Taking my GTS to the tranny shop was like taking a toddler to the hospital

[PhoenixGTS]

Took the car to the tranny shop to get a rebuild done with the Rockland 5th and 6th gears and since I do not have any kids, I can only guess it was like taking a toddler to the hospital. I just did not want to leave it with someone other than me. I left it at Belangers for a week before, but they are different, they're credentialed Viper folk I have known for a long time. I'm not in Florida (or in Cali for WCV or NY for Tator) so I don't have anyone to take the car to in utter confidence. This is not much of an issue when you do as much work as possible by yourself, but a tranny rebuild is outside my abilities. Anyone else feel the same? You just don't trust anyone to care as much as you? It did feel better to meet the actual tech who will do the job and see how excited he was about Vipers and how much more he liked doing a T56 for a Viper than for a Vette or Mustang, and how the car will have its own dedicated rack the entire time it is there, and to meet one of the owners of the shop (HUGE operation) that used to own a GTS himself, but it is still nerve racking not having the car in my own garage 30 feet away while I sleep. I think I have the Viper disease.

 

[FrankBarba]

Why didn't you just take it to "Fat Albert"? Located in Phoenix AZ. He's a Viper guy that builds big HP cars also.

 

[REDSLED]

Why didn't you just take it to "Fat Albert"? Located in Phoenix AZ. He's a Viper guy that builds big HP cars also.

Was going to say the same thing. Good luck with the rebuild.

 

[EA6BPilot]

Phoenix,

What did they quote you to re-do the synchros? I am going to have something similar done next month (minus the 5-6 gear replace). How long did they say it will be in the shop? Good luck and let us know how it went.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Albert is a great guy, but too expensive for me. It would have cost me an extra $1,000 to go to him (which means I could not have gotten the new 5th and 6th gears). My complete rebuild without the 5th and 6th would have cost $2,000 including removal and re-installation and one year warranty ($1,550 for the tranny only). They already had a tranny rebuilt and ready to go so if I would have decided to take that instead of having them rebuild mine It would have taken one to two days. Now we have a few extra days to wait for parts and do the actual rebuild. Good time to have it in the shop since it is raining like the end of the world here in Phoenix this week.

 

[Shelby3]

Albert is a great guy, but too expensive for me. It would have cost me an extra $1,000 to go to him (which means I could not have gotten the new 5th and 6th gears). My complete rebuild without the 5th and 6th would have cost $2,000 including removal and re-installation and one year warranty ($1,550 for the tranny only). They already had a tranny rebuilt and ready to go so if I would have decided to take that instead of having them rebuild mine It would have taken one to two days. Now we have a few extra days to wait for parts and do the actual rebuild. Good time to have it in the shop since it is raining like the end of the world here in Phoenix this week.

You must be an honest lawyer, most who aren't would have gone to Albert and not worried about the cost.

 

[Tom Sessions]

You may want to get in touch with Eddie Martin at Bill Luke Dodge in Phoenix.Great guy and knows his vipers

 

[PhoenixGTS]

You may want to get in touch with Eddie Martin at Bill Luke Dodge in Phoenix.Great guy and knows his vipers

Eddie has worked on the car before (did the frame recalls front and rear), and I have confidence in him, but he is so busy he is hard to schedule, and I think he would have sent the tranny to the exact same shop for the rebuild at an ultimately higher cost. Eddie is definitely a nice, knowledgeable guy.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Two weeks after the tranny starting making the death rattle (sounded like a giant ratchet in 1st through 3rd), and eight days after going into the shop, my baby is back home and better than ever. Tranny shifts like butter. Much improved overall as compared to before it took a dive. I had no idea how bad it was until now I have driven the rebuild. Best way to describe the tranny now is tight and quiet. Before it had a lot of gear noise and when you where in an on-throttle-off-throttle cruise situation like when traffic if slightly slowing and speeding and all you to adjust is lift and slightly press the throttle there was a kind of slap back-and-forth as you went from power to coast. I had to drive home in rush hour so painfully I tested this extensively (next thing is short gears which in addition to making the car quicker should make it more comfy in slow speed situations). I'll have to get it on the freeway to give a full report on the 0.80:1 fifth gear and 0.64:1 sixth gear, but I managed to get a little open space on the way home and short shift up into fifth and sixth and yessiree, I now have a REAL six speed as opposed to a four speed with two overdrives.

Kudos to Alger who built the tranny and the crew at All Trans in Phoenix. Once they discovered the main drive cluster was toast, they located a high quality used unit, through in some other parts they had that were in better shape than mine, and after they found out they had to turn the shaft down five thousands in order for the Rockland fifth and sixth gears to fit, they delivered the car in great shape with a better than before rebuilt tranny at the quoted cost. I asked ALger if he had any idea what broke the tranny and without hesitation he answered "Viper torque. The Corvettes hardly ever make enough torque to do that kind of damage."

 

[Jim Wilson]

Hey Michael, glad to hear your back up and running! Still waiting for lunch......

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Hey Michael, glad to hear your back up and running! Still waiting for lunch......

I've got something even better to go with that lunch. My girlfriend gave me an hour of dyno time for Christmas and I am sure I can arrange for them to do runs for an additional Viper during that time. How about a baseline run on that yellow machine? Oh did I mention I'll be needing help installing a new differential?

 

[Jim Wilson]

Oh man that would be very cool! Let me know when you would like to get together, and when you want to tackle that diff. It will be interesting to see what the stock one looks like(wear wise).

Jim