Tone It Up
Tone is important when working with others in pretty much every capacity. Even on a close-knit team, caps or a poorly worded (or punctuated) joke can come across as exhibiting a negative tone. If you let it, it can influence your tone and that of those around you. How your tone is received is how you are received.
Take a Moment to Analyze What’s Going on
The service adviser transcribed the customer’s complaint as “stuck in manual mode,” and it was coming from a shop that didn’t want to work on it. After chiseling the Midwest winter ice off the vehicle I was able to go through my initial checkout. I found code P0705 stored in the PCM (Transmission Position Sensor (P R N D L) Malfunction).
TCC Engine Surge
A 2008 Honda Accord using the B97A transmission behind a 3.5L engine was brought to Newmarket Transmissions from a general repair shop to be rebuilt. They had changed the radiator and when topping off fluids, they noticed the “strawberry milkshake” condition of the transmission fluid. The radiator was also contaminated with the milkshake condition as seen with the deteriorated cap in Figure 1.
Are Customers Any Tougher Now than They Once Were?
I received an email recently from one of my readers who seemed to feel that I’m teaching the industry to be too nice to customers in an effort to get their business. Is there such a thing as being too nice? Maybe if you spend so much on a customer that you could never have a chance of making it back, but other than that I can’t see how you can be too nice. The gentleman also seemed to feel that customers are more demanding, harder to sell, and possibly nastier than they used to be. I think they just have a lot more information available to them than ever before and it’s making them feel like they are in control.
Newer Nissan Rogues: A Technician’s View
Did Nissan make the redesigned Rouge better, or worse, to work on? How do American technicians view Nissan? Do the automotive designers look at the service end when they design or redesign a new car? Until service technicians tell me engineers understand “someone has to fix it later,” I will continue to write these articles.
Something Amiss with Planetary System
You may remember back in the early days of the 41TE transmission (A604), the sun gear was known to shear off the shell. The result would be no reverse; it would take off in 1st gear but when it shifted into 2nd it would neutralize. With 2nd gear being failsafe, it would default to a neutral gear. The vehicle would then have no movement both forward and reverse. Once the ignition was cycled off to on, you could once again take off in 1st and shift into a no-move condition.
Handling Hard Parts
Every rebuilder needs the same parts at the same time. The Pellitieri family says their Buffalo Engine Components is more than up to the task of finding, processing and delivering those parts on a consistent basis. Andy, Joe Jr. and Jason Pellitieri.
June 2018 Issue
In This Issue
Dodge 68RFE: Valve body and solenoid assembly changes
All Over the Map
Burnt 3-4 clutch packs are notoriously common in the GM 4L60/E family of transmissions. Tech hotlines and internet bulletin boards are often jammed-up with people pleading for help with this 3-4 roasting. Some technicians get frustrated and throw multiple Hail Mary replacement parts at the transmission when facing this issue. But it doesn’t have to be an exercise in frustration; burnt 3-4 clutches can be transformed from a dreaded problem into a routine moneymaker.
‘We’re All Race-Car Drivers in Germany’
Florian Schuldes, owner of Ol’ Skool Customs in central Germany, works mostly on the drive trains of American vehicles. In this capacity, he’s what we might consider an import guy.
Can It Get Any More Complicated?
I understand as transmissions progress in time with the future technologies, things will change and probably become more complicated. Let’s look at what used to be a simple design, the park-pawl components found in many transmissions. We have all heard of or seen the new “park-by-wire” systems found on some of the later transmissions in today’s market. The ZF6HP and ZF8HP have their version of park-by-wire with a release cable that can physically pull the park pawl out of the park position if the vehicle were to lose power. That system was probably the first to be seen in most transmission shops.
