My old trans had 350k and still had good detent between gears, let go of shifter and it still had spring in it in other words. It just didnt wont to stay in 5th gear. So I find a rebuild shop in San Antonio, 975 bucks, said a lot of new parts didnt come out and say what new parts, but anyway. I get it home and the first thing I do is open the fill plug and have a look see. Well I should have stopped at the sludge on the in side of the plug and took it back, but NOOOO I keep going, take the plastic cap off where the shift tower goes and there is more paint on the in side than there is on the out, and a little more sludge. I am thinking I should call the SOB, well he's closed on Saturday so I am going to leave a message for him to call Monday when he get there. Answering machine is full no room to leave message, so I call his buddy, same thing, I call 5 more people in the directory same thing. They dont want to here the ****. Get trans bolted up, fill her up with oil, install drive shaft and it wont go all the way in you can feel something sponge like push real hard and see it spring back out. Freaking pissed now, I know there is something in there. Pull seal out and look in and some worthless POS put a seal out of something in there knowing it was going to be a problem. Anyway get it together and take her for test drive. Wont go in 1st. I jack with it long enough figure I got all the paint off the linkage in the top and it shifts hard doesnt want to shift smooth. The other problem is the shift pattern is like its bent, instead of being like a H pattern it sets side ways, in other words the passenger could shift gears just fine. It would almost be funny but its sad. Slop out of this world even with a new shift tower, no detent, if you never drove one of these trucks you would never find the gears. I would plaster his name but I figure I should see what he has to say tomorrow.

Wow. I would have stopped at the first sign of the sludge in the openings and never installed the transmission. I had Weller truck in Boise rebuild my transmission and so far I'm just crossing over 50k miles and no issues to report really. I did have some shift issue early on after the install but that was a clutch issue more so than transmission. After installing a new South Bend Clutch all shift issues went away. Still, I would have never installed the transmission if I have seen sludge inside any opening or hole. Then means that your transmission was never rebuilt or you were given a core transmission. When mine was rebuilt I could tell it was fully broke down and tanked and repainted and very clean inside and out. 

It was pressure washed, the sludge was in the tight nooks and corners. I had no choice, I have tractors to haul and hay to cut, If I miss anymore time out of the field I'll be in the hole. It has a one year warranty that I dont think it will ever make it to the end of.

 

Even with my rebuild i asked for all the parts that were replaced. So I got to see all the worn bearings, the carbon syncros, and my broken mainshaft. Like i said before my rebuild the transmission was fully disassembled and the case was tanked then painted.

I would be pretty pissed too. I hope they are men of their word on a warranty. Sounds like they cleaned up somebody's mess and gave it to you.

 

A peek at mine 1.5 years ago...

Edited July 31, 20177 yr by Mopar1973Man

If they do that kind of work I would not want their warrantee I would get my money back.

 

What I'm wondering if just maybe it was a slip of the 5th gear nut is all that was wrong. I don't know a whole lot but I know when to fold 'em with a company.

Edited July 31, 20177 yr by JAG1

Like I said at this point I am a cooked duck, I got to have my truck. He said he would send me a new shift tower. It has a new shifter in it, he seems to think its defective because it has no detent no spring to it. If you didnt know how to shift it you couldnt find the gears its that bad. I will put shifter in tomorrow and see what happens.

 

Installed new shift tower and no help, I have his text messages saved. He said he was rebuilding a new top and he would ship it to me. Course that was last Wed. or Thurs. and nothing yet. I hope the top plate works, its flat out hard to get in 1st and 2nd, everything else is ok. I didnt mess with the clutch its been fine so I just left it alone. Installed a new stock South Bend about 100k back with the slave cylinder been good to go since.
Are all shift towers the same? The reason I ask is because the housing is like a hard plastic. It just dont seem HD.

I would of never done any repairs under warranty i would of sent back the transmission to be rebuilt again as a warranty claim.

I am with ya Michael, at this point just trying to fix a bad choice. Hey if anything ever went right on this truck it wouldnt be the million dollar rolling scrap yard.

Now if you could just make it pick up its scrap in the gold fields, you would have something.

7 hours ago, jlwelding said:

Hey if anything ever went right on this truck it wouldnt be the million dollar rolling scrap yard.

We all fell this way at times, but even a horse you have to feed.

17 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I would of never done any repairs under warranty i would of sent back the transmission to be rebuilt again as a warranty claim.

 

The reason why I said this... Because now you tampered with it and if you pull it out and the guy wants to be a pain the tail he can at a drop of a hat say you did something that causes the transmission to fail. Then void the warranty and now you stuck with a failed transmission again that you get to rebuild again. Yeah, it's a pain in the tail to pull it out again but its better off letting the rebuild be responsible for the failures.

Edited August 9, 20177 yr by Mopar1973Man

New top plate came in today, and its actually new. no bolt marks all nice and pretty. I will get it in by next Saturday.
New forks also.

 

Edited August 12, 20177 yr by jlwelding