Last month, ATRA’s Executive Director, Lance Wiggins, shared some history about ATRA. As a rebuilder, I can go back decades and recall the tech I learned from ATRA through seminars and bulletins (I still have ATRA seminar books from the late 70s and 80s). The point is that ATRA made its spot in the transmission industry through technical research and training. Most of it centered on rebuilding.
But things have changed since those days, or even when I ran the tech department and took hotline calls. You see, back then, if a transmission didn’t work right, you’d have – at its worst – buy a $15 core and rebuild that to get the car out the door. Furthermore, almost every transmission took 30 minutes or less to remove. (I once removed a 350 from a 1976 Olds Omega in six minutes). So, the investment in time and money wasn’t so significant if you got it wrong.
Now, transmission removal might take all day. A shifting problem might include a range of electrical sensors or engine performance parameters. You might even have a normal function you (and the customer) see as a problem. Try fixing that!
More than ever, the person making the call to remove the transmission is vital to customer satisfaction and shop profitability. And while ATRA has had seminars and training materials aimed at this role, it has just now been a dedicated pursuit. As a result, ATRA+ is targeted directly at the individual making that call.
This idea started a couple of years ago. Like so many ideas, they take on a life of their own. Practically everyone at ATRA (including the ATRA Board of Directors) had their hand in it.
You’ll notice materials with the ATRA+ logo as the year goes on. These are documents and training aids targeted at the shop diagnostician. If you’re the shop owner, pass them to your diagnostician. Get them used to seeing the logo as an indicator that it’s for them. ATRA will also work with technical schools across North America to make this training available for students and your new hires.
That was quite an introduction. But now, let’s get to work!
IT STARTS BEHIND THE WHEEL
The most important aspect of creating a happy customer is understanding their complaint. You can’t get that from hearsay or someone else in the shop. So get it from the customer. Better yet, go on a road test with them so they can show you their specific concern.
There’s a chance that it’ll work fine and not act up. If that’s the case, take plenty of notes on Who, what, where, when, and how. That is, have the customer be specific about the problem:
- Who worked on the vehicle before? And what did they do? (Even if it seems unrelated to the complaint. Installing the wrong brake light bulbs has been known to cause transmission problems).
- What is the complaint, specifically?
- Where does it do this? In the garage, as they’re backing out of their house? At work when it’s parked on a grade?
- When does it do it? During hard acceleration? Going around a turn? After braking hard? Only first thing in the morning when it’s cold? After a long driving period when it’s hot?
- How? Do they have to do something with the shifter or other control to make it happen?
These questions will help the customer recall the specifics surrounding the problem; “It happens every couple of days at the intersection of 1st Street and Harbor Blvd.” Or, “It does it after I back out of my garage first thing in the morning.” Taking this much time may seem silly at first but what’s even more ridiculous is having the transmission on the bench and seeing nothing wrong with it. Or worse, rebuilding or replacing the transmission, only to have the same problem. In the end, if the problem still exists after you worked on the transmission, then someone will get around to asking most (if not all) of these questions. So do it before you get to this point.
If you experience the problem, answer the same “what, where, when, and how” questions mentioned earlier. For example, a “falling out of gear” complaint might be different on the flat ground compared to a grade.
Here’s another example: ATRA gets tech calls every winter with complaints that a vehicle won’t go into drive first thing in the morning. Once it goes into gear, it’s good for the rest of the day. Chances are, you won’t get it to act up with the customer on the road test because it’s already warm. If you keep it overnight in the shop, you may not get it to act up either. You see, the customer parks the car on the street where it’s subject to the 18° temperature, while your shop never gets below 55°. In this situation, this is a classic low sprag (or roller clutch) failure. When a one-way clutch begins to fail, it’ll show up as a nodrive condition when it’s cold. Here’s where you might ask the customer if putting the shifter in another range (like manual low) makes it better. We’re not getting into clutch and band application here, but it’s important to know what’s on for each gear.
How about falling out of gear after hard braking to a stop or when you make a low-speed sharp turn? These two scenarios are unrelated, but they both point to low fluid. A fundamental point we’ll discuss in future articles is that a rapid drop in line pressure, like in these two examples, can only occur when the pump draws air rather than fluid. The second part of this scenario is, does it have the correct dipstick. Having the proper fluid level is integral to your road test routine. Here again, knowing the history of a vehicle may come in handy. If your road test points to a low-fluid condition, you’ll have to investigate it further, even if the dipstick indicates that it’s full.
Always take a check sheet with you to record both good and bad shifting quality. If the transmission winds up at the builder’s bench, they may ask you about a particular shift, and your clarity is vital to help them make a correct decision.
These are a few simple problems that can still send a good transmission to the teardown bench. However, when you get things like old spark plugs, oil-soaked Mass Airflow sensors, low tire pressure, or any oddities causing shifting problems, you’ll get into some tricky diagnosis. After all, how many transmissions can you replace for a condition caused by low tire pressure?
In the next ATRA+ article, we’ll go deeper into the oil pan and look at fluid fill conditions that can drive you crazy. It’s a slippery subject, but important!
