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Every car project has a horror story. Here's mine....
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The
shop owner (let's call him Al) understood that the car wouldn't
be on the road for a couple years and agreed to warranty the
transmission if I had any problems with it. This was a condition
Al agreed to BEFORE I gave him the work. I put my engine
together and got everything in the car during of December '99. I
didn't get much done during 2000 because building the engine and
transmission really stretched my budget. |
During
the summer of 2001 I finished up the body & paint and also
went through the 8 3/4 rear. On July 26 I backed the GTX out of
the garage so I could clean up. When I went to pull it back in
the garage, it was slipping in all forward gears. (reverse
worked fine). I called RTC and left a message telling Al what
was happening and to please call me back as soon as possible. Al
returned my call the next day and said to bring it back, he'd
"check it out". There was a problem though, he was
going on vacation in mid August and couldn't get to it before he
left. I talked to the body shop and they said that they
can push the car around if need be. The bodyshop ended up having
the car for a month. |
The
first thing I did when I got my car back from the paint shop was
to pull the transmission out. On September 17th I brought
the converter and trans back to RTC. Al said he'd get to it in a
couple of days and that he'll call when I could pick it up. |
Normally
I'm very patient but RTC had my transmission for a month and
still no call. So, I called RTC. All I could get was the
answering machine and he didn't return my calls so I went to the
shop. The doors were locked and the lights were off but through
the door I could see my trans and converter sitting right where
I had left them four weeks before. I kept trying to reach RTC
but was unsuccessful. Messages left on the answering machine
October 9th and 10th were not returned. I eventually reached Al
at home on October 15th and he said he would "get it on the
bench this week". |
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On
November 6th I left a message at his home to PLEASE return my
call. Naturally, I got no response. On November 7th I finally
got a hold of Al. He said the trans was apart and the seal ring
for the clutch pack was broken but the clutches looked
"perfect". (I had my doubts because of all of the
debris I found in the pan.)
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I waited another week and still no response so I called him at home again, giving him my ultimatum. "I'm in front of your shop, how long will it take you to get here?" when he asked why, I replied "I'm picking up my stuff whether it's done or not". He said that the soonest I could get it was the following morning. Sometime that day he found time put it back together. I
finally got it back (assembled) on November 15th. At this
point, trust has become an issue. So, for peace of mind, I took
it to another trans shop to get it checked out. It's a good
thing I did! On Monday morning (November 19th) the transmission
shop called to tell me that the front clutches were burnt and
one of the bands had a bad groove in it. They are going to
replace the bad parts along with the seals and gaskets. It was
ready in 3 days but I couldn't pick it up until the following
Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
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Judging by the amount of debris in the pan, I assumed the converter would have some in it too. Al at RTC said he checked out the converter and it looked "fine". I don't think he ever checked it because it still had trans fluid in it. (contaminated with metal filings) Another reason I was suspicious was because it sat in the same place on the floor by the front door right up until the day I got it back. Something looked wrong inside the converter so I brought it to the other transmission shop to get their opinion. They confirmed my suspicion. There is a torrington bearing on the inside of the converter hub that's supposed to slide over the stator but it didn't. (too small?) The bearing is distorted and rubs on the stator where it steps up behind the spline. Now I have to replace the converter or have it repaired. When the transmission failed with no miles on it I expected it to be repaired correctly. Instead, it was patched together without replacing all of the parts that were damaged. It infuriates me that I had to wait for so long to get my transmission repaired only to find out that the repairs performed were marginal at best. If I had reinstalled the transmission and converter without getting them checked out, the transmission surely would have failed again.
As a customer of RTC, I don't feel I have been treated fairly. The work was not done in a timely manner or with the degree of quality expected. I urge any and all potential customers to boycott Custom Auto Inc. and RTC / Racing Transmission Components. Latest update: I got a new Dynamic 9½" converter to replace the fragged 10" converter. When comparing the new converter and the old one I noticed that the new one didn't have balance weights on each side of the drain plug. Further investigation revealed that the balance weights were incorrect for an internally balanced engine like my '69 440. So, on top of all the other things that were messed up, the balancing on the converter was wrong too! Why am I not surprised? I'll update this page when more information is available. Last Updated 12/08/2001 |
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