Screwed by a tranny shop

[racemybuick]

THe previous owner of my Buick had my transmission rebuilt by a shop in northern New Jersey. He drove the car a few times, put about 7000 miles on the car, and sold the car to me. HE was a friend and was very honest in telling me the car had a slip. I questioned it, but he said it was out of warranty, being that the car sat for a while. We both thought that the car sat for too long and just needed to be brought back to life. Gosh was I wrong.
First/Reverse shot. My car only moved forward and not backward, and the car was locked into second gear, would not go to neutral.
I finally got the time, after letting the car sit for 9 months in the garage, to jack it up, and get the tranny out of there.
Here is what I found:
The first set of gears pulled from the motor was a pack of 6, band/clutch/band/clutch and so on, however, as a looked through them, I found they skipped the last clutch all together and two bands were welded together.
Second: Went to next set of gears to see what joys, and they were perfect. The next set pulled out were completely fused together. I needed a razor blade to separate the bands from the bare clutches...again, another clutch totally missing in the pack, near the rear of the set.
The final set to come out seemed almost perfect, accept for the thrust bearing was probably the original, even though all the others were replaced.

I removed the valve body in the process, as you have to when getting to those rear gears, and I found three ball bearings in between the gasket and the plate for the valve body. IS that common practice? How many bearings are supposed to be in the valve body anyway? Excluding the three I found already, I have 8.
Lastly, I found that I was lucky enough to have been given the initials of the gentleman who worked on my tranny scratched on the servo housing. I have a few pics of the park linkage arm that stretches the length of the trans, I need a new one of those too, as the end of mine where the mechanism pushes the locking gear into the trans has a one inch chip missing from it.

I need help, obviously...any ideas...got a good rebuild for around 300 bux?

John

 

[WE4]

You have got to realize a few things

One is that for the $300.00 figure you threw out there you will get next to nothing.
Second, from your descriptions , which were sorta humourous, you need help and alot of it. In your area contact Dynotech Perf @
1-908-704-8536 and ask for Eric. He will never do you wrong. Great guy and worth paying. If you cannot afford, wait , save and do it once. Remember , you are paying for knowledge and quality it took Eric and the rest of us YEARS to learn. You may pay, but dammit, you ARE getting what you are paying for. And the resources to back it up if any problems should arise.
DO NOT take any of what I have said personally or insulting. Fact is , I am giving you some real straight forward honest advice , right from the hip. I am sure many others out there would support what I have relayed to you many times over.
If I , personnally, can be of any assistance, by all means , do not hesitate to contact. But Eric is right there somewhere. Jim Testa would be another to get ahold of, if needed. You can contact Jim in our Smog Tech forum arena here at TB.com. I do admire the fact that you took it apart not knowing anything about it. Cool sense of adventure.
you might want to visit here too....Good reading

http://www.2004rperformancecenter.com/faq/display_faq.asp?faq_id=4


Bruce
WE4

 

[HOTTOGO]

'bout all I got from your description was you got one fried tranny and 8 checkballs, which could be normal depending how someone set it up, 11 is stock. You might find a kit for $300 but I doubt you'll find a rebuilt tranny or a builder the will build one that will last for $300. I would seriously consider what Bruce said or at least find someone with a good rep. with these trannies to do it. But exspect to pay 3-4 time that.

 

[racemybuick]

thanks guys

Hey, thank you very much. I was planning on rebuilding the tranny, but as I look at it, it is not a BRF, so I may just be better off finding a unit worth rebuilding out of a junk yard, and taking that to the pro's. The trans is the stock 84, with the original tags still on it, so I figure, now is the time to upgrade. Thanks for the info, I will try to call Eric like you said, but it will be a while before I get the cash together. The car has waited 9 months so far, what's a couple more?

John