For those of you who don't know I'm not the happiest cab driver out there at the moment.
Saturday arvo and I've juped on the gas to pull out of some heavy traffic and all of a sudden I get a squealling noise (much like an overtightened wet fan belt) coming from the bellhousing. Initially I thought it was the torque converter so I limped it home (2.5kms) and called it a weekend. Monday morning I went to start the car thinking that it was all a bad dream and it started fine but as soon as I put it into gear the car would stall (gearbox locked). Got the cab towed to the gearbox man and had to leave the car there overnight as he is a busy bloke. When I picked the cab up on tuesday afternoon I was shown the offending part. Apparently the stator shaft on the pump had turned blocking all the fluid from reaching the converter. On the way home I knew something was different. For one the troque converter no longer locked up and I could smell burning tranny fluid. I thought that the burning fluid was probably from a bit of oil dripping onto the exhaust during removal or fitment of the box. By wednesday night the burning tranny fluid was so bad it smelt like someone had puked in the car and I knew something was wrong. I had overshot someones driveway and as I went to reverse I could feel a clunking noise, like the diff had let go but I knew it was from the tranny. Put it back into drive and it seemed normal. Thursday morning, backing out of my driveway and I could feel the box clunking in as I was backing it out of the driveway. When I put it in drive It started to whine again so I took it straight to the gearbox man. He thought it was low on oil but when he put the cab up on the hoist he found a sump FULL of burnt oil. He thought the tranny cooler was blocked but even when it was disconnected almost no fluid was coming through the high pressure line. Time for a strip down. By lunch my box was in pieces on the bench and the only things that appeared to be good were the clutches and the pump. The forward gear drum had one edge of it ground away and the bands appeared to be glazed. The apprentices were debating ove wether it could be reused or not. I never stuck around to find out what they put back in my box but when I got it back last night on the drive home It was starting to burn its oil again and if ever I applied moderate throttle it would clunk on the first to second shift (like a blown solenoid). Light throttle or heavy throttle resulted in normal shifts. WTF? Today the burn't oil smell was the worst its ever been and tomorrow the cab is going back for another strip down. One thing I've noticed is that the left side of the trans tunnel is relatively cool but the right side is pretty darn warm. I also quizzed the gearbox man as to why I no longer have a lockup converter and he said that lockup is nothing but troubles on a fleet vehicle so he replaced it with a non lockup converter of questionable stall speed. What do you guys think could be the cause of my worries? I'm very lucky that this is all under warranty (its free) but I'm p****d off cause I have only worked 3 half days this week. One other thing. Over the last 50,000kms whenever I step on the gas off the line I can feel something lift and then drop. It could be a f**k engine mount and the engine lifting and dropping back onto its mounts but I don't know for sure. Could this be a possible cause. I very much doubt it but I have to have all bases covered. Hence the detailed description.

mate I feel your pain however I dont know enough about the intricacies of slushboxes to be able to comment further.

At this stage I would obtain a secondhand box and have them recondition that for no charge as yours is clearly a lemon.

would almost be cheaper and less hassle for the gearbox guy to offer you a manual.... lol

Yeah. Its all under warranty so I'm not directly paying for it but the lost wages are killing me. But the said gearbox guy is reported to be using second hand parts in his rebuilds. If its near enough its good enough for him. He never used to be like this but when his sons were old enough to be allowed near cars things have started to go pear shaped. Time to find another transmission specialist. Either that or I start pulling some old BTR's apart as an aside to my engineering studies so I can get to the bottom of this problem myself.

converter i recon no lock up and thay get real hot fast.


ps dont worry about my sig. just had a know all taxi driver start a fight with me in a pub tonight

It happens. Even I can be a bit of an uptight son of a b**ch sometimes. Just ask anyone on here and they will tell you.

Its stopped reaking like burnt s**t today and all seems well but I'm still going to give him a serve of my mind. I don't think a non lock up converter would get that hot that quickly unless it was of an insanely high stall speed. I reckon he put the cracked forward gear drum back in and didn't fit the pump up properly. Just before they stripped it the second time They disconected the pressure line going from the tranny to the cooler and I could have p****d harder than the fluid dripping out of it.

i recently changed a trans where the converter would not lock up and it just burnt the fluid. as for the cooler hose not pumping fluid out means the pump had to have totaly failed. and if that was the case u would have no foward or reverce gears.

Well they changed the pump shaft because it had turned and blocked the oil from getting to the converter. Maybe they should have changed the whole pump instead of mucking around.

yeah well thats true. i hope there bending over backwards to get you back on the road

Dude next time use paragraphs It's a mission reading that lot!

Mate do you think the fact that its warranty work thats causing him to not use new parts? I mean - i imagine BTR work would be some of the most expensive stuff to be done under warranty... any of your colleauges getting s**t parts from him after paying $$$ for the work?

Quite a few have stuck around the workshop when he's been working on their cars and have reported to have seen him rummaging through bins looking for parts that may be good enough to be reused. Its all about the maximum profit margin.

My main grip with him is The box has only been in the car for 30,000kms and now its s**t itself big time. The only reason I had it changed was because it would bang into gear from N or P into D or R. Once it was into gear It would drive like the day I first drove it. Now that I've had it changed its been doing all sorts of s**t like I have mentioned above.

Well it all SEEMS normal now. No more burnt s**t oil smell. Its as if it had dissappeared over night. I'm jinxed. My cars have a habit of fixing themselves on the way to the mechanic.