Quote Originally Posted by Taily View Post
The cluster and layshaft (and the needles rollers) used to start losing their case hardening after about 100K - normal. On the other side of that I have seen Trimatics go for over 140,000 miles (220,000+km) without a rebuild as long at they were serviced regularly and not driven hard all the time. Thrash something (standard) and you'll break it, it is as simple as that. I can't imaging your father was easy on it or even had the auto serviced for it to "break" that quickly. A well built trimatic is well capable of handling 350-400hp very reliably and for a very long time.

No trimatic was ever replaced by a TH350 under warranty in a GMH dealership... Steve Dunne-Contant would have rejected the claim outright. Different engine blocks for starters. It wont fit, the selectors are all different, the tailshaft is different, the speedo drives are most probably different, etc etc. So they changed the engine as well? I doubt that very, very much. If it was done at all it would have been a full retail job, or probably done external to the dealership by your old man.
Agree. Plus there was no 1979 Holden fitted with a 308 and trimatic. The last would have beem an auto SLR5000 or LX SS 308 about 7/77. There wasn't another until about 11/81 (WB Statesman or VH).
Trimatics are great boxes if rebuilt properly and serviced. If I ever have an auto standard 308 HQ-WB tonner ever again for towing i'll use a VL trimatic unless the 308 is a TH pattern then i'd use a TH400. TH350 were a terrble box when first used by GMH, ask Dr Terry about them. In basically standard form a trimatic is actually a stronger box, and both can be built to handle decent hp too. The trimatic got its bad name in HT and HG when it was just an old cable kickdown TH180, GMH redesigned them for the HQ and LJ.