Re: Brakes unable to stop runaway Lexus in California?

That's interesting - I don't know anything about that.

The Alfa I had was a little weird too. It had a SPICA mechanical fuel injection that was like a analog/mechanical computer whose workings scared me to death. The transmission and clutch was in the rear end which means the driveshaft spun at engine speeds which means the driveshaft had to be balanced to a high degree but it never was. It also had nifty inboard disk brakes and a DeDion rear suspension. The specs were advanced for the time but it was pretty much all a technological dead end.

Urgh, memories of that disk / suspension setup on Rover P6's - it was a real pig to work on because it was so inaccessible :-(

My experience (albeit dated) has been that most automatic transmissions are not much more, if at all, demanding to repair than standards. The former usually involves only replacing friction surfaces, gaskets o-rings and possibly snap and sealing rings. They most often don't require the replacement of bushings, pumps, sprags, gears, servos ... Once failed the latter is likely to involve, if not require, replacement of synchronizer rings, dogs, shifter forks, ball and/or needle bearings sets, possibly gears or shafts.

I too had not been a fan of slushboxes but with the advent of the 727 Torqueflite, THM 400 and the C4 Ford and later series transmissions, I became a believer. They're rock solid, can be manually operated (for those so desiring) and easily amd usually cheaply (for DIYs) modded and/or rebuilt, not to mention far superior for hands and feet free stop and go traffic conditions. With the single exception of efficiency (a quite minor concern) they simply do everything better, imo.

Everyone is leaving out that it isn't the transmission(gearbox) itself that needs rebuilding on manuals, it's the clutch. The cost of two clutch replacements about equals one automatic rebuilding....it works out about the same in 250,000 miles.

Regards,

DAve

All this depends a lot on whether it's a FWD or RWD. Last time I had auto trans work done they were RWD cars and the work probably didn't cost much more than doing a clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing replacement. Not sure about the prices, because I always did the manual clutch work myself. Replaced one flywheel on my F-150 and that added about $200 to the cost. But when I did the autos the trans shop guy showed me the clutch packs he had waiting and a wall full of reworked torque converters. Cost $125 for a complete rebuild That was a while ago. like 30 years. '67 Skylark. Had the same guy do a '76 Caprice a few years later and it cost about $400. And it didn't last either. My daughter recently paid $1800 for a rebuild on her 2001 Mitsu Eclipse. Don't know what doing a clutch on a FWD entails, but I'm pretty sure it's more labor than a RWD. Have to ask my kid. He converted his '93 Corsica from auto to stick and knows way too much about it.

--Vic

Wow. I'm speechless. I mean... (shakes head) I don't get it.

nate

Depends.. Some are a piece of cake.. Others are not

I disagree. It isnt automatic that you must realign.. Sometimes you can remove the halfshafts from the tranny without disturbing the alignment.

In some cases you might have to remove a subframe which does cause more work.

But I agree that a RWD doesnt normally entail any of these issues, and is normally easier.

The kid says you can sometimes pop the lowers and it may or may not affect alignment. The only way to know is put it on the machine and do the measurements. That's a minimum. He may be wrong, but since he does suspensions all day every day I tend to trust him. I even forgave him for dropping that halfshaft when he was 17.

--Vic

In any case, it'll cost at least ten times than trading to a MT car. Unless, of course, your time is worth nothing and want to engage in an expensive pointless project.

I'll add it wasn't expensive at all. But he's pretty special as a mech, and knows how to haunt boneyards. The most expensive thing was getting the sized halfshafts, and those were less than $200. Think the Getrag cost him 50 bucks. I thought it was silly when I heard what he had done. That was when he called from down the street with the dropped halfshaft. He had miscalculated the lengths of what he needed and had bought for a few bucks at the boneyard. I gave him a dressing down about doing it - he did it over one weekend 100 feet away from me in the garage, but hadn't told me what he was doing. Probably knew what I would say. Then seeing his depression I supported him and put him onto a halfshaft shop that set him right up with proper length halfshafts. Next day he was all set, and drove the car another 4 years before rust got it. It was his first car, and he didn't have the money to replace it. Didn't even look like a Corsica. Think rice. Not my style, any of it, but nobody says your kids have to be like you. I'm proud of him. He did a nice job taking of taking care of those 3800 LIM and UIM problems on his Bonneville too. Before they became a problem. So he doesn't waste money on cars. Wastes it on computers.

--Vic

I converted my '55 Stude from an automatic to a 4-speed, I probably wouldn't do it again, but I really had to have a stickshift to be happy with the car. I'm thinking about converting it to a column-shift

3-speed with overdrive for vintage coolness and more gear spread (or maybe a modern 5-speed, but most aren't rated for the torque of a Stude V-8.) BUT I can't honestly say that I'd recommend anyone to do it, there's no logical reason to other than "I want to." Unless you have to have a certain exact hard to find car you're probably better off just buying a car with a stick in the first place.

nate