Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:14:49 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: When things gor real bad.
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2010081123250043@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Ben,
Thanks for the advice. I lost the middle finger on my left hand due to
inattention while working on a 1965 Chevy. I'm very lucky to not have lost
all four.
And by the way, I believe your English is getting better. Those of us
growing up with English as a first language don't understand how difficult
English can be to learn!
Tom
www.towercooler.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Benny boy
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 10:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: When things gor real bad.
This is one long post but please read and cope with my poor English.
Got scared tonight, working on those van is not funny anymore.
I was having problem with a conversion, third one in 3 weeks. 3 automatic. I
had glitch with all of them.
I thought that i had a conversion problem (engine surging), to cut that
short the second transmission was defective and had no neutral or park, so
all the time i was trying to raise the RPM/engine with a tranny in reverse
with me in the back!!!!!!!!! good thing that the emergency brake was very
good. But it took me a good day to realize that, well, when your tired this
kind of stuff happen.
so of course the engine was not able to freely rev to higher RPM. The story
is longer but i will make it short.
Just so you know, the original tranny broke when i got the stock engine out,
half of the bell housing (bottom) came with the engine (picture to come),
this is why I was needing a replacement. So you know the story about the
second one.
Hans from Vanaru got me a third one that look in perfect shape, low mile,
ok, time to swap another one. (understand that in a Subi conversion there is
a lot of modification around the transmission)
I started this morning and at 1pm we where testing this one on the lift, all
look perfect. I then finish my conversion.
time for a small road test, all is fine and I came back to the shop to fix
the front brake.
6pm, time for the final test drive, customer is with me, he is from BC,
nice guy (a surgeon).
We hit the freeway after some easy driving around the block, 50, 70, 80 mph,
the customer is real happy and me to........
this is is when hell happen, at 75mph on deceleration......... the rear
wheel completely locked down.... putting me side way at 70 mph, i fear the
worse and got ready to roll over, but I got it under some kind of control
sideway until i finally slow down (it seem for ever with those tire hssing
like crazy), she then steer left and right for a bit but bang we ended up on
the shoulder perfectly align off of the freeway, I even had the hazard light
blinking before I was fully stopped????? Thanks to my racing years in
F1600.
Got back to the shop on a tow truck, van on lift, no problem with the
engine, nothing wrong with the brake, transmission is even trying to go in
P, R, N......??? only one thing left, differential... but it feel ok when I
spin the wheel???? The hell, I removed the diff pan and...... NO OIL!!!!!!!
The 2 main bearing had exploded and part of those lock the diff.
I never looked at the oil diff level, well I forgot when the phone ring for
the 100th time today distracting me.
Now, let's say that i would have put oil in it and postpone the explosion,
he is driving back from Quebec to BC with 3 young (beautiful kid) and his
wife...
How do you think I feel tonight. My mistake? Maybe, to tired, for sure. I
miss one thing out of 100. this guy came for a conversion, i'm now dealing
with transmission problem from hell.
I'm only happy that it did happen to us and not his family.
I made a mistake by not checking that third transmission oil/diff level, the
fact that I was disturb so many time with phone call didn't help.
But I'm not suppose to be dealing with transmission problem, I'm suppose to
do a conversion on a perfectly running van and it's not the case.
By the way, this is not a question of money because I'm not even charging
for all that transmission crap. I lost 2.5 days so far and I'm not asking
one $. Conversion are hard work and no easy task, glitch are part of the
deal. But where does it end???
For those with automatic transmission... please check that oil level.
I do thing that the damage was already done way before I got that tranny, by
not adding oil I have pushed this one and it failed on me.
still, we could have injured ourself badly tonight.
those van are getting old, many of you have kids, if it happen to me it can
happen to anyone.
Cheers, Ben
http://www.benplace.com