Good evening to all,
Sam, those 5-speed guys are allright. I used to be one of them. By the
way, taking a ride with Sean Meldrum is quite and experience. He knows
how to shift. I ain't got much hair, but I got less now. Sean can show you
just how strong the Dakota drive train really is.
The cost of building my "super-dupper" '97 Automatic was as follows:
$1200 included removing the trans, the bench rebuild, the Master Kit
from Chrylser, and re-installing the trans.
$ 500 for after-market internal and external parts and reworking some of
the Chrysler parts.
$1700 out the door.
I said it wasn't cheap. I spent some time with the technician while he had
everything apart on the bench. He showed me what went wrong and why
but all those parts look like junk to me. I know little about the inside of
a 4-speed automatic. He asured me when he finished his "tweaks" I won't
have any more problems; and so far, he is right. I know the pump was
modified, the Hayden cooler was installed and a modified TransGo Valve
Body was used. Also, there was something about a checkvalve that needed
to either be removed or modified. The Technician and I test drove the DAK
on the road for about 45 minutes. Several more adjustments were made and
the Trans has been fine ever since. These guys made sure I was completely
satisified before turning it loose.
Jay, I know what you mean about trying to live with a sloppy trans. I wish
I
could be more help, but don't know anyone or anything about Arizona.
I would stay away from the national franchised transmission shops unless
you really know who your dealing with. I will make a suggestion. Visit
your local quarter/mile track or the well known race shops in your area.
Talk to some people who run competition vehicles with automatics and find
out who is doing their work. That's a good place to start. The fellow who
runs the Trans Shop in Michigan trained under the mechanics at "SlickShift
and
Company" who built all my racing transmissions in the late sixtys through the
seventys. I got lucky.
David R.
Sterling Heights
Michigan
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:45 EDT