automatic transmission failure question

I'm sure its nothing that straight 30-weight wouldn't cure, Jim.

:-p

Who's "brainwashed" here? Detroit iron used to be built so that you could repair it inexpensively and keep it working at top notch indefinitely (my daily driver is 43 years old). Nothing Japanese has ever been like that except the Land Cruiser (because its original engine was bought from GM after WWII). But most modern sedans are built like "driving appliances." They reach an end-of-life point where its not practical to keep fixing them. He should fix it for as little as possible and then UNLOAD it ASAP. Its going to be a money pit from now on.

Let me remind the newsgroup ASSHOLE you and I are arguing with that he might want to look at that "detroit iron" from the 40's and 50's on the streets EVERY DAY in Cuba.

Yeah! Beats towing it to the dealer!

You got that right. Funny thing is, first thing in the morning the shifts are nice and crisp, but then get sloppy as the trans warms up.

I have the LAST trans cooler line in the WORLD for the MKIII Supra. It was shipped from a dealer in Japan. Add that to the list of things to do...

Unless...will your 5-speed fit a 7M-GE???

I was thinking of that 4 speed monstrosity they put in the Blazers and Jimmys. 3+ overdrive 4th. The damn thing was constantly shifting in the city. Put it in 3 and your gas mileage went to shit. When mine failed, I was always WAY back in line to get mine fixed under warranty. The owners would hang out in the waiting room will the service manager came back and said the trans was a gonner and they were getting a rental car for us. Often there were anywhere from 6 to 10 of is waiting. NONE of us had even one kind word for the cars. Rear main seals, paint sheeting off, transmission problems, and the dashboards falling apart. Oh and on a hit Florida day you were lucky IF the A/C could get the car below 90 degrees. Nice looking trucks but HELL to own.

NO COMMENT.

If you think that trans (4L60E) was bad in a Blazer, think of all the

3/4 ton trucks stuck with it.

Fair enough. Never even considered a Blazer or other SUV. Never heard anything good about them. Except now and then a chick saying "I just love my Blazer!" Or some feller saying he needed 4WD (yeah, allow GM to double your drivetrain complexity) to prevent getting stuck on roads where I never came close to getting stuck with my old RWD sedans. Thought those SUV's were sucker plays from day 1. GM fanatics term SUV popularity "Giving people what they want." But GM marketing knows there's a sucker born every minute.

--Vic

I have an '88 Supra w/+220,000 on it. I have no idea, since for one it's in Kilometers (Canadian model) and the speedo cable broke (SURPRISE!) before I got it. Nice looking, bad trans, good engine, Sport Roof and JUST starting to rust. Classy beater.

1989 Subaru GL coupe. Try to find parts! I double dog dare ya! Looks good, rust just more than er, 'noticable', electronic AWD, nice driving car. Two steps below the Supra. 1988 Mazda 626, as low a model as you can get, 5-speed, 183,000 miles. From Florida. Oiled every year I've owned it. Wouldn't really be a beater if there were still paint on the roof...(A guy I know has the EXACT same car....his doesn't have paint on the roof, either...) 1997 Subaru Legacy L wagon. 335,000 miles, and a blown head gasket to boot. I'll let you know if I fix it...

My favorite: 1985 Corolla GT-S 'hachiroku'. 10,000 when I bought it in

1986, 260,000 'retired' in my back yard. Slowly returning to the elements (faster when I close a door...) A modern classic. One day I'll fix the body... 2005 Scion tC. Never seen snow. FASSSSSSSSSSST!!! ;) (Most uncomfortable seats I ever sat in. Know anyone with a wrecked Celica?)

jeepers, you guys /really/ don't get it do you? with a honda, it's not whether the thing can be rebuilt 50 times like in cuba, it's whether the thing runs perfectly for the first 500k miles or not. no rebuilds.

i love it when clowns stand in line to bleat about how "reliable" their ford turnip truck is. but it's amazing how quickly they vaporize again when the specifics of broken half-shafts, stub axles, springs, kingpins, transmissions and engines that piece of crap has needed. yeehaw! mah truck is /that/ reliable folks!

Like I said, every time I had to take it back in (3X) I was at the end of a LONG LINE of other owners and NONE of us had anything kind to say about those dogs. The piece of shit was constantly shifting. If you were in a 30 MPH zone it would shift thousands of times in a 10 mile stretch. Stop and go traffic - that piece of SHIT would shift more times than the car I traded in did in 10 years of driving. GM never DID figure out how to make that work.

The earlier models with the OLD 4 speed worked fairly well. The later ones in the later 90's worked. Just that period with the one transmission with was at least the VERY WORST transmission ever made in America. Even the old DYNASLUSH was better. It wated 99.(% of the engine's horsepower - BUT it always worked. Eben tghe old Chrysler fluid drive was better. You could not keep those things working. (Some of anything work, but by and large they were shit.)

I drive an SUV now. A Honda CR-V. Great car!'

Don't let me break this to you. NAPA doesn't have a BIG operation in Havana. There is no Auto Zone stores with ring sets. You don't seem to GET that whatever they had in parts in 1959 were the LAST parts Cuba saw. If you think they are constantly rebuilding the cars you are nuts. Sure they fix things. Know what they use for brake fluid? A combination of shampoo and cooking oil. Don't even ASK how they make brake shoes.

Guy there were many extremely reliable old cars. I know people with old Kaisers with that old Continental Read Seal 6 that are well on their way for the second 500K with the original rings etc. Some folks with the old BIG 6 Nashes report the same longevity. It was later in the 60's that SELF DESTRUCT (planned obsolescence) reared its ugly head on American cars. By the 70's the cars were DNF.

Did I start in on Ford's? I had some really nice Chryslers. A 66 Dodge Coronet with a 318 and torqeflight. GREAT CAR. I also had a 68 AMX with a

390 + 4 speed. PHENOMENAL CAR! From there it was downhill. I did have a 85 Dodge Caravan that I had 250K on. Loved it. I was a 4 banger. WAY underpowered but ran forever. You measured zero to 60 times with a calendar.

A supra is *not* an Accord or Civic or Camry or Escort or Neon or other generic front-drive transportation appliance. Its not exactly a '69 Charger either, but its a very overbuilt and relatively simple rear-drive vehicle that can be maintained pretty much indefinitely, and is interesting enough to be WORTH maintaining indefinitely. Front-drive Hondas are not.

Have a hydraulic parts supplier make you any hose you want. It usually runs less than $30. Some A/C shops are set up to assemble new hoses and fittings for you also. If you're gonna play the keep-it-forever game, gotta learn the tricks of the trade ;-)

I think that just as the AW-4 has a cousin that Toyota used in automatic applications, the AX-15 has a cousin that they used in MT applications. In fact it might just be no more than finding a 7M-GE bellhousing and clutch that works. AX-15s are common as dirt, people are looking for NV3550s more these days but the problem is that Jeep only used the NV3550 starting in 2000, and the percentage of MTs in Jeeps was lower after 2000 than before (demand shifted to 2wd/automatic in competition with the flood of "SUVs" never intended to go offroad from other manufacturers).

I'm certainly no fan of GM from the late 80s... but I find that hard to believe of a TH-400. That transmission was a rock just like the Chrysler

727 and Ford C6. I didn't remember GM using a 3-speed like the TH400 quite that late, except in extreme HD applications maybe. Are you sure it wasn't a 700R4? Those were utter crap in the early years (well into the 90s, actually) but today's 4L80E is basically the same thing, just updated and electronically controlled.

krp wrote: Eben tghe old Chrysler fluid

Now you're talking out your ear. The Fluid Drive was just a manual transmission with a clutch and a fluid clutch in series. This allowed you to NOT use the clutch from a dead stop. Press clutch, put in gear, hold brake, release clutch. Wait for light to turn green, release the brake, step on the gas and go. Then shift normally. You could also just put it in 2nd or 3rd and leave it there all the time if you didn't mind s-l-o-w acceleration from a standstill. It never broke, at least no any more than any other manual transmission.

There was also a dual-range semi-automatic from that era that was a little more complicated, but generally worked OK.

The first Chrysler true automatic was the Powerflite 2-speed circa 1951, then the Torquefite 727 in '56. They never had a problem transmission again until the 41TE in 1989.

That's a 700R4 alright. The TH400 was a simple, big, heavy-duty 3-speed.