While I was building my motor, I thought I'd have the tranny R&R'd, just to be safe. LANGFORD TRANSMISSIONS ( They are in Stafford) went through it, and said, "Everything is OK. I'm gonna go ahead and replace the syncro's." Sounded good to me. I'd never had a problem with it. 5000 miles later, the output shaft bearing goes out. The guy who 's doing the tranny this time said, " I believe he (Langford) overlooked replacing the output shaft bearing." So now I have a $770 repair bill because this D**KH**D (Langford) does sloppy work. When the output shaft bearing went, it took the output shaft, syncros, fork, and numerous other parts along for the ride. Hoping this p*ssing and moaning will save someone else from making a mistake.

 

You may be in trouble here. If you were aware that it was not replaced then you will probably not get any work out of them.

If however, they didn't replace it when they should have, and did not inform you they would be held accountable for the failure. Thus the work would fall onto them, and not you.

Its a funky game with warrenties.

 

barry why didnt you contact these guys, you should hold them accountable for what they did, at least give you some money back

 

Because I really can't prove anything. It's been 2 years since it was done. I can't prove that I had only driven the car 5000 miles. I can't prove that the bearing was bad when Langford had the transmission. He's certainly not going to refund any money based on someone else's opinion. It's called tuition. You pay to learn.

 

Yeah--but U know that tranny was not right when U got it back the first time. Since day 1, when I rode in your car--U have been whinning about the fact that it "scratched" in ALL gears shifts, up or down, under load or not.

Regardless of the output shaft bearing situation--that guy had U jumping through hoops--changing to different types of fluid. "It just has to break in" is/was not an acceptable response, and if U went back to him now, he would probably just blow U off and blame it on U.

I agree with U--U probably can't do anything about it now--and it's probably not worth the hassle--but at least U have had the ***** to suck it up and let others know of your mistake and try to help others NOT make the same mistake.

Hindsight is 20/20, and that's why they don't make glasses to fit your butt!

(Hey Beavis--he said butt!)

 

The guy who fixed the leak in the transmission in 1986(at A.J. Foyt Chevrolet) told me to run 80-90W, not the ATF that came in the tranny. 150,000 miles later, Langford told me to run ATF. 5,000 miles later. $700 repair bill. Earl Hughes said because of the heat down here, you could run 90W, and that 90W wouldn't cause that bearing to fail. That bearing went away because it was worn out, and should have been replaced by Langford. As the shaft bearing went away, the snychro problem got worse. The tranny was fine when I got it back from Langford(for a while). I think running ATF in the trans hastened it's demise. When I pick up the tranny, I'll ask Earl what his recommendation is, but I think I'm gonna stick with a heavy oil. It was good for 150K, and experience is the best teacher. I personally feel that 5 weight oil is too thin to run in a manual transmission. I went to this Langford clown on a recommendation. The moral of this story, boy and girls, is DO AS MUCH HOMEWORK AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. They say if you have a good experience, you'll tell one person, and if you have a bad experience, you'll tell 10 people. Hopefully I'll be telling more than 10.

 

Sorry--bummer. I would contact TKOPerformance and see if you could ship him the shrapnel--maybe he could build you a solid tranny for under a grand. Thanks for the lesson...

 

I'm sure Barry will post here--I talked to him Wed afternoon--just picked it up from Earl Hughes transmission--around 700.00 + --more than 400.00 in parts replaced that got damaged from the output bearing shrapnel.

Knowing Earl Hughes, Barry's got a good one now!

 

Should have it installed by Sat. Craig, he gave me specific instructions to run ATF in the trans. Synthetic OK.

 

List of Parts replaced:
1 Output shaft
5 syncros
1 retainer
3 shift dogs (?)
1 seal
1 1st and 2nd shift fork
6 inserts
1 pinion needles (?)
1 drum

Total Parts $455.74

Quote from Earl," the worst thing you can do to this transmission is lug the motor in 5th gear. It puts tremendous strain on the output shaft and bearing. Keep your RPM's up when shifting into 5th. I've always kept them up to at least 1500 RPM's. The biggest headache will be putting in the new speedo cable, and the friggin' console!!!!!!!!!

 

GOT IT IN YET?

I know your used to hearing that from your wife, but in this case, I'm referring to the new transmission!

 

I went and talked to Earl last week. For him to do my 700r4 is right at 2k without any go fast goodies. Thats re-using my vette servo's, a stock converter replacement, and i already have the 3-4 upshift valve.
To have it operate the way I want i'll need an aftermarket valvebody, converter, and probably some aftermarket servos. Anywhere from 2-3k! Needless to say, im having to hold off for a while. But my last 700 cost me 1,400 and it lasted all of 6 months, behind an l03. He seems to know his stuff, and i'll probably head his way when i get the cash.

 

Good to see you guys have a dependable T5 man in the Houston area. On the 700R4, a friend here in the middle of nowhere did one for me for $800 including a shift kit and parts to repair a blown reverse. He has an excellent reputation--I'll run it in a '70 Suburban behind a 383 stroker.