727 rebuilds for life!

[jmbrodsky@domain.elided]

     Binders,
     
        OK so here's the skinny on my tranny and the sand and the rest.
     Last November I went wheeling in Cnayon De Chelley in Northern 
     Arizona.  It's the place where Ansel Adams took pics of the cliff 
     dwellings.  Anyway, it was great and we had the head of the visitors 
     center as our guide on the lead truck's CB.  Great trip except there 
     were about 9,345,653 water corssings, each about 38" deep.  I had mud 
     and silt inside my turn signal lenses on a lifted travelall!  Now on 
     the drive home is when the timing gears grenaded themselves, and I 
     took care of that.  The tranny I had rebuilt for it was 3/31/98, 
     because the shop that does them stamps the date in the case.
     
     Now fast forward to sunday afternoon.  Pulled the tranny out of the 
     T'all again.  The vent is about 3" above the front of the input shaft, 
     and wide open 5/16".  The entire inside of the bellhousing was coated 
     with sand and hard caked on mud and silt.  No wonder that my tranny 
     needed three filters in three months.  The dipstick was not sealed so 
     the water/silt/gumbo was free to run IN the vent hole and the 
     displaced air was free to run out the dipstick pipe.
     
        I'm gonna get the sealed GM s-10 pickup dipstick with the click 
     lock cap, extend the dipstick tube about 6-8" so I can reach the 
     darned thing without moving in and packing a lunch under the hood, and 
     I want to install a breather on the front vent.  How much clearance is 
     there behind the torque convertor?  I was thinking about drilling a 
     hole even with the front face of the tranny through the bellhousing 
     and running a breather out the top.  When my Uncle drops the tranny 
     off at Banks Transmission (home of the $265 rebuilds, that I get at 
     shop cost), he's gonna request the ultra heavy monster tow the house 
     and three cars, pull everything and your mother of all heavy duty 
     tranny parts.  I'm sick and tired of pulling trannies!  This is three 
     already in less than a year!
     
        End all, the silt ate/chewed the direct/reverse clutches and left 
     the first/second clutches ok, since most of the driving that anyone 
     does with an automatic is in direct.  First and second gear are only 
     like maybe 30 seconds per day.  Nuff said.
     
        So he's gonna check with the tranny shop about a remote breather, 
     otherwise, I'm going to jb weld a small brass pipe in the breather 
     hole and up through a drilled hole in the top of the bellhousing.  
     Also my friend suggested I put a bead of sealant on the engine mating 
     for the bellhousing to hold a 'bubble' of air for when you get under 
     water.  I think it's a good idea.
     
        I'm going to treat this tranny like a child.  I promise.  I've had 
     one break the reverse band, one with worn/bent forward clutches, onet 
     with a bad direct/reverse clutch, now I want the 727 that everyone 
     else has forever.  I talk to people with 30 yr old mopars and they 
     never had to do a tranny ONCE!  I've done three.  I guess in the 400 
     thousand collective miles on my scout and Travelall, it's proabaly 
     time, huh?  The scout is now the big parts getter, but the BMW seems 
     to be the daily.
     
        Any thoughts or anecdotes, are always welcome,
     
        Joel Brodsky
        '76 Scout II "Marianne"
        '75 T'all 4wd (Lean Mean, tranny eating machine)
        '74 T'all 2wd coming together, I promise,
                 it'll be out of the yard soon, mom.
        '83 R80 G/S PD "Claudia"
        Tucson, Arizona