Kings Transmission

A friend of mine was having some car trouble and she asked me to recommend a good mechanic to her. I drew a blank because I did most of my car’s maintenance myself and the only time I take my car to a shop is if it has a factory recall on a certain part. I take really good care of my car and change its oil every two months so the engine stays relatively clean.

I found a shop that was close to her house. They claimed to be the Seattle differential repair experts. I looked up their reviews online and they were pretty good. I went with her when she took the car in and stood by her when they were explaining what was wrong and how much it would take to fix it. They seemed to know what they were doing and they were real honest about their work practices and prices. I was impressed by their level of customer service and I even considered taking my car to them if I really needed some work done.

Next to the engine itself, the most important of internal car systems is the transmission. Transmission problems have a direct impact on your car engine’s efficiency and smoothness of operation. To diagnose any problems with this crucial car system, one needs to be aware of transmission problem symptoms. That is the primary subject of discussion in this article. A glance through this Buzzle article will acquaint you with all the signs that indicate an impending transmission failure.

Without the transmission, your car would run only at a single speed. It is the transmission that makes speed variation possible using torque generated by the car engine. Now there are two types of transmission systems available. Most of modern cars have a built in automatic transmission system, where the gear changing is managed by the car itself. Otherwise, most older cars have a manual transmission.

Symptoms Indicating Transmission Issues

If you don’t want to be ripped off by car repair shops, you need to know how to carry out transmission problem diagnosis. An accurate diagnosis requires knowledge of the inner workings of the transmission. It would be a good idea to get hold of a Hayne’s manual, specific to your car model. It will provide you with an overview of automatic transmission working and also provide some maintenance tips. Here are the most common symptoms that one needs to watch out for.

Rough Shifting of Gears
One of the prime symptoms is rough shifting of gears. Instead of a smooth gear transmission, you will find that the transmission is bumpy. If you notice this happening repeatedly, it is time to get the transmission checked.

Delayed Engaging
If you notice that the gears are delayed in getting engaged and there is a latent response from the transmission, the reason might indicate a problem with the gear box. This condition may be a result of multitude of causes. One of the most likely causes might be low transmission fluid.

Murky Transmission Fluid
If you notice that the transmission fluid is looking murky, it means that a lubrication fluid replacement is on the cards. An immediate transmission fluid change is recommended.

Transmission Slipping
One of the most common problems with car transmission is recurrent slipping when changing gears. Transmission slipping can result from low levels of lubrication fluid or structural failure. This is one of the prime problems that plague an automatic transmission. This car problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Transmission Fluid Leak
Checking transmission fluid should be a part if your regular car maintenance schedule. A leaking of the transmission fluid is one of the major indicators of imminent automatic and manual transmission problems. Make sure that you get the fluid replaced, as without it, the system will eventually break down. Lubrication is an essential need of every working machine part and the most essential necessity of the transmission.

Transmission Noise
Due to prolonged wear and tear of gears due to low transmission fluid levels, knocking noise may be heard. This noise is indicative of imminent transmission failure. A transmission fluid refill may take care of the problem quite easily.

At the slightest indication of any of these signs of impending transmission failure presenting themselves, you should visit Transmission Repair Seattle, as soon as possible. Delay in doing so, will ultimately result in costly car repairs. Make it a point to include car transmission checkup, in your regular car maintenance schedule.  Call us at 206-624-1859.

Building a strong transmission starts with internal gear train. The weakest link in the 4L60 transmission gear train is the sun gear shell. We recommend you upgrade this shell even if you are doing a simple stock overhaul. The sun gear shell has a tendency to strip out or completely break off at the splinted area. The factory recognized a problem with this shell and attempted to correct the issue by heat treating the splinted area of the shell and replacing the thrust washer with a thrust bearing. As many factory technicians have discovered this did not work. The aftermarket company SPX offers a replacement shell nicknamed “the beast”. This shell has a much thicker splinted area and can be used with either the thrust washer or the updated thrust bearing hub. The SPX “beast” shell is an excellent choice for stock to moderately modified applications. Recently, the aftermarket company Sonnax put on the market an improved beast type sun gear shell. Sonnax named this shell system “The Smart Shell”. Sonnax determined that by controlling the height of the low roller support inner race, reinforcing the spline area of the beast type shell with a precision steel collar and adding a thrust bearing between the low roller race and shell, the thrust load can be directed away from the captive planet bearing and sun gear. This rerouted thrust load is directed to the rear planet carrier protecting the more vulnerable captive bearing and sun gear. This design also benefits by preventing thrust load flexing which causes breakage at the spline area of the shell. We recommend this shell system in any 4L60 transmission applications but especially in applications where engine torque can exceed 400 ft lbs.

The planetary gear carriers are the next area to be addressed in high performance build applications. The factory 4 pinion gear carriers can withstand up to 400 ft lbs of engine torque. General Motors now manufactures a 5 pinion planetary set that can be retrofitted to the early 4L60E and 700R4 transmissions. The addition of the one extra planet gear increases the torque handling capability. There are aftermarket 5 pinion planet carriers available but we at Seatac Transmissions do not recommend these carriers. It has been our experience a new factory 4 pinion planet set is stronger than the aftermarket 5 pinion sets. The factory 5 pinion carriers are a drop in replacement and can be used with the original ring gears. As standard repair practice, a new ring gear should be used with a new planetary gear carrier. The factory 5 pinion input planetary carrier requires that you update the input hub with the improved bearing type hub. This input hub and bearing are included as a set with the 5 pinion input carrier from ACDelco.

In high torque or nitrous applications the factory input drum can fail. The failure usually occurs at the spline area of the drum where it messes with the input shaft. Under high torque the drum gives way and breaks away from the shaft. The aftermarket company Sonnax offers a reinforcement steel ring that is pressed over the overrun piston seal area of the drum reinforcing this spline area. Sonnax includes a modified aluminum overrun piston to work with this reinforcement ring. Sonnax also offers a reinforced drum kit for transmissions using 300mm converters. This kit starts with a brand new reluctor type input shaft drum and strengthens it with their reinforcement ring kit. These factory reluctor type input shafts were improved by the factory and can withstand higher torque loads than the original 300mm shafts. Sonnax includes a custom stator shaft to retrofit this drum to early 300mm converter transmissions. Sonnax does not offer this drum kit for 298mm converter transmissions. If your engine torque is higher than 400 ft lbs or you have installed a nitrous kit we recommend you use one of these two Sonnax kits.

The final gear reduction for the transmission is called the differential. It has the same name on front and rear wheel drive vehicles. How it works is the power from the engine is transmitted through the pinion gear. The pinion gear then turns the large ring gear, which then changes the direction of the power for easy transmission to the wheels.

In other words, if your differential doesn’t work, then you’re not going anywhere fast. If you have concerns about your vehicle, then take it into differential diagnosis Seattle. They’ll be able to determine if repairs are necessary.

Last week I noticed an oil spot on my driveway in the area where I usually park my car. I ignored it at first, but when I noticed the trail of oil down the driveway, I knew something needed to be done. A search on the Internet showed that I might have a damaged rear main seal. I read suggestions that adding 50 weight oil or thickeners could solve the issue.

I tried a thickener and sure enough it worked… for a few days. After a week the oil spot was back, and this time worse than before. Rather than sinking more money into temporary fixes, I took my car in for rear main seal repair Seattle. The mechanics at the shop got a new seal on in no time, for not too much money. I shouldn’t have to worry about oil spots again for a long time.

Renton Transmission Rebuild just did a upgrade to the most beautiful 1968 Chev Camero we have ever seen.

Our customer who has not spared a dime in the restore of his Camero wanted to update his vehicle transmission.  He was looking to build a transmission that would handle the horse power that his 500 ci engine was putting out.

Our advise which he took was to build a performance 4L80-E transmission with a high stall converter.  This replaced the T400 tranmsission that would handle the horse power but at 55mph had the rpms to high.

We used the Hughs electronic package which took a bit of time to wire in and adjust but was well worth the investment.

Doing Seattle-Transmission-Maintenance in this area for the past twenty years there is one thing I have learned.  We as car owners do not do the proper maintenance on our automatic transmissions. 

Oh we change our oil, we change lights and fuses when they burn out.  We spend hundreds of dollars on wheels and stereos to make our cars look and sound good.   Be what we lack it that simple maintenance of our transmission.

Each car is different it what they require as to when the fluid and filter should be changed in the transmission.  But a good rule of thumb is to service the transmission every fifteen to twenty thousand miles. 

For most drivers this is once a year.  

Almost never does a fluid change fix a transmission once a problem starts. But with regular servicing it could keep a problem from ever occurring.