vibration after new transmission

[titan97]

I've got a high-frequency vibration after my transmission was rebuilt. Here is the long and short of it:

3 weeks ago, my intermediate clutch and brake went out (mechanical diode failure). I shopped around and took my '01 EB 4x4 (4R100) to a well-recommended tranny-only shop. He called me with a quote and I came down to the shop to visually verify what he was saying. The list of repairs included a Dynamic TQ, 4th gear/OD planetary replacement with a steel version, intermediate clutch and break, solenoid pack, rebuild kit, front pump, and a hot flush. I asked about a shift kit and he strongly recommended NOT to install one, but said he would tweak the valve body to make my shifts firmer. It all looked legit so I signed off on the repair. 3 days later, I picked up my truck. The owner told me that the truck had a strange vibration, probably due to the oversize tires (I run 285/70R17 BFG MT2's). I know that one of my wheels is bent due to a nasty hit during off-roading, but this was a new vibration. I drove it over the weekend and it was unbearable. You could start to feel it around 30-40mph and it got worse the faster you drove. I found out that if I drove it past 70mph, then let it coast, the vibration would go away after a few seconds. Then, a second or two after I put my foot back on the gas, the vibration would come back. I took the truck back in and the shop looked at the drive shafts, thinking they were installed in the wrong index position. He claimed that they were correctly reinstalled and told me to rotate and rebalance the tires. The bent wheel had 7oz of weight on one side and 3 or 4 oz on the other. He told me it was too much weight.

Discount Tire rotated and rebalanced the tires. The vibration is still present. I jacked up the truck so that all 4 wheels where off the ground and "drove" the truck up to 80mph. I noticed that the rear drive shaft had maybe 3/32" (visual estimate) of runout and the front had maybe 3/16" of runout. It didn't look like and weights had been lost on the drive shafts. I checked for the vibration in each gear (manually shifting from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4) and it was felt in each gear.

What could be the problem? The tranny shop is ATRA affiliated. Should I call and complain?

 

[JUST4FUN]

take it back till your happy. did it have it when it went in? no so get them to fix it right

 

[titan97]

I've gone back and forth with the shop. They now tell me there is nothing they can do now. It is not a transmission problem (as far as they know) and they are washing their hands of the issue. They state that they had no way to know if the vibration was there prior to the work, as the truck was immobile when delivered to them.

I've filed a complaint with ATRA and spoken with one of their reps. She has advised me to take the truck back to the shop until it is resolved, but this does me no good if the shop won't look at it. The ATRA rep is supposed to contact the shop and schedule an appointment for me to bring the truck by.

The way I predict this to go down goes like this: The shop has the driveshafts checked and rebalanced. They bill me for the repair.

I consider myself a good truck owner. I have my ATF and engine oil checked by Blackstone Labs during every change. The last time I changed/checked the ATF was 2 weeks before the unit failed (and it showed no issues). I change my other fluids at twice the recommended frequency (15k miles when Ford recommends 30k, etc).

 

[tonydiv]

While they have the driveshafts disconnected. they could "drive" the truck and if the vibration is still there then the trans is at fault.

 

[titan97]

After calling ATRA I was sent to another ATRA-affiliated shop. They were supposed to do a thorough analysis and give me a definitive answer on the vibration. In the end, the guy only said that it was a tire problem. After going back and forth, I asked them to simply remove the front drive-shaft, which I felt was the source of the vibration. And what do you know? The problem was fixed. One of the U-joints was frozen on 3 ends and the other u-joint had 1 rusted-up cup. I've currently replaced the u-joints but I haven't reinstalled the drive-shaft yet.

However, what gets me is this: why didn't the original shop notice that the u-joints were frozen? It was immediately noticeable to me. Even the 2nd shop didn't notice the bad u-joints until I began inspecting the drive-shaft. And then, what caused the problem to appear during the same time that the tranny work was done?

Oh well.

 

[tonydiv]

There's no excuse for it. They had to pull the driveshafts off of the transfer case to do the trans, I mean, you almost have to go out of your way NOT to notice.

If they would have taken 3 seconds to look at the joints, they would have had a happy customer and perhaps could have made another couple of hundred bucks by replacing them for you. Win - win, I would say.

 

[JUST4FUN]

Stupid shit like that makes me wonder how much they overlooked in the trany

 

[smo0othride]

If you paid with a credit card let your card company deal with them. I know for sure American Express and Discover are both excellent at refunding your money for bad service without asking you a bunch of questions.

 

[sniper141]

You need to report them to the BBB, shops hate that crap and get less funding for ****** service!!! I have done it to multiple places and they started treating me like a king after that because lots of people have been fired for that!