DougW

Nate Nagel did pass the time by typing:

> My "local" guy is useless to me, just called him up last week asking for
> a price on a refresh for a '63 Studebaker Flightomatic, he said "can't
> help you, I can't get parts for it." Now I know that's not true, but
> I'm not about to argue with a guy who's already decided he doesn't want
> to work for me.

What a lot of these so called "big box" transmission shops don't tell you
is that they outsource the real work or simply do transmission swaps then
send your unit in to be referbished in a factory somewhere and put back on
the rack.

One of my friends asked me if $1200 to repair a turbo hydromatic 350
was a good price. Damn near crapped my drawers laughing.

The TH-350 is only one of the least complicated and longest production
run transmissions in history. $300 is what a good rebuild should cost.


--
DougW

DougW

Nate Nagel did pass the time by typing:

> My "local" guy is useless to me, just called him up last week asking for
> a price on a refresh for a '63 Studebaker Flightomatic, he said "can't
> help you, I can't get parts for it." Now I know that's not true, but
> I'm not about to argue with a guy who's already decided he doesn't want
> to work for me.

What a lot of these so called "big box" transmission shops don't tell you
is that they outsource the real work or simply do transmission swaps then
send your unit in to be referbished in a factory somewhere and put back on
the rack.

One of my friends asked me if $1200 to repair a turbo hydromatic 350
was a good price. Damn near crapped my drawers laughing.

The TH-350 is only one of the least complicated and longest production
run transmissions in history. $300 is what a good rebuild should cost.


--
DougW

Bill Putney

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> ...But the other thing about this story that I keep coming back to is that
> there's
> transmission rebuilders everywhere, every major city has many of them. The
> simple weight and freight costs of shipping transmissions would seem to me
> to
> pretty strongly convince most people to buy local. Not only that but
> there's the
> local economy to think of as well - wouldn't you rather spend your money
> keeping
> some local businesses doors open, than sending it out across country?

There's really no safe answer - the local guy is 95+% likely to put
Dexron™ plus an additive instead of the correct fluid in your DC vehicle
tranny.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

Bill Putney

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> ...But the other thing about this story that I keep coming back to is that
> there's
> transmission rebuilders everywhere, every major city has many of them. The
> simple weight and freight costs of shipping transmissions would seem to me
> to
> pretty strongly convince most people to buy local. Not only that but
> there's the
> local economy to think of as well - wouldn't you rather spend your money
> keeping
> some local businesses doors open, than sending it out across country?

There's really no safe answer - the local guy is 95+% likely to put
Dexron™ plus an additive instead of the correct fluid in your DC vehicle
tranny.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

Bill Putney

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> ...But the other thing about this story that I keep coming back to is that
> there's
> transmission rebuilders everywhere, every major city has many of them. The
> simple weight and freight costs of shipping transmissions would seem to me
> to
> pretty strongly convince most people to buy local. Not only that but
> there's the
> local economy to think of as well - wouldn't you rather spend your money
> keeping
> some local businesses doors open, than sending it out across country?

There's really no safe answer - the local guy is 95+% likely to put
Dexron™ plus an additive instead of the correct fluid in your DC vehicle
tranny.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

ajcrm125

ABsolutely.. in fact after I had the tranny done locally I found out
this is what they did. I went to an ATF+4's website, printed out the
specs and tried to explain to the guy that it's just not the same. In
the end we had to aggree to disagree and I had him drain and replace
all the fluid with stuff I bought. He kept reciting the additive
manufacture's specs. :"When you add this stuff to dexron it makes it as
good if not better than ATF+3/4.

Of course that's what they are going to say... they want you to buy
their damn product.

ajcrm125

ABsolutely.. in fact after I had the tranny done locally I found out
this is what they did. I went to an ATF+4's website, printed out the
specs and tried to explain to the guy that it's just not the same. In
the end we had to aggree to disagree and I had him drain and replace
all the fluid with stuff I bought. He kept reciting the additive
manufacture's specs. :"When you add this stuff to dexron it makes it as
good if not better than ATF+3/4.

Of course that's what they are going to say... they want you to buy
their damn product.

ajcrm125

ABsolutely.. in fact after I had the tranny done locally I found out
this is what they did. I went to an ATF+4's website, printed out the
specs and tried to explain to the guy that it's just not the same. In
the end we had to aggree to disagree and I had him drain and replace
all the fluid with stuff I bought. He kept reciting the additive
manufacture's specs. :"When you add this stuff to dexron it makes it as
good if not better than ATF+3/4.

Of course that's what they are going to say... they want you to buy
their damn product.