Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:58:48 -0800
Reply-To: al sinclair <alvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: al sinclair <alvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: replaced tranny but no move. What next?
In-Reply-To: <00d401c6045f$4b5c1d10$667ba8c0@MAIN>
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On 12/18/05, Robert Fisher <refisher@mchsi.com> wrote:
>
> As for 'someone who knows what they're doing', I'd say that was you.
> You've
> gone this far, you may well have to take it out again, so... I bet the
> whole
> thing will take you no more than 60% of the time it took you the first
> time.
> You already bought the tools and when it works you get your confidence
> back,
> get to play the hero, all that. : )
>
> I agree it sounds like you may be better going of with the pro rebuild.
> Get
> it done with and get it off your back. As I said before, even if some of
> the
> other things work they're probably only band-aids on the way to a rebuild
> anyway.
>
> I understand that the differential is expensive to rebuild but rarely
> needs
> it- somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, or add their two cents. If you
> had no issues with the old one I suppose I'd go with the one I know. Check
> the archives; especially look for the procedure for changing the fluid if
> you decide to do that (you probably should).
>
> You said the original tranny was leaking badly... I don't guess it's
> important but I'm curious what you mean by that and how that led you to
> want
> to replace it? I'm thinking that if I had a spare tranny for my vehicle
> I'd
> probably hang onto it, maybe get into it myself for rebuilding if I had
> the
> time, etc. I believe there were far fewer autos to begin with and they're
> obviously not making any more.
>
> Good luck,
> Robert
>
> -
thanks for the encouragement -- maybe I will gird myself up and change it
again.
The rebuilt auto trans is $540 from German Transaxle ($1435 with rebuilt
diff included), which seems pretty good, specially when compared to a local
quote over $1500 for rebuilding the tranny alone.
As for "leaking badly" ... well, fluid's still dribbling out from the tranny
on the garage floor. In the car it was spitting fluid everywhere so much
that there were clouds of oil smoke and I expected to burst into flames
(have an extinguisher but didn't relish using it.) I didn't reckon the leak
would be fixable with the tranny installed.
I'd read (imagined?) that the auto tranny was quite easy to rebuild, and
thought that if I got a cheap used one to tide me over I could rebuild at
leisure, and put some mechanic-practise-time towards an eventual engine
conversion. The pulled tranny didn't have gear issues, just leak problems,
so maybe only needs new seals and not a full rebuild.
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