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Topic: BabyBlu Updater ~ (Read 2 times) previous topic - next topic
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BabyBlu Updater ~
Yahoo Message Number: 85673
Constant Readers may recall that after a mechanically-uneventful 3800- mile trip from Redwood City CA to Chicago, Nashville and our home in Williamsburg, BabyBlu, the nom de trip of the '93 LD 23.5 TK I'm ferrying to Boston, blew its overdrive 75 miles into the final leg from Greystone to BOS on 10/27.  After consulting with owner Chris I limped it home uneventfully and last week turned it over to the local Aamco franchisee here in the Burg, which seems to be a good one.

Late Friday I dropped by for a progress report and got to see the gizzards of its E4OD spread out on a shop table.  The overdrive planetary gears were thoroughly shredded and the detritus from this failure of course did other damage thruout the tranny, though perhaps not as much as I might've expected.  While there's a plastic drainback valve that is prone to melt under high temps and starve this planetary gearset for lubrication, turns out that is not what happened here.  The shop owner/manager is quite sure that a previous failure of the torque converter lockup components, which was remedied a few months back when Chris had a new TC installed in CA, left enough "stuff" behind to slowly but surely cause premature wear which eventually clogged the lube circuit for the overdrive gearset.
The rebuild, which is going to cost about $2900, will include a number of component "heavy-ups" shown by service experience to extend service life, plus some internal mods by the shop that will improve fluid circulation/pressures.  The owner/manager's opinion is that the base E4OD is a good transmission but is happier when not assigned the task of permanently lugging 11,000lbs around. He thinks his rebuild will be substantially stronger.

They're waiting on parts and then will rebuild and reinstall the tranny.  And then, finally/eventually/hopefully, I will be able to complete the trip that began October 11th.

Gary Allen Trustee pro tem of BabyBlu, presently shiftless '93 23.5TK '98 Allegro Bus D/P Williamsburg, VA "Life in the Bus Lane"