Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 13:25:37 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: The Trans/MTL saga continues... :-(
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I recently had an eerily similar experience with a failed pinion bearing
in a freshly rebuilt 82 tranny. It went about 7000 miles before suddenly
starting to make a noise which became louder by the hour.
It was under a 1 year unlimited mileage warranty so I took it back and
they fixed it for free in less than 24 hours with no argument. He said
that the bearing showed no sign of overheating before failure as would
have been the case if there was not enough tranny fluid. I of course
knew that there had been enough fluid.
I was happy to have it fixed so quickly but I did the R+R myself both
times, once too many. The other similarity is that I was running Redline
MTL the whole time. I don't know whether this means anything or not but
I am running conventional oil now and I will go back to the Redline
after a few months. I have used Redline tranny products in many vehicles
but this was the first time I had used it in a fresh tranny.
The cost of the rebuilt DK air cooled tranny was $695.
Mark
So Cal
Shawn Wright wrote:
>
> Ok,
>
> I have made some more calls and discovered a few more
> disturbing things about my AutoSpiel trans rebuild.
>
> 1. Russ @ Autospiel told me that all parts were from BowWow, a
> local VW parts house, and their part #s are shown on my invoice.
>
> 2. A call to BowWow confirmed that this is the case, and the pilot
> bearing and mainshaft bearing part #s match. However, according
> to BowWow, they do not sell the pinion roller bearing for the
> Vanagon, it is a dealer item. The only pinion bearing they do list is
> a "Q1X" (VW # 091-311-219) which they state is only for the 72-79
> type 2 trans.
>
> 3. A call back to Autospiel to clarify his "warranty" (which seems to
> have evaporated): Russell states that he warranties his work, not
> necessarily parts, but he will cover work required to fix errors in his
> labour. (I did not mention my discovery about the bearing).
>
> So now the question is: did he install the wrong bearing? Will a
> pinion bearing 091-311-219 for a 72-79 bus fit, and could it suffer
> early failure if made to fit in my '88 Vanagon 4 speed? If it matters,
> he also replaced the input shaft due to a failed pilot bearing a few
> years back, but I don't think this shaft has anything to do with the
> pinion, does it?
>
> If he did install the wrong bearing, then I think this would qualify as
> an error on his part, and should be covered by his warranty.
>
> Can anyone shed some more light on this one?
>
> Thanks, and once again, I'm still off list.
>
> Shawn Wright, I.T. Manager
> Shawnigan Lake School
> swright@SLS.bc.ca
> http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
> http://www.sls.bc.ca
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