Trip to the country

[Vombil]

I took a leisurely drive down the end of the freeway today to scope a licensed and driving HJ ute. I turned up to find that the only part of it that was HJ was the chassis and HJ letters on the rego paper! The rest was dinky di 1981 WB. Anyways i thought pg13 it, im here and i didnt drive all this way to leave empty handed. So i loaded the old beast on the trailer and headed home with the temp gauge soaring and the tranny in the VS near on fire.

Who said $350 doesn't buy you anything these days!?012.jpg

[HK1837]

Good wrecker at that money as a minimum.

Have you got an external tranny cooler on the 4L60E? If you don't you need it or you'll need a new box soon. Those 4L60E boxes won't survive too long towing without one, plus Valvoline maxlife fluid too if you can.

[playwme]

Bargain. I've seen people asking more than that for a pair of headlights.

[Vombil]

Good wrecker at that money as a minimum.

Have you got an external tranny cooler on the 4L60E? If you don't you need it or you'll need a new box soon. Those 4L60E boxes won't survive too long towing without one, plus Valvoline maxlife fluid too if you can.

Just went out front - no cooler! Im spewing i thought it had one. I just serviced the box with this crud that my mate buys in from the arabs. He sells it for $4 a litre. I reckon id be better putting water in it! As soon as id changed the oil the thing started flaring when kicking down a gear. Some dude at the tranny shops thinks a servo is knackered but it seems like the timing is just too suss. I reckon ill put some of that maxlife in there and see what gives.

I thought id done some serious damage to the tranny @ 100kmph for an hour so when i got into the city i started driving it with the gears... seemed to be putting it through a lot less punishment. As soon as the trailer and car came off it went back to normal. nice up shifts etc. Thing that worries me is that the tow ball looks well used so the tranny has probably been through hell!

[HK1837]

You may even be able to buy a complete external tranny cooler kit for it still, from Holden or an external source. For the maxlife fluid, you need to find a place that can do a powerflush of the old fluid and put maxlife in. It will cost about $150 or so but worth it. The oil runs much cooler than the normal mineral version. The thing that can kill them is towing in 4th gear, where the torque converter keeps locking in and out. I'd have a look at it pretty quickly if I were you.

[Vombil]

yep, thats what was happening. On and off with the lock up. I ended up just putting it in 3rd on the freeway for a while but then the temp guage crept up. It feels fine now but ive heard that they will just let go whenever. Is there any point in fitting the tranny cooler if im not doing anymore towing with it? I dont trust any workshops to put in the maxlife. Tranny blokes over here are super sketchy. Like the pun? hahaha

[HK1837]

A local car dealer should have a flush setup. Newcastle Mazda did my Cross8 and CV8.