OK, here it is, the bill. $2579.
That included the rear trans case since the bushing was shot and the
tailshaft had chewed it up. It also included a new radiator as the
previous work had bypassed the radiator cooler because it was clogged.
They also put synthetic fluid in. They said that the synthetic will
keep it cooler. The hottest it runs so far is 150 degrees (the gage
works now).
from what I can gather about the history of this machine, it was
driven very little the first 10 years of it's life (10,000 mi.)
Then since '96 it got 30,000. I suspect that the cooler was clogged
when the second owner got it and when it caused the first failure the
botch job was done to get it working and sold. As it happens, the
dealer that I bought it from takes his mechanical work to the same
shop that sponsors an SCCA race car we're associated with. I'm going
to call him and see if he worked on this.
I can appreciate the driving tips on auto trans in the previous post
here. Not having the overdrive engaged is probably why the trans
didn't overheat sooner. I'm suspicious now that the dealer DID know
that there was a problem. We've gotten a letter together and are
going to ask him to pay for this repair. If he's not ammenable to
that then I think we have a good case for small claims court.
