On Wednesday, June 6th, I drove to Green Valley to pick up the tranny from Steve Ault. He originally had the tranny rebuilt in Colorado when he lived there in 1997. It was done by a known good shop along with 3 other trannys that Steve had at the time. The others were used successfully in other coaches but this one sat in storage until 2 years ago when Steve asked another GMCer (I forget his name) to take a look at it since it had been sitting for so long. I actually helped Steve move the tranny from his coach to the other guy’s at the GMCWS rally at Las Vegas. A couple of seals were replaced because they were starting to dry out but otherwise the tranny was again pronounced ‘good’.

On Thursday, June 7th, I delivered the coach and the tranny to ‘Next Generation Automotive’ (formerly Friedenberg Automotive) in Tucson. Jared is one of the new owners (I think the other guy’s name is ‘Truth’ so I have to trust them I guess) and I left him with instructions to flush the cooler, add the vent and hose (the tranny appeared to be threaded for a pipe fitting), use synthetic fluid (12 quarts), and put the temp sensor I provided into the bung in the pan (the old tranny didn’t have one and temperature is probably what killed it). I also asked Jared to check the engine pan for leaks while the tranny is out since that is the only way to get at some things. Jared asked it Monday was OK for completion and I agreed.

On Friday evening Jared called me and reported that the new tranny was in, he was waiting for the synthetic fluid to arrive – apparently this is not a high demand item – and the coach would be ready on Monday.