some of you might remember that about a month ago I blew my transmission due to the harsh 1-2 shift it broke the input shaft. My tranny is a 4l60e and was stock besides the shift kit when it blew. The tranny has 74k miles on it and the shift kit probably has about 30k of those miles. Anyway, I knew some guys who are "hotrod" builders and they also work at aamco... I decided to trust them and the company because they garuntee all their work for a year.

Well... they got a brand new core to start with, had to replace all the regular parts, soleniods, interal wiring, pressure manifold switch, etc. We beefed it up, with the beast sun shell, hi-engery performance bands, 4l65e low roller clutch, clutch paks, heavy duty input housing, vette servos, blue friction plates... basically the works. Came to $2200.. which is awesome since it included a stall from fuddle racing. We basically followed FLP's transmission.

I had it for about a day... it started to slip in 2nd and 4th gears. No big deal, they probably made a simiple mistake.. i bring it right back to them. And come to find out an o-ring snapped... however,i was there when they disassembled it.. and they tried to screw me over..instead of waiting for the performance bands, they put just regular hi-engery bands (which arent as tough or wide as the ones that i had actually paid for)... I said, so why did u charge me for something you didnt do, they acted like they didnt know that they charged me for it and actually gave me the difference(which was like $15), even tho i have the better ones in there now (watched them install them), they still tried to cut corners.

So I get the truck back, 10 days go by, and its time for my check up (Aamco has a 10 day thing.. where when they do tranny work, you bring it back in for a 15 min inspection)... So i was on my way there to waste 15 mins of my life when it started to slip and slip BAD. This time i noticed it started happening under low-pressure situations.. I wasnt driving it hard or stupid or downshifting on the column.. just while crusing i went to make an easy pass and dropped into 3rd gear and the tranny just let up.

I brought it back, pretty disgusted, but didnt show it, I just want to know what they did wrong. So I called him yesterday (hes had the truck for 5 days now) and he said that he had to order the parts for it and i'll be on my way. He tried to rush me off the phone... I was like, look I just need some questions answered... he said fine and listened... so I countined to ask about any pressure readings and what not when he got it on the dyno (bc i have a hunch that theres too low of fluid pressure and its buring everything up bc of the lack of fluid) he came back with a smart remark "How are we supposed to tell.. its in pieces"... I blew up at him.. and than clamly explained why I asked that... "I thought you said you had it on a tranny dyno and I was wondering what the reading were, bc i have an idea of whats going on" He said, we'll let you know and hung up like he was in a hurry (total time on that call was like 5 mins)...

I understand that he probably loses money everytime he sees my truck... but if you do it right the first time there shouldnt be any problem at all... am i right? But anyway, im pissed, so i went up there to see the progress, the *** that i talked to on the phone was conviently "M-I-A" but the builders are stumped on the problem. The first time i brought it back it broke the beast sunshell (I hardly make 300 horses, i cant break a stock sunshell), and this last time it just burned everything up.

I called AAMCO's Corporate office and notified them of whats going on and the crappy and rude customer service i was getting. They have aggreed to refund me $250 for my troubles and being out of a car for about a month(on and off) and If it happens again, they will take another route into getting a fresh and new performance transmission...

I just want to know what could be causing it to all of a sudden slip... I'm throwing no codes of anything, and these guys really dont know. I was thinking.. maybe they didnt clean out my tranny cooler from the first time it blew and maybe thts causing the pressure problem or maybe a low pressure problem from somewhere else

One things for sure- no more aamco... i hate doing tranny work or i would have done it myself.. so from now on.. i dont think my truck will be going anywhere.

 

I feel your pain, I dont even like going into the valve body for minor stuff. My tranny guy just happens to be my wifes Ex But he's the best in town from what I understand. Maybe I can get a discount now

 

without even reading your story i have some info for anyone considering using them for trans work. Never, Never, Never, Never allow them to do anything more than check your fluid. i would have to watch them do that even.

 

Yea, I knew not to trust them. And sad part is... I even knew the guys doing the work. It just boggles my mind how people who work in this line of service are so ignorant. I mean, I can pinpoint the problem almost immediatly and these guys dont even have any suggestions.. and they are always out to screw you. Thats why its difficult to start your own business as a mechanic, even if your the most honest and best mechanic around, people still will have their bias bc of the number of back yard shops out there... even a national company does **** work.

 

I fully understand your pain. I had the same problems with another builder. The problem with my tranny ended up being the driveshaft! When I dropped the truck 3" it changed the angle on the shaft which would bounce the shaft off the inside of the tranny when I hit a bump. After awhile the tranny gave up 2nd then 4th. I had to chop 2" off the driveshaft to compensate for the drop. Went through 2 tranny's before it was figured out.

 

now i know lowering a vehicle requires pinion angle adjustment, sometimes, depending on how you like to run it ( i run more, for traction, so i didn't adjust mine. ) but this is my third lowered truck, and i've never had an issue with trannys, this is something new to me....... shortening the driveshaft huh? 2 inches? jeeze, you got alil more info on this, i'd like to know all about it.

 

i dont think i'll ever have a major comany do any work on my vehicle. i took my truck to cottmans, just for an idea of what was going on.

they didnt even know how to work the diagnostic scanner correctly and then they wanted to charge me 1200 for a stock rebuild, plus they were going to take my yank TC out. i said **** you.

so i took it to a smaller independent place. these guys had the same scanner, hooked it up, took me along for a drive so they could watch the tranny in work. they actually told me a little of what was wrong before they even took it out. cool guys. 1400 for a rebuild with extra parts. tranny drives strong so far... knock on wood.

 

I SECOND the NO TRUST with ammco, I paid an extra 500.00 just to not have them do the work, I took it to a high performance tranny builder in town and have had AMAZING service and high quality work. So not trying to be a ***, but aamco sucks, hope it works out man, i feel for ya.

 

I'm not even sure what a pinion angle is or how it's adjusted but I was told that is what was off, way off. I do travel clay roads everyday so I get some good bumps and that is when I started having the tranny issues. I never put the 2 together until I was told the drive shaft was slamming into the tranny on every bump. This is most likely what killed the stock tranny, the 2nd tranny lasted all of 2 days and that’s when I took it to a local tranny shop (not a national chain they looked at it for two days and ran more diagnostics than I even knew were available for a tranny. Ask any tranny shop you use if they have a "Trans X 2000". This thing actually bypasses your ECM and they can command shifts and monitor data while driving. Anyway, had another 65e put in and the drive shaft shortened and I have been fine for 3 months know. Other than the squeal I hear when I stomp on it and then let off too quick, anybody know what that is?

 

I know what you mean, I used aamco once for a filter and oil change (I was too lazy to do it myself), I provided the filter and gasket. The stock gasket on a 4L80E is a reuseable gasket (plastic with an o-ring on each side), when I got my truck I look under to see if they replace the filter and low and behold a ty cork gasket was up there and leaking. I went back to them to get my $30 gasket back, they told me that I did not provide them with a gasket just a filter, after a half-hour or so I left pissed off and ready to kill someone. After I cooled down, the next day, I called the chamber of commerce and reported there sorry asses, evidently they had a lot of complaints against them.

I hardly ever use a mechanic of anykind, it's cheaper to do it yourself and you know it's done right.