transmission suggestions?

[jayhawkjesse33]

Well it seems as if Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head once again. Last Friday I ordered new wheels and scheduled my appointment at the interior shop to have it redone...the wheels are, I mean WERE supposed to be here tomorrow, but now its at least another week and a half. So I was out driving this past weekend and noticed that my transmission was revving pretty high on the RPMs before it would shift gears. Its also been leaking fluid as well. So I took it by the best place in town yesterday and had them take a look at it. I went by there this morning and got the news....$1900 to do a rebuild w/ a 3 year warranty. YIKES. Plus he was 'nice enough' to give me the following other news: that my carrier bearing is shot and about to fall off the car.

Any suggestions on how to approach this situation?

[73Manta72gt]

there is a transmission for sale in the classified for $50 on this site.

[opeletti75]

i have a good auto trans for 50.00 it came out of a car that was owned by an old lady for 100.000 miles and then iput 50.000 miles on it and had it serficed when i owned it still shifted great and worked very well when i took it out

[jvandyke]

Convert it to a manual. Much more fun to drive. JMTCW

[Phoenix]

4-speeds are plentiful and it's a bolt on swap. The hardest thing is switching the pedals. There's already the hole in the firewall to bring the clutch cable through.

If your going to stay with a Auto, just pick another up from someone here. My uncle has always told me that the autos are specific and something comes out on one side on a GT and the opposite side on a Manta/Ascona.

[GTJIM]

IMHO (that is for AnonyD!) The Opel GT auto trans is a standard GM TH180 gearbox as used in many Suzukis and other GM cars (including tens of thousands of Aussie Holdens). A full Master Rebuild Kit goes for around $200 to $300 and it should take a competent trans rebulider about 6 to 8 hours to fully rebuild one ... I guess $1,900 - $300 = $1,600 for rebuilding one - and guaranteeing it for 3 yrs is a pretty good hourly rate ....
Go find a good used GT auto trans and save yourself $1,800 .... IMHO

LOTS of rebuilders see "OPEL" and the dollar signs light up in their eyes - mainly because they want to cover themselves for working on something a bit unusual - once again IMHO

[oldopelguy]

Originally Posted by Phoenix My uncle has always told me that the autos are specific and something comes out on one side on a GT and the opposite side on a Manta/Ascona.

On the Kadett and Manta the shifter is on the driver's side of the trans, but on the GT the headlight lever got in the way so the shifter comes out on the other side.

[Gary]

Originally Posted by jayhawkjesse33 Well it seems as if Murphy's Law has reared its ugly head once again. Last Friday I ordered new wheels and scheduled my appointment at the interior shop to have it redone...the wheels are, I mean WERE supposed to be here tomorrow, but now its at least another week and a half. So I was out driving this past weekend and noticed that my transmission was revving pretty high on the RPMs before it would shift gears. Its also been leaking fluid as well. So I took it by the best place in town yesterday and had them take a look at it. I went by there this morning and got the news....$1900 to do a rebuild w/ a 3 year warranty. YIKES. Plus he was 'nice enough' to give me the following other news: that my carrier bearing is shot and about to fall off the car. Any suggestions on how to approach this situation?

Double check your fluid level. If ok, pick up a filter kit from your local autoparts store (GM TH180 trans ~$12.00) and change it and the fluid. Low fluid level caused the same symptoms in both my wagon and Senator.

Back when I had my garage, one of my customers daughters sold me her Pinto wagon cheap because the auto trans was slipping badly and "needed rebuilding". I drove it to the same trans shop that she had been to. The guy came out, popped the hood and added 1 1/2 quarts of ATF. Never had another trans problem with it.

My take is that many trans shops play on the "mystery" of an automatic trans and always play up the worst case. The standard line in their pitch was "We can fix it for $xxx or we can completely rebuild it for $xxx" which was typically a few hundred more than the "fix".

[baz]

Originally Posted by GTJIM IMHO (that is for AnonyD!).... IMHO once again IMHO

ROFLMAO

[jayhawkjesse33]

Just thought I'd fill you all in with an update to the saga. I was finally able to get my car in to the transmission shop today and left it there for them to take a look. mind you, this is the original shop that rebuilt the tranny when i bought the car....not the crew that wanted 1900 bucks to fix it. My crew found that the speedo cable was loose and leaking and that the transmission line had somehow gotten knocked loose and was hitting the frame and rubbing on a few other spots on the car. So they replaced the gaskets on the tranny, reattached the speedo cable correctly and straightened the lines out and reattched the lines correctly....all for a grand total of ZERO dollars. Much better than 1900 bucks if you ask me. According to my dad, who drove it to and from the shop for me, he said it ran freat and was causing no problems at all. So now its back at the interior shop getting its new stuff put in...we took it to the shop today with only 1 seat in it and no door panels or rear tray cover...they had already gotten started on the interior before the trans shop could get us in. Good times...

[gt crazy]

The best suggestion is BE CAREFUL and put a 4-speed in. would be a 2 day project and this is coming from a 16 year old. So if i can do it you can do it