Re: [Chrysler300] It's getting embarrasing.

["DeBusk Thomas L." <tleed@xxxxxxxx>]

Brandt,

Add my voice to those who say it's time to move on. I'm an attorney and enough of a shade-tree mechanic to say you probably don't have or need to initiate a legal problem and you don't have a mechanical problem. You have a personal problem, and perhaps a financial problem. Apparently you have a sufficient personal connection to this transmission rebuilder to think you need to stick with him. Maybe it's just as simple as the fact that you think he's invested enough time on the task and he's done enough of it with sufficient attention to detail to warrant your continued trust and patronage. Or maybe he's a personal friend you don't want to insult him by packing up and leaving. And perhaps you're too personally involved with him to consider "demanding" your money back. Well, consider this:

A while back I had problems with the Velvet Drive transmission in my boat. It overheated and broke down. It's a very common transmission in inboard boats and rebuild kits are relatively cheap. With the expert assistance of an extremely Mopar-savvy professional mechanic and personal friend, I rebuilt it. Twice. One time I did most of the work, and one time my friend did most of it. It didn't last long either time. In the course of the work, my friend told me the transmission looked very similar to a typical small Chrysler automatic of the same era, so I had a lot of confidence in his work.

But when it failed the second time, I decided I needed something more reliable and I shipped it to Florida (I'm in Virginia) to be rebuilt by a boat transmission specialist. It just so happened that the Florida guy was a brother to someone I know here in VA, so I had a lot of confidence in him as well. Once he took my transmission apart, he told me it had been subjected to so much heat, the internal tolerances to too many parts were beyond acceptable limits and it wasn't worth rebuilding. He said it wouldn't last, no matter how well it was "rebuilt" because the typical rebuild kits didn't contain all the parts that were defective in my transmission. He offered instead to sell me a new, heavier-duty version of my transmission. As I recall, I think that was about $1800. Ouch! My rebuild kits were about $100. But that transmission is still working just fine. I don't think my local Mopar-mechanic was insincere or especially incompetent. He did very careful work. But the truth is he wasn't knowledgeable enough about THIS PARTICULAR TRANSMISSION to recognize the out-of-tolerance parts and realize it wasn't salvageable.

Your situation sounds similar. Apparently your transmission rebuilder is missing something important. You are now contemplating an advanced educational training effort where the textbook is the correct original manual, and the class experiment is your transmission. But the sad truth is that the tuition YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID to educate this rebuilder isn't enough to guarantee him a sufficient profit to make the exercise financially successful, either from your point of view or his. He's already spent more time than it's worth on this one transmission, and you still have a mostly dead patient. And it's entirely possible that the problem he's missing in your transmission might not be found in that particular manual. If so, you're still on a track that's very likely to result in continued failure. That doesn't necessarily make him a bad guy. But I don't think continuing to work with him is a sound choice.

>From what you've written, it's probably not helpful to doubt his sincerity or question his intentions either. But that's not the same as  admitting that he just doesn't know enough right now to identify what's going wrong with your transmission and correct it. He's just human, and right now that means this one is beyond him. Time to get a second opinion. Pack it up and send it away. Don Verity could be a good choice...

Thomas DeBusk
On Aug 17, 2013, at 11:27 PM, Ron Waters <ronbo97@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Brandt -
> 
> You hired this guy to fix/rebuild your transmission. He failed to adequately 
> do the job. You've brought it back to him three or more times already and 
> it's still not right. Time to get a refund and send it off to someone that 
> can do the job.
> 
> Ron
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Brandt Jimerson" <brandt300g@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 6:49 PM
> Subject: [Chrysler300] It's getting embarrasing.
> 
> Hi to all again. Hard to start off my usual way but Melissa is still a 
> 'problem tranny child'! Ha...Even after correctly adjusting the linkage it 
> is still a problem. For the first 30 minutes of driving as I said before, it 
> is okay. However, after that, if I floor it from a dead stop it stays in 
> gear to long and of course, kickdowns, the wrong ones, happen at too fast of 
> a speed. I will say this though...Thanks to the group my G is the fastest 
> that it has EVER been! Don't get me wrong...Melissa really needed it. Thanks 
> to Bob J. and the group! Anyways I stayed off the listserver for a while 
> because I was a little embarrased, but I can't save my face and my %$s at 
> the same time so here it goes: I need to ask Greg for my money back or have 
> him take her apart all the way, and start with the correct book. Can someone 
> please assist me to obtaining a pamphlet or booklet on the correct way to 
> rebuild the letter car trans, not the New Yorker? Do I
> need the 1960 Chrysler/Imperial book? Will that info given to Greg be 
> sufficient? I seem to have misplaced my '60 manual but I do Have my '61. Do 
> I need '60? Another question, can the torque converter hub runout be 
> incorrect!? I remember someone bringing that to question at one time and 
> maybe I should have looked closer into that. If so, Greg needs to know that. 
> Greg needs to rebuild by the book, or my $ back! I hope that doesn't become 
> 'interesting' but I know he can also follow instructions because he did a 
> GRET job the linkage adjustment. The anti-stall unit was even in the correct 
> position.
> .....Anyways, I need help and I also need to remember how great this club is 
> so I shouldn't really feel embarrased, it's just time for me to get this 
> tranny fixed once and for all. This has been going on for a couple of years 
> now and as a good member told me, it's time to move on!! :-)
> 
> Sincerely & 300ly, Brandt H J with yes, a G.
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
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> 



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