You should write a book but forget the video. Why?
Books live on and continue to provide hard-working innovators like yourself well-deserved credit. More Chevy folks know or have learned who Smokey is from his book that from any other source.
It should be designed to explain best-practice rebuild procedures with inserted sections describing performance upgrades for each trannie section--the benefit and problem corrected and factory enhancements--such as pump and input shaft upgrades.
Each section could explain how to work around not having the correct trannie tools for the do-it-yourselfer and possibly even how to make your own tools like I've done. Some of us like to work on our own trannies regardless of the time/money equation. G. McCall expresses the only-experts-should-do-it view but gives an example of how he benefited from a manual himself. After all, shipping a trannie across the US for every freshen up can be equally as time consuming not to mention the expense and risk of losing a tranny in transit.
For a good do-it-yourself article look at
http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/transmission/200rebld.html which gets around the need for special tools.
The shortest section would be the differences between TR and other 200R4s and would provide a long-needed reality check for all the myth surrounding BR-code trannies.
A huge personal business benefit for Performance Transmission would be that each section could be reused as a tech brief that would accompany high performance parts and kits YOU sell and copyright would actually provide you with protections you currently do not have for YOUR ideas not to mention well-deserved credit. You know the old adage, the pioneers get all the arrows and the settlers get the land.
In the long run a book has the potential to save YOU time if those with your phone number would purchase and refer/use the book.
My next post will ask about valve body mods and we both know that it is only realistic for you to only partially reply since it depends on type of car, its intended purpose and the valve body and plate that I'm starting with. A book could have virtually ALL the required information.
As for the competition--other shops, anything that improves the reliability and increases the market for 200R4s will benefit the entire TurboBuick community--the 700R4 is the preferred OD trannie based on actual sales numbers and the 200R4 is just beginning its swoon into obsurity. Major suppliers, Sentinel for one, recently quit stocking essential hard parts like the forward drum and others will follow as 200R4 parts become classified as slow moving. Y'all better get yourself a backup 200R4 soon or you may find out what an expensive hassle trying to locate NOS parts can be. If I understand the Federal regulation, GM is no longer obligated to manufacture parts for the 200R4.
For the above reason, the book should also provide conversion information--such as using the 200R4 in S-10 V-8 conversions and heavy chevies. If the hotrod community knew that with YOUR forward clutch drum the 200R4 is a better choice than the 700R4 they might use more 200R4s.
I do not know which manufactures have approached you but they may already have 3/4s of the photos, drawings and standard text. The earliest GM shop manuals used pictures and the latest use illustrations but the ATSG THM 200 4R is the best single manual on the subject. You could also do a manual that refers to one like ATSG's for the basics but that might require an orneous contractual agreement.
As for how 200R4s operate, no offense all, but few will ever fully "get it" and the GM book Princples of Operation already provides that information if you REALLY want to know. Too much information for me! How many really understand how computers and the Internet actually do what they do? What is important is putting it together right and having a trouble shooting guide to diagnose problems.
Good editors can make writing a technical manual far easier than you might imagine.
As for videos, they are too expensive to make and most never escape their shrink wrap. Also, how many techs have a VHS or DVD player and a TV in the shop? A few good photos of items that do not lend themselves to diagrams would serve the same purpose and be "portable" for all techs.
I'll buy one! Manuals typically cost around $20 which means you would get less than $10. Not exactly a recipe for riches but you already give freely of your time and expertise so what would be different? No cherry there!
Finally, Bruce, thanks for your response to my "Pump Modifications" post. If I had the book I would've known. What some know and others don't is that that post request only asked for about one-third of the pump mods needed on an older-code pump. A book should have them all covered.
Whatever you decide, good luck!
