours Monday to button things up. Very happy they didn't just slap it back together to get it out the door. It's not my daily so no skin off my back. Will be using that shop again for future items.

 

Other guys here have done their own transmission rebuilds, but these are exactly the kind of reasons I didn't want to try it myself. As y'all know, the transmission is heavy and awkward. I'd have no help, and when I did get it out, no place large or clean enough to do the rebuild.

 

Sorry to hear the rebuild didn't go well but I do hope they charged you for a flex plate and not a flywheel!

Michael

 

Ah...hahaha! Just like....I want a vehicle made on Wednesday...

Mondays: Blue Monday, still gettin' over/thinkin' about the weekend, no thoughts about the job on hand, zombie like going through the motions.

Tuesdays: Recovering from Blue Monday but not fully functional, semi- thoughts about the job on hand, things don't go "right" all the time.

Wednesdays: Fully functional, thoughts about the job on hand, things go perfect.

Thursdays: Half way through the day, functionality tapers off and things gets sloppy.

Fridays: Well, ya'll know about Fridays.....

 

Second rebuild apparently took two weeks. Anyway, picked it up today. Transmission seems fine. I'll go out in the morning and see how it does on a cold start (well, as cold as it's going to be tomorrow).

Also looks like it might now have a fuel leak on the front filter. I'll check that out too.

 

Well, if they did have the transmission installed with the converter fully seated there is a good possibility there was metal through the whole system.

 

Drove the truck around quite a bit last weekend, and drove it to work several times this week. The first fill-up after the rebuild showed a decrease in mileage, but I attribute that to the fuel leak.

In my limited time driving on this new transmission, it feels good. There's no more cold delay, and the power from the pedal to the road seems better. I think it may have been slipping pretty good in all the gears, but seems to have more power throughout the entire range now.

I need to go to Los Angeles this weekend, and I'm thinking about taking it. It hasn't done anything weird or unexpected since i picked it up after the second rebuild.

I think I trust it-should I not?

 

Drive it sounds like everything is good.