Hi

 

My original autobox in my 1990 NA burnt out in June and I replaced it with a recon box from a Skyline, put in by a crowd called Transmission Centre here in South Africa. That box lasted about 30km and then there was a bang, the car sort of hopped or tripped and I lost reverse and then the whole box. The garage who did the work first tried to blame me for hitting something, then eventually conceded that one of the valves had got stuck open in the box.

 

They replaced the guts of the box again (Skyline parts again) but this time put in two valves and that effort lasted about 200km. There was a failure to change up to second even in redline, a horrible grinding/whining noise and again the hop/shudder/trip while on the way back to the garage.

 

Anyone had this experience of multiple gearbox failures (3 so far, with the car hardly on the road in 6 months)? What is causing it?

 

Although the garage is honouring their warranties my taxi and towing costs are piling up....

Sorry, the valve in the first box apparently got stuck CLOSED, not open.

problem with the torque converter perhaps ?

Basically sounds like the overhaul hasnt been any good i'd say, sticking valves either means debris in the valve block of the box you bought hasnt been overhauled, any auto box thats for overhaul should be stripped fully down, cleaned and rebuilt, by the sounds of it yours hasnt.

 

Cheers John

Main cause of multi failure is contamination, when an uto box lets go it fills the torque convertor, the fluid cooler and cooerl pipelines with alloy / steel particles.

 

The torque convertor should never be reused for this reason and cooler lines need fully cleaning out, the original cooler that is fitted into the radiatoris rubbish and should never be reused an aftermarket cooler should be used.

 

Loud nosies, banging etc. from an autobox means that shaft bearings are seizing and the shaft is turning in the housings a common cause of this is overheated fluid or the aformentioned contamination.

 

Jeff TT

Jeff out on intrest can the torque converters be stripped or are they sealed?

 

VCheers John

Jeff out on intrest can the torque converters be stripped or are they sealed?

 

VCheers John

 

Yes they can be but it really is a specialist job, the two halfs are seam welded, you have to use a grinder to split them along the weld, once apart they can be rebuilt and then rewelded together.

Of course they need balancing then on a suitable machine, any mistakes here will cause massive vibration so as I said its a specialist job really.

 

Jeff TT

Cheers

 

I work on ZF/Voith/Allison on commercials and was wondering about the cars, sounds like a nightmare as usual, nothing straightforward.

 

Cheers John