Baby, It Was Cold Outside
For those whose business increased, it was all about an attitude adjustment and application of the techniques they had learned. One multi-shop owner reported that one of his locations that had averaged $10,000 a week in sales pretty much forever did $10,000 in the first two days after the manager got back from the seminar. He attributed the striking increase to his manager’s new attitude toward the customers and the business. It was like all of a sudden the light bulb went on and he realized that you can be nice to the customers and aggressive about marketing your products and services to them at the same time, that selling them what they need isn’t a turn-off to them, but not giving them the opportunity to buy is.
ZF’’s New 6-Speed Truck Transmission
At this point, anyone working in our industry should be familiar with ZF transmissions. ZF Friedrichshafen AG is a world-class manufacturer of driveline components to the auto manufacturers. ZF designs and builds some of the most-advanced and sophisticated manual and automatic transmissions for cars and light trucks. The company also is big in medium- and heavy-duty on- and off-road transmissions as well as steering gear, and other driveline components.
April 2006 Issue
Issue Summary:
At the start of production for the 1997 model year the input shaft has been redesigned in the area of the O-ring groove at the torque-converter end.
After overhaul, vehicles equipped with the MP6 or MP7 transaxle may exhibit a complaint of falling out of Drive at a stop or a slipping condition on takeoff.
Before or after overhaul, vehicles equipped with the MP6 or MP7 transaxle may exhibit a slight engagement delay in “D” and/or a binding condition in reverse.
Before or after overhaul, vehicles equipped with the MP6 or MP7 transaxle may exhibit delayed or no reverse when hot.
1996-and-up vehicles equipped with the TAAT transaxle may exhibit harsh upshifts and/or down-shifts and may have diagnostic trouble code P0746 or P0789.
Time to Change an Old Habit
Our industry is reporting an increasing number of converter leaks that are coming from this area. The normal stresses that are being exerted on the converter during acceleration – plus the extra stress of lockup apply – are causing the converter to flex. And the culprit is the sharp angle at the edge of the lockup surface (see Figure 1), which creates a flex point for a crack to start.
A Fix for 5R55W Front-Planet Bearing Failure
The 5R55W transmission was used in Ford Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers from 2002 through 2004. This unit is very similar to the other 5R55 series transmissions, but each model has a few unique differences.
New Does Not Mean Good
As if the transmission industry weren’t difficult already, technicians also have to contend with new or remanufactured products that malfunction right out of the box.
Temp-eramental Hyundai
In this situation it was none of the usual items. It was, believe it or not, the transmission-fluid-temperature sensor. As I looked further into this, sure enough, I found factory bulletin 00-40-010 dated August 2000.
