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vacation transmission crisis Posted by Ken [Email]  (#2113) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ken) on Sat, 11 Aug 2001 21:44:41
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Hi,
I have a 1991 900 with 105k miles. Yesterday I had an unexpected, badly timed transmission problem. I'm supposed to be out on Cape Cod for 2 weeks but instead am grounded in NY. In the year that I've owned this car, I haven't experienced any transmission problems, except for occasional crunching while shifting in reverse (which I've already gotten advice on). Yesterday I drove my car for the first time in 3 weeks. It had been sitting unused in my uncle's driveway in Jersey. I noticed right away that shifting from first to second felt gritty and there was some resistance. Then after I'd driven for about 10 minutes and started to hit some stop lights, my shift lever began jamming in neutral. With some force I was able to move it over to the left, but then I couldn't move it up or down. With some substantial force and a little finessing I managed to survive the trip back to Manhattan, but the stop and go traffic by the George Washington Bridge didn't help the situation.
This morning I drove up to a transmission mechanic in Ossining, NY - the nearest guy that could see me on such short notice -- and he experienced the problem, tried to reallign the linkage rods (at least that's what he said he was doing), and then told me it was still no good, "an internal problem, we can only fix it if we pull the engine and transmission."
So I left there thinking I was facing a $2,300 repair (parts and labor).
Then my skeptical father drove the car with me for an hour and wasn't able to recreate the problem. (Shifting from 1 to 2 still felt gritty, but there weren't any jams).
Can anyone explain this? Is it possible that the recent heat wave might have had something to do with this? My car was sitting outside for 3 weeks and for the past 5 days temperatures in NJ reached as high as 105. Could something have warped, but then fixed itself this afternoon once we drove it under normal circumstances?
One other variable I thought might be responsible- in my effort to save money in light of recent repairs I've had to make, I had my oil changed at what turned out to be a no-name garage that put in 10w-40 oil (a brand I'd never heard of). I later noticed the manual specified 10-30. Since the transmission sits in the crank case, is this thinner oil the problem here? A combination of record heat and thin oil? Please don't tell me I need to spend $2,500! Help!
Ken
posted by 205.188.1...
_______________________________________ Ken
, Sat, 11 Aug 2001 21:44:41 <-- Viewing This Message, Sun, 12 Aug 2001 09:51:37
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