Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:39:35 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: When things gor real bad.
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252";
reply-type=original
i posted on subaruvanaon , but I'll put it here too -
Benny Boy ,
wow.
as you say, you are very lucky it happened to you and not to the family,
If something awful had to happen, that's when you want it to happen ..to you
and not the guy and his family.
a very close call for sure.
re the phone..
you know this for sure now of course ..
but .......I have read about people that let a phone call interupt
pre-flighting an their small aircraft ..
then tried to take off with a tow bar still on the front wheel..
people can get killed that way. - from a phone call interruption.
the phone is a dangerous thing at times.
and ..stress..
you talk about stress...the whole 'thing' ..the whole challenge that car
repair is ..and conversions , can be stressful, and if you're trying to work
a normal daytime work day, get 10 hrs of stuff done a day .
and deal with customers on the phone ..
as you can see, does't really work.
for years when I was doing day in and day out foreign car repair...
it's a night when you can really 'think' and get things done.
daytime is too crazy.
and emails...
i prefer those now with customers and conversions ..
lots of advantages ..
deal with it when you feel like it, or want a break.,
there's a record of everything said, like price quotes or whatever,
and it's real easy to send very clear sharp pictures of messed up stuff
needing antention,
and nice new all-ready-to go stuff ..
and the customer gets to see the progress ..
really works well I think.
no doubt a big lesson was learned !
and so, SO glad it didn't happen to the guy and his family .. ! ! !
the ultimate consciqueces of what a small mistake like this one could
possibly cause are just too horrible to comtemplate ..
like wouldn't we just want to die if our mistake cost a beautiful kid or two
their life or their ..whatever, their ability to walk ? . You know, how
could we go on living having made a mistake that was that costly to
beautiful people ? - too horrible to even think about.
We just really need to be very careful,
people's lives and safety our in our hands when we work on their cars and
vans.
there just is no margin for certain critical things..
like wheel lug nuts not tightened ..
or brake or steering failure. I can just imagine how fried and ruined that
differential looks.
close call, so glad you got through it with nothing worse then some damaged
car parts , the loss of a few bucks, and a good lesson learned.
as you say, the money doesn't matter at all really.
it's more about how we all help each other out and work together
successfully.
the money is incidental really.
So glad nothing genuinely awful happened !
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: poussinnoir
To: subaruvanagon@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 8:21 PM
Subject: [subaruvanagon] When things go 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
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Benny boy" <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 8:20 PM
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
