My Horror Story!

[Cool87GN]

I just paid over $5,000 to have my motor rebuilt (Aggressive Performance) and was towing my GN back from Michigan to South Carolina on a U-Haul dolley. On the ride home, the car made a big jerk and when I checked out the car I found out that my transmission is now shot. The bell housing is cracked in numerous places and the driveshaft tore out as well. The car was in neutral, but the distance of the trip must have contributed to this. I need advice on what I should do next. I'm extremely dissapointed and I have nothing to show for my ten second combo. I never even drove the car once and this happens. Is there anybody that can replace this transmission in the Columbia South Carolina area? Thank you in advance for any and all advice!

 

[Blazer406]

I just paid over $5,000 to have my motor rebuilt (Aggressive Performance) and was towing my GN back from Michigan to South Carolina on a U-Haul dolley. On the ride home, the car made a big jerk and when I checked out the car I found out that my transmission is now shot. The bell housing is cracked in numerous places and the driveshaft tore out as well. The car was in neutral, but the distance of the trip must have contributed to this. I need advice on what I should do next. I'm extremely dissapointed and I have nothing to show for my ten second combo. I never even drove the car once and this happens. Is there anybody that can replace this transmission in the Columbia South Carolina area? Thank you in advance for any and all advice!

Damn dude.... that sucks. Hopefully you can find someone local to you that can fix it.

 

[chris718]

where you flat towing?

 

[KEhrhardt]

Did you remove the driveshaft? I would not use a tow dolly (front wheels off the ground) for that kind of distance without removing the driveshaft. Sorry about your misfortune.

 

[vintageracer]

Never tow a rear wheel drive GM automatic transmission car with the driveshaft still installed. The rear housing on the transmission will not have any lubrication as will the main guts of the transmission. You got it hot and broke the transmission due to heat and fatique failure. Placing the transmission in nuetral not does solve this issue.

Unfortunately you found this out the hard way. There are some modern transmission that will tolerate towing with the shaft installed as you can see numerous cars/trucks behind RV's. Some web searching on RV sites will give you this information.

 

[Blazer406]

Never tow a rear wheel drive GM automatic transmission car with the driveshaft still installed. ..........Placing the transmission in nuetral does solve this issue.

Didn't you mean..... it does NOT solve the situation? The driveshaft spinning spins stuff inside the tranny..... but not the tranny pump.... it is driven off the torque converter spinning... which is not spinning while towing...... this is where the lack-of lubrication comes from while towing.

 

[bison]

Never tow a rear wheel drive GM automatic transmission car with the driveshaft still installed. The rear housing on the transmission will not have any lubrication as will the main guts of the transmission. You got it hot and broke the transmission due to heat and fatique failure. Placing the transmission in nuetral does solve this issue.

Unfortunately you found this out the hard way. There are some modern transmission that will tolerate towing with the shaft installed as you can see numerous cars/trucks behind RV's. Some web searching on RV sites will give you this information.

I assume you meant that it doesnt matter if the trans was in neutral or night. Remove the driveshaft and put in a yoke as a plug and tie it off to the trans with some wire so it doesnt fall out next time bro. Sorry about your misfortune, that sucks really bad. Trans probably welded one gear and then another and then bang. Ive never heard of one breaking that bad from towing. Only burned frictions.

 

[vintageracer]

Yes, that was a typo. Placing the transmission in nuetral "does not" solve the lubrication issue.

Sorry for the mistake!

 

[WE4]

Or............

Tow it from the rear with the steering wheel locked or tied down. The best is to full trailer it or tow it from the rear or pull driveshaft out and plug with trans plug or old yolk.

Damn dude, bad break.

Let me know if I can help you out in any way
Bruce
WE4
www.PTSXTREME.com

 

[DonnieShort]

Why didn't you just drive the car back? Those would have been some good miles to put on the motor for breaking it in, seating stuff and everything.

 

[Cool87GN]

Towing with driveshaft in...

I was told that it "should not" be a problem. Well now I see that it became a huge one. I am really upset and now I paid alot of money and my car is still down. I am in the Military and I have already been without my car for the past 4 years and now this. While I was deployed, the thought of coming home and driving my car helped me keep my morale high and now this... :

 

[SPOOLN]

Hey Cool,
That really sucks, Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Best is to replace the tranny with a new fresh rebuild. Then you will be good to go. Call me some time so we can catch up.

 

[EricB]

Man that sucks, If you PM me I will do you one hell of a deal on a Transmission, I just got home from Iraq in December as well, and will do what i can for you as you have done alot for our country.

 

[INEEDAGN]

You will probably be able to salvage the valve body and servo, and MAYBE the governor. The rest of the trans is going to be better off going to the scrap iron pile. Depending on how things happened, this may have damaged the motor mounts and/or some mounting ears on the engine block. Most likely the motor is okay though. Check it all out, and buy a fresh trans from someone who knows them well. They may accept partial core credit for the VB/servo/gov if they survived. Those are the only TR specific items in the trans and they are pricey. Don't toss them.

I would assume the torque converter is also damaged but without being there it'd be hard to tell.

Hope this helps.

 

[Alky V6]

As I was first reading your post it didn't dawn on me right away the towing bit. As I kept reading and you started describing the damage you found I was thinking, did he say he was towing? How was he towing? NO WAY! I had to go back and read that you towed with a dolly. The pictures of oil starved parts started flashing through my head. I feel for you. If only someone had warned you correctly about towing. I know it feels like the car is a big wreck now, but let me tell you, the damage that was done is very managable and you'll be back on the road with it soon. It's only parts.

 

[49-blues]

Very good imformation here! First i heard of it.