Date:         Sat, 20 Sep 2003 17:14:00 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Subject:      Auto Trans dilemma
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Well, I thought I would get some feedback from the list on the latest in my
AT woes.

History:  My AT was going bad.  I got a spare trans and rebuilt it
myself.  I put it in and immediately had troubles.  No shift into 2nd, then
it would shift into second, but not well, and never got any 3rd gear.  Also
leaking at the troque converter seal, which I replaced with the one in the
rebuild kit.  I tried swapping the governor and valve body (separately) out
of my original (bad) tranny, but no improvement.

So in frustration I took the van in to a professional transmission rebuild
place.  They quoted me a "very broad ball park figure" of $1200-$1700.  I
suppose that is not an unreasonable amount.  For that they will take both
of my trannies and try to make one good one, and buy whatever other parts
it needs, and give me a 12month/12k mile warranty (iirc).  The appeal of
this is that if it has trouble, I just take it back to them and they handle
the removal, repair and replacement.  Option 2 would be to buy a rebuilt
trans and put it in myself.  Seems like I've seen these advertised for less
than the $1200-$1700 the trans place quoted me.  There I get a warranty,
but actually using the warranty would be a royal pain.  Removing and
shipping the trans, etc.  Option 3 is to get a local used trans and slap it
in.  cheaper, but what am I getting?  Could be just another dog.  Option 4,
continue trying to fix it myself.  I am just getting sick of it, and have
surpassed my level of expertise.  I would have to start throwing parts at
it, and that would be expensive and possibly still not effective.

Anybody been down this road and have any advice for me?
Edward