Your nightmare stories

[shiftpro]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's my story. No punctuation required.

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In the spirit of good grammatical habits, let's trim it down to two words...

"It's ******".

 

[Big Chip]

In the spirit of good grammatical habits, let's trim it down to two words...

"It's ******".

Too many periods and quotation marks.

 

[shiftpro]

Too many periods and quotation marks.

itzfukt

 

[Big Chip]

itzfukt

That’s it!!!!

 

[Wi chevvy guy]

Thx for all the stories guys i dont feel so bad lol ill be looking for a rearend have to get the old girl on the road

 

[gotyourgoat]

Oh, sorry. I couldn't quite weed out the details of the OP's purpose. I thought it was general mechanical nightmares, but if it's transmission issues you want....

The truck has had less than half as many engines as transmissions, actually maybe one third. And then there's the time the Gear Vendors unit fell out.

I dunno what's happening, it is in the transmission and transfer case forum. You have a mountain of failures though. And fell out? That's quality.

 

[Blue Ox]

I dunno what's happening, it is in the transmission and transfer case forum. You have a mountain of failures though. And fell out? That's quality.

I probably should have seen that. I tend to go to the "Today's Posts" button and expect I'll figure it out from context.

So, are you ready for a novel?...

As far as transmission horror stories go,...

Remember, we bought this truck new. The THM400 lost direct at around 30K miles. Naturally not covered by warranty in the good ol' days when 12 mo/12000 mi was standard. So we went to a transmission shop that we knew and they rebuilt it. 3rd gear failed again, and they went through the box again,... and it failed again,... and they fixed it again,... and it failed again. The final autopsy revealed that the hollow bolt that feeds oil to the center support and direct clutch had been fractured and it wasn't noticeable until it was torqued when the crack would spread and reduce pressure to the clutch pack. But at some point in the chain of repairs they threw their hands in the air and put a different transmission in it that held up okay.

Unfortunately it was probably a transmission out of a Caprice or similar, because it was a 2WD case and it had the wrong converter. It was never quite right, but not knowing any better we just drove it for another 100K or so miles. Then it started making weird ticking noises at part throttle. I changed the exhaust system, and believe it or not that solved a lot of the noises. Apparently some broken baffles in the mufflers, but there were still noises.

Now, knowing slightly better, I brought it to a local shop that did racing transmissions. They opened it up and found all kinds of kaka like the wrong converter, cracked non-brazed fins and many other issues. So they went to town and put in a fully welded convertor with the correct stator and did the heavy duty upgrades etc. When I drove it, it was like I remembered the truck when it was new. Plenty o' torque, acceleration, smooth firm shifts etc. It was expensive, like $3500 expensive but it was worth it to get it right.

1500 miles later it blew up, puking fluid everywhere. Bad pump, bushings failed and more love. And the worst part was the pri¢k wouldn't warranty it. I had done three transmissions with this POS but the one failure he blamed on the Gear Vendors "distorting the case". REALLY?!?! It had a 2WD case for 100K miles and it wasn't "distorted". I called Gear Vendors and they thought I had nine heads. No way, no how. The only relief I got from the pri¢k was he didn't charge the labor to R&R the transmission. I suspect the flywheel had been put on backwards, because the now-repaired transmission has tens of thousands of miles on it with the same overdrive and his R&R guy ended up seeking other employment shortly after. I also blame it on the fact that the @$$hole painted all his rebuilds Ford blue. I suspect the truck initially rejected it.

Which brings us to the Gear Vendors overdrive.

It was installed when the truck was fairly new. Because a 6.2L with 4:10s and a THM400 kind of howls at highway speeds. And I have a lot of positive things to say about the GV overdrive. We had previously had one in a 1980 Volvo wagon with a 2.4L diesel and it was really nice. So we took the plunge and put one in the pickup. It worked great. For close to 200K miles it knocked down the fuel consumption probably 7-8 MPG. Big benefit, worth the investment.

But there's a manufacturing flaw. Like most things British, Laycock (Yes, that's the actual manufacturer of the unit. I'm not making this up) has no finesse. And they cut the keyway for the pump drive with no radius on the corners. So there's a stress riser and after almost 200K miles the driveshaft fractured. So I go to leave from a stoplight, the fractured driveshaft broke and locked in the case. The engine torque started turning the case instead of the shaft. It sheared the eight 1/4 in mounting studs off the adapter and the entire 35 lb overdrive went on the street. Only held on by the solenoid wires and speedometer cable.

It had almost 200K miles on it, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I was able to use the 4WD to get the truck out of traffic and into a turning lane. And the police were nice enough to stand by until the tow truck got there. But it was altogether awkward to say the least.

So there you are. I'm not 100 % sure of the count, but seven or eight transmissions later,.. my horror stories.

Sorry for the Homer-esque epic.

And BTW, the truck is on it's third engine. So no numbers-matching $#it here.

 

[78C10BigTen]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's my story. No punctuation required.

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Thats impressive!! And i thought breaking my cam in 4 pieces was bad! (Under normal drivin conditions i might add)