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Jpony56hd · 12-26-2015, 01:56 PM

We left Everett, Wa. two weeks ago, destination Southern California Salton Sea area. 1988 Gulfstream 32' and Geo-Tracker tow vehicle, We did a lot of interior work and I built a Killer engine as covered in previous post. We left in heavy rain and Crazy Seattle drivers. And THEN. Blew the torque converter up and lost the alternator outside of Longview, Wa. Stayed in an RV Park next to the river one nite waiting to get into a transmission shop. It was suppose to just take a day and we were going to stay in the RV park that nite, They didn't get it done so we stayed in the rv at the shop. Lucky break the Rv park flooded out completely in the middle of the nite. Left the next day and made it over the mountains in a snow storm into Northern California, blew a heater hose, fixed it, and then Blew up the rest of the Transmission up around the Sacramento area. Got it re-built along with replacing the starter and solenoid (too much engine for the starter and the old transmission) Should have replaced both during the re-build. Made the rest of the trip without any more problems. Took 10days to do a 3-4 day trip. Oh well made it Alive and Well, also cleared the passes @ 45-50 mph.

CaptainGeezer · 12-26-2015, 02:11 PM

Hope the rest of your trip is calm and enjoyable.

beamisl · 12-27-2015, 07:28 AM

Wow Richard,

Sure hope the rest of your trip is fun and uneventful. Keep safe

bap · 12-27-2015, 07:56 AM

now thats an adventure...soo very lucky you didnt stay another night in that park..
glad to know you made it safe and sound,,and to know you upgraded the trans and starter to match that power house engine ya got there..all should be fine now..
...have a great stay and enjoy...
...jeff

Geocritter · 12-27-2015, 08:04 AM

Jpony, how many miles do you have on your RV? I'm asking because I'm curious about the transmission problems you had.

Steve

F4Gary · 12-27-2015, 08:10 AM

Hindsight is always 20/20. Should of done the tranny too while the engine was out.

JohnBoyToo · 12-27-2015, 08:23 AM

Sounds like not a lot of fun....
but this happened last night at an rv park here in DFW area of Garland, so it's all relative

Jpony56hd · 12-27-2015, 10:55 AM

The transmission had around 60K on it and worked great. I did know better but I had spent more on the engine than intended and convinced myself that I could get away with using it. I had dropped the pan and found just a little bit of clutch dust, crossed my fingers and went with a filter and fluid change with some Lucas Additive. Under normal conditions that would have been good, But going from an 160hp emission engine to 400hp (450hp with the Water/Methanol system engaged) was just Too Much for it. I would have had the transmission rebuilt at the first location, but one rebuilder was on vacation and the other couldn't get there because of the flooding, leaving Only the two remove & replace guys, so I had just the converter replaced.

Geocritter · 12-27-2015, 11:24 AM

Thanks, I'm a full-timer and I was interested because I recently replaced the FI 460 V8 engine in my 1994 HR and it has about 62K on it. However, other than adding Hedman Headers I left everything stock, which means that my FI 245hp engine, probably bumped 10% with the headers is essentially stock. Like you I would've loved to have replaced the transmission and TC but ran out of money. As it was I installed a new water pump, new hoses, wires, FI components and had the alternator rebuilt just so at least the engine would be reliable. There's probably a rebuilt transmission looming in my not-to-distant future as well.

Thanks again.

Steve