so waht ya doin today?

[Ian]

If you don't buy a radiator and aux cooler with your tranny job you're going to be doing it over and over and over again. Good shop should tell you that. The only possible alternative is a cooler flush with a hot-flush power cooler flushing machine, and even that is iffy. Junk from the old tranny (or restricted cooler that killed it in the first place) kills the fresh one in short order. Not that there aren't junk remans, most of them are in fact, but they all die if choked and roasted.

 

[KeithB]

Just finishing last cup of coffee before getting to work. We're going to spend morning sorting out the stuff that needs to be moved over to new shop and loading it on our trailer. Once we get a load we'll go over to new shop and unload, probably put together the shelving units I bought last week. Having a 10 cu yd dumpster delivered this afternoon. That will help a lot!

Hoping the subcontractors will get more done, we still don't have running water and working toilets. Carpenters finished up their work in bathroom, electricians also so now its up to the plumbers. They need to put in water heater, sinks and toilets and urinal, and connect up our slop sink. Here is a shot of what used to be in our basement and is now in our shop. Bought it off a scrap pile for like $65-$75, have less than $100 in it including faucets. Here you see one of carpenters working on sliding door of bathroom.

 

[Rick]

First pic of the sealed floor I've seen. That does look great. Since it's a machine shop how well does that sealant hold up to oils, solvents & whatever?

 

[Ian]

5.7L and 6.2L Diesels were....not good. Sure, they would run, but they barely had enough power to move themselves.

Wanna know what kills almost 100% of ALL automatic transmissions?

Heat and time.

Heat breaks down the additives in the fluid that keep seals pliable. Heat also hardens seals. You can mitigate this somewhat by keeping the fluid changed, but you're only buying time. Once the seals get hard, they start to physically wear, and then they start to leak and the apply pistons and servos cannot hold the frictions tightly any more. It only takes a few seconds of a good slip under power to roast a clutch pack or band and lose that gear.

Some additive products contain seal "conditioners" which are nothing more than petroleum distillate swellers. Adding these eventually turns seals to mush and the clutches/bands slip and roast.

If you got ten years and 150K miles out of an automatic transmission, you got good service from it. Yes, many routinely do better, but those that do less aren't necessarily "bad".

Fun fact: The GM TH700R-4 was specified by GM to last 75,000 miles. When you go into one you can see how they did that and saved money in the process. Upgrades involve much in the way of upgrading sealing rings to longer-lasting Teflon one-piece, upgrading the critical apply pistons to a bonded-lip type, and replacing some of the critical wear bushings and thrust washers to bearings for modern drivers who put 2-3 times the miles on a vehicle than they did 30 years ago. Not to mention GM's own production upgrades like adding the aux valve body to make the 4L60, improvements to the TCC hydraulic circuitry, clutch packs, pump, and valve body and then the eventual upgrade to electronic control in several steps, then a case change, input shaft change, and more electronic upgrades. AFAIK they're still using the same basic unit today.

 

[Winelover]

Both my current GM vans have transmission coolers.

 

[Winelover]

I've always ordered the HD towing package. Even though I don't tow, it helps in resale and I'm after the 2" receiver hitch. I use that for the Hitch Hauler or bicycle rack.

 

[Rick]

5.7L and 6.2L Diesels were....not good. Sure, they would run, but they barely had enough power to move themselves.

Congratulations Ian . . . Winner of the understatement of the week award.

 

[Rick]

Wasn't the 5.7 the Olds gas engine with diesel heads bolted on it? Never had one of them but I'm sorry to say that I did have the 6.2. Worst POS I've ever had. Between that engine and the 700R trans was more than sufficient for me to swear off GM trucks. Much prefer a truck that doesn't continuously leave me stranded.

 

[Bret4207]

Ian discusses the corporate mindset that seems so prevalent these days. Actually I think it goes back to when US cars were pretty much all you had outside of a Beetle or MG. Make it look good, give them comfy seats and creature comforts and they'll buy them. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but in my area a vehicle with 150-200K is not considered all that high in mileage. The line seems to be around 230K or north, that's high miles. I routinely see trucks I know cost over $45K and 8-10 years old being sold for $3-4K. Part of that is the rust, the other is that most of them "needs trans work", "4wd stopped working", "instruments inop", "can't pass emissions test". A lot of that stuff is electronics. Heat, vibration, cold, moisture, it all adds up. Throw in the rust up here, it's a crap shoot no matter what you buy and Ford/GM/Chrysler don't care at all. Someone will pluck down $50-65K and pay on a vehicle for 7-8 years. I find that insane. I don't think any one brand US is better than the others in longevity. It's just luck of the draw.

Ian, your comment on the rad and cooler make sense. Putting in a tranny and expecting an old cooling system to work is pretty much wishful thinking.

 

[462]

Coldest morning of the season, 37-degrees with frosty roofs.
Close to an inch of rain is scheduled for tomorrow.

 

[Ian]

There ARE automatic transmissions engineered to go several hundred thousand miles between overhauls. Most of them are made by Allison and are put in medium-duty trucks and school buses. The 1000-series behind all the Duramax diesels are pretty good, too and last a long time between overhauls but they need to be maintained.

 

[freebullet]

need to be maintained.

So were talking 6k lb truck, floor from each light, 10k trailer, & low on burnt fluid? That seems to be the maintenance schedule for most.

 

[Ian]

"10K trailer"

Not how we do it in Texas.

More like a 40' three-axle gooseneck float with a D6H on the front and a skid steer on the back, steel bed and full bumper replacement grille guard on the pickup, a 200 HP performance tuner cranked to "extreme", and 7% highway grades while maintaining highway speed in 105° ambient temperatures with the AC going full blast. (And low on burnt fluid).

 

[Bret4207]

Only 10K on the trailer? We have guys up here hauling 15-20 dairy cows that go 13-1600 each in a rusted gooseneck behind an F250! "Brakes? Well, yeah, I got brakes.....sorta...."

 

[Ian]

Brakes and steering are optional. All you need is horsepower, and someone to hold da beer.

 

[JonB]

With the exception of my current Toyota Matrix (my retirement vehicle), I would buy and sell cars frequently...every 3 or 4 years. Buy with 100K to 150Kmiles and then drive them to 200k to 250Kmiles. and I've always had two vehicles, a commuter car and a truck/jeep...SO over my adult life, I've owned 40 or 50 vehicles and I've never had a tranny go out on me (knock on wood). There is on exception, my second car, in 1981, I inherited my Grandpa's 71 olds Delta 88 with 455ci with 400 turbo tranny with 19Kmi on it. Being a stupid 17 yr old, I beat the car pretty bad...Who knew? that doing High RPM neutral drops would take out 1st gear? I think the ODO read 39K when I had the tranny rebuilt by the local GM dealer.

 

[popper]

radiator and aux cooler with your tranny job Yup. Wasn't the 5.7 the Olds gas engine with diesel heads bolted on it? - next door neighbor had one of those, Friend helped him rebuild it so he could sell it - as a gas version.

 

[JWFilips]

Been PC coating all the stock RCBS 200 grain .359 bullets I cast up a few years ago ( Ben loaned me a mould back when I got my Vanguard JES rebore 358 Win!) I know when I got it I went to town casting! Now with a PID controlling my oven it doesn't have to be baby sat! Wow what a pleasure!
Shooting the 358 Win at this time of year is nice because it has a good scope so it is easy to see targets on these dark days and bullets are heavy enough not to be blown around too much at 50 yds!
Shot some this morning with 6.4 grain BE and 9.4 Grain American Select & got some nice 1 holers! The American Select load was already a proven load! But the Bullseye load was a good guess! Nice easy shooting for an old guy on his neck and shoulder!
Actually tried some at 100 yards of the American Select load....hit 6" low and opened up about an inch for 5 shots....windage was right on

 

[freebullet]

I'm whooped. We did 2 days work today. Going to try again tomorrow, if that works out maybe take Friday off. Supposed to have a nasty storm coming Friday & I'd love to have another project done before then.

My biggest trailer is an 18' tilt bed. 9990gvw 8k on bed cap. remind me not to lend it to any Texans...or new yorkers.

Genrally don't haul more than 50-60% truck is rated for. Call me crazy, I don't like continuous catastrophic failures & major saftey hazards. Don't drink much beer but hold it myself when I do. In my youth it was common to pull such stunts, today I'll make 2 safe trips instead.

Last summer I seen a dodge on the freeway with a load like Ian describes. I had to swerve to miss the rear driveshaft & entire transfer case that had come out from under his rig.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Our ATV/snow plow lost its reverse. Last thursday brought it to dealer to be fixed. They couldn't find anything wrong (naturally). Naturally it snowed 5" in the last 2.5 days. It is predicted to snow for the next couple of days. So the wife and i headed to Bemidji this morning. It was snowing so hard i could only see 100 yards at any time. And when we met oncoming traffic were totally blind for many seconds. We picked up the ATV and headed directly home. Vizability was up to 200 yards by then, But the snow from the car ahead of us kept us blind beyond my following distance.
Got home, unloaded the atv, battery was dead i forgot to turn the ignition key off when i loaded it. Put the battery charger on the battery. I went in and ate dinner.
Went out and started plowing. Reverse worked about 10 times then it worked sporatically about 5 times. And then totally refused to work.
I could get reverse to work by putting the transmition in neutral and pulling the ATV backwards. What a day