Bill Ball

Well, my car is rather legendary, at least in these parts. 280K miles, original torque tube bearings, engine unopened, tranny only out to fix a self-induced converter seal leak. Amazing durability and reliability with regular maintenance. Some have said I should put a Superman logo on the hood.

Took it down to Boulder Creek yesterday following Jeff Mohler (Speedtoys) so we could do some work on his 85's intake. All done, I meandered home, remarking to myself how well this car runs despite all the miles and my periodic abuse (burnouts and road racing). Parked my baby for the night and came out in the morning to go out on some errands. VROOOM!! as usual, backed out of the carport and then when I put it in D, it just sat there. Hmmm...maybe it just needed to warm up a bit. Maybe just a little hesitation, even though it has never suffered from that before. More gas and it moved off but slower than expected. Let off the gas and the car stopped moving as if the emergency brake was engaged. Checked that...no. Went down the street, definitely not moving like it should, trans making some odd sound like something partially seized. Turned around and headed back. After running my errands on one of my motorcycles, I just checked and the car rolls very freely both directions in neutral with the emergency brake off, but it will not roll at all in D unless I give it a far amount of gas, and then rolls reluctantly like the brakes are engaged. With the engine off, it will roll freely in D. Also, a slight bearing whine in P and N only that I have had for at least 5 years has suddenly changed tone.

Not good.

Eh, at 280K miles the tranny was living on borrowed time anyway, but I had the tranny out for converter seal repair a couple of years ago, and I did open most of it up to find at least the clutches and brake bands accessible from the front to look almost like new.

Oh, well, I'll be calling Mark Anderson on Monday. Considering how remarkably little I've invested over the years in repairs, it's about time for things to start catching up.

ADDENDUM: This sure looks like a B2 piston/band failure. Tails had a complete write up on repair process in March 2005. Hmmmmm...
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...placement.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...d-b2-band.html

Speedtoys

Hilton

Darn, sorry to hear that Bill.

Hopefully you can find a good '89 auto donor box.. or just fit a 2.20 rear end one from an earlier S4 and be done?

I'd guess there's a few people who would help you do the swap.

Mrmerlin

Bill Sorry to hear this.
The good news, I hear GBrown has a few brand new transmissions with LSD,
might be less expensive than a rebuild

ltoolio

That sucks, but 280k miles is a pretty good distance to brag about on a single tranny.

zekgb

We might be able to get a few guys to help Bill out if we ask real nice.

Speedtoys

I'm in.

Bill Ball

Hi Stan: Good idea, but I'm partial to the 2.54 ratio which Greg's trannies don't have. Also, I'm not quite as solvent as I was a few years ago, so my solution will probably be a relatively low mileage used tranny from Mark. No new tranny or rebuilt unit at this moment.

blau928

Bill,

If you need a hand with the swap, let me know the dates....

R

ROG100

I sent my 150k (no reverse) tranny from the GTS to GB and he fixed it like new again. Talk to Greg as well as consider a used unit - another option.

FredR

Bill,

Sounds not too promising. Trouble with these things is that they are trouble free until one day they are not and can very quickly end up as a pile of metallic mush when they do let go! I am a little surprised that you did not get or sense some forewarning of impending failure- maybe the problem is not as as bad as you quite understandably fear.

I would have risked a few bucks on you going to 500k without major failure- still this is quite a chunk of miles compared to my measly 100k miles.

Wishing you a speedy and hopefully not too costly recovery.

Regards

Fred

Herman K

Bill,

Sorry to read about your transmission issue as one of the RL that has always been there for others when they needed a hand or learn more about their cars it's my opinion that you have reached iconic status here!

I have a 1990 tranny (with PSD) and it has less than 50K miles on it as per PK parts, sales it was subject to a small fire that destroyed the outside plastic parts but otherwise is fine.

It's yours (only you other don't need to apply) for free just pay the freight (and I may be able to get you a special rate as well).

PM me if you like to talk about it.

Best Herman

Jerry Feather

Bill, I have a trans that you can have for the shipping. Mine is a core from an auto 89 that my neighbor replaced when the trans shop told him there was something wrong with the valve body and that there were no parts available to fix it. They put a used Trans in instead. Then he sold the car and gave me the trans core. If you are inclined to mix and match parts on this one and from yours you can have it. Otherwise I had planned to keep it for the advent of me finding some kind of auto trans class that I could take to learn how to rebuild one of these.

marknsf

I'll be there.

Mark

Bill Ball

I appreciate all the offers I see here, especially the used trannies, which is my preferred way to deal with this. THANK YOU. I will get back to you ASAP.

Also, I added an addendum to my original post. I gather the cause of my failure of all forward gears is the B2 piston, and TAILS had a comprehensive write up of the repair process. I may go that route. But a swap of a low mileage or fully rebuilt tranny would be better than just attending to that one item, although the B2 piston can be done w/o removing the tranny. Thinking about it.

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...placement.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...d-b2-band.html