Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think that you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” When it comes to business success, this statement has never been more accurate. For Tim Case, owner of Case Transmission Service in Lafayette, Tennessee, success is something that he’s always strived for, and it all began when a crisis was turned into a win-win opportunity.
Tim’s path to becoming a professional transmission builder began with an accident. While working as a new builder at a shop, the head builder, the one that was training him, Johnny Blackwelder, suffered a horrible injury, leaving Johnny without fingers on one hand.
Johnny could have given up and thrown in the towel, but instead, he turned the crisis into an opportunity to teach an aspiring builder the skills he had acquired throughout his career. Johnny worked as a transmission builder for 30 years before the accident. His employer recognized Johnny’s vast experience and expertise. He leveraged that knowledge into a win-win by having Johnny mentor and train Tim. Johnny collaborated with Tim for many months and taught him every aspect of the transmission building.
This reinforced the importance of a positive mindset for Tim, and finding opportunities is something that has stuck with him and carried him throughout his career. Out of high school, Tim completed three and a half years of college before joining the National Guard as a helicopter crew chief. In 1992, he moved away from home to Knoxville, Tennessee, and began working as an R&R technician at Marshall’s Transmissions in Knoxville.
Little did he know that just in just eight months, the position for a new builder would open. As he had demonstrated the ability to catch on to skills quickly, he was offered the job. He began training with Johnny about three months before Johnny’s fateful accident. After the accident, Johnny stood beside Tim and taught him exactly what to look for in transmission failures and how to rebuild the transmissions. As Tim did the mechanical work, Johnny taught him a systematic way of rebuilding transmissions. Tim said, “This was the best training anyone could receive, and I utilize this method for training still to this day. Most new builders are left to their own devices and must learn from their mistakes. I was able to learn from Johnny’s experience, expertise, and knowledge.” This has helped Tim become the successful transmission builder he is today.
Tim began training on older transmissions like 700R4 and C4. He was experiencing the 4L60E and E4OD, which appeared on the scene around the same time as more seasoned builders had to learn them. He viewed this as a benefit because he could learn these transmissions along with the older ones. He commented, “I say that I cut my teeth on the old stuff and learned the new stuff as it came about.” He kept up to date with the new transmissions and has never stopped learning.
A few years later, Tim married Kellye, a schoolteacher, and they had two daughters, Kaylee and Kara. As the girls were getting older, he found driving the hour commute to his job increasingly challenging. At that time, he worked for Jeff Meade, who Tim states was “the best boss anyone could ask for.” Reluctantly, he decided to open his own shop in his hometown of Lafayette to better accommodate his family’s schedule. He states, “The hardest decision I ever made was leaving and opening my own shop. Jeff was honest to his customers and great to his employees.” He continued to discuss how he had learned his business skills from Jeff, adding, “He was an excellent businessman.”
Tim opened Case Transmission Service in 2003. It was initially located in a 3-bay shop in Lafayette. He quickly outgrew that location and two years later moved into a bigger shop a quarter mile down the road. In 2009, he started constructing a new 7500 sq ft building a half mile from the second shop. The new location opened its doors in January of 2010, where the shop remains today. The new building had enough room to expand services, and they began offering general repair services at that time.
They perform a wide variety of services, including general auto repair, transmission repair and rebuilds, tire replacements, and alignment services. The shop has continued to grow throughout the years, and they now have three full-time technicians on staff, in addition to Tim.
Josh Blakenship is the full-time builder there. He serves in the National Guard and has been with the team for over seven years.
Tabor Willis is an ASE certified technician and has 19 years of experience. He performs general repair services and has been at Case Transmission for four years.
Keith Newberry is the service manager and runs the front of the shop. He’s been with Tim for 5 years.
Tim realized that one challenge they faced as his business grew was the inconsistent quality of torque converters. He decided to take matters into his own hands, and in 2006 he purchased the equipment to remanufacture his own. He stated, “It was a huge investment in the beginning, but the equipment has paid for itself over and over again throughout the years. This has proved to be a great investment for the company.” They custom rebuild each torque converter for every transmission build. I asked if they sell torque converters to other shops, and he explained that he does not yet have the staffing to start pushing that market. He commented, “However if a local shop needs a torque converter built, we’re more than happy to do that for them. For the most part, though, we use the equipment for our in-house transmission builds. This has worked out great for us.”
Not only is Tim willing to assist other shops when they need help, but he also serves the local community in several ways. He’s currently serving his second year as a school board member, and he’s been active in the Lions Club for over 20 years. He broadcasts school sports for his local radio station, enjoying Friday Night Football the best.
Additionally, Tim has a rather unique hobby – he’s a member of a local Bluegrass band that evolved out of the shop’s breakroom. Naturally, I wanted to know all the details on this. I could hear the excitement in his voice when he recounted how this came about. He explained that he plays the banjo and that several friends began gathering on Thursdays after work to play a few songs to relieve their workday stresses. These “jam sessions” are a way to have a little fun each week by hanging out together. The small crowd it attracted started to expand, and now around 20-25 people show up to hear them play. The members fittingly named the band The LuggNutts. They play at local events and have headlined at the county fair. They conduct a concert each year during the local Bonnaroo Festival – and call it the Bonnagrass Festival. There are typically about 100 attendees at the show. They also opened for The Isaacs and Darrel Worley at a local benefit concert in May of 2021. You can find some of their performances on YouTube. The shop gets a boost in popularity as a result of the music, providing increased word-of-mouth referrals.
Tim attributes all this success to the team he’s built, the knowledge and skills he acquired from his past mentors, and his commitment to continuous learning and expanding services. He takes pride in offering outstanding customer service and providing valuable service to the community. He’s developed a managing style that is much needed in our industry by providing extensive hands-on training to new employees. Tim’s goal is to have the most qualified technicians in the area, and he is achieving that one employee at a time.
A selfless transmission rebuilder named Johnny Blackwelder turned a personal crisis into a life-changing opportunity. His willingness to mentor Tim helped him become a successful rebuilder in his own right and ultimately led to the creation of a successful new transmission company. It’s exciting to imagine what the next 30 years will bring for Tim and the Case Transmission Service team.
Have you ever wondered how shops are chosen for this column? We know there are many deserving ATRA shops out there – you might be one of them. Sometimes, we hear about shops and their unique stories through the grapevine. However, most of the time, we end up being detectives. We ask our industry contacts for recommendations, and then we contact the shops they’ve suggested.
You’re invited to tell us about an ATRA shop that you think has an interesting story to tell – maybe your own shop. There’s no cost. It just takes about an hour for a telephone interview and a visit by our photographer. We’ll do all the heavy lifting. To get the ball rolling, send an email to Ruben at rvera@atra.com.
