Who makes the best transmission?

[xfordtdm]

Originally Posted by taxgod4u

any worries about just ordering a BTS tranny and mailing in your old one as a core after the swap??

No worries just a lot more cost. $600 for shipping the tranny and your core plus paying a local indy to put it in for you if you can't do it yourself.

[Matt0987]

If you are in the San Francisco Bay area contact;

Santa Clara Truck Wreckers

I, and many others, have found Santa Clara Truck Wreckers as very reasonable in their cost, very knowledgeable about what they do, and generally a nice company to deal with.

They do rear ends, transmissions, transfer cases, front axles, drivelines and steering boxes.

I had to have a couple of rear ends rebuilt (GM of course) and they were very good.

No, I do not have any connection with them except as a customer.

[T-jet]

I live in Denver, CO and the ONLY fellow I'll take ANY of my vehicles to is Neal Rhodes. He lives in Parker, CO and does all his own work on ANYTHING. He just checked out my newly acquired '02 F-250 7.3 (all was well), also rebuild the C4 in my wife's '65 fastback.
He also drag races a couple of Ford's in Stock & Super Stock at Bandimere and makes a C4 live behind a 390. His Fairlane pulls the front wheels - awesome sight.
You can't go wrong with Neal for any application: stock, towing or racing - No kidding. He also does most any other work on vehicles as well. Nice guy too.

Neal Rhodes 303-549-6178

[taxgod4u]

Originally Posted by Matt0987

If you are in the San Francisco Bay area contact;

Santa Clara Truck Wreckers

I

good to hear, I am about 3 miles from them! My concern was that perhaps my tranny case or some such thing may have been matched to the engine. What do you guess it would cost to have the tranny swapped if I showed up with a BTS?

[Matt0987]

Originally Posted by taxgod4u

good to hear, I am about 3 miles from them! My concern was that perhaps my tranny case or some such thing may have been matched to the engine. What do you guess it would cost to have the tranny swapped if I showed up with a BTS?

You'll have to ask them.

[GWR]

Originally Posted by caryt

then why didn't you tell us about them...

I guess I stand corrected. BTS and John Wood are the only ones that know how to machine the pressure plates to add extra clutches, eliminate the thrust washers, machine the center support, modify the pump and install shift kits. Your absolutely right, no one else on the planet knows how to do this stuff.

[415_dezl]

Originally Posted by saeiden

Man you guys suck!! Do you know what this thread has done to me the past three days??? Let's just say I haven't be going to bed early (note the time of this post). Throughout the day I had to restrain myself from reading more so I could focus on the things I "needed" to get done.
I feel like I completed a mission...oh, yah that's right, I did!! I finished reading this thread. Good work boyz, now I don't know what to do. I think I need counseling for BTS vs. JW debate withdrawal syndrome.
Man, I can't count how many times I laughed while reading this thing
I agree 415_Dezl, TDS needed a little something to stir things up, way to go; thanks

I probably could have rebuilt my own tranny with the amount of time I spent reading this whole thread. But now I know that would be the dumbest thing I could do. The smartest thing I could when I decide to have my tranny rebuilt is leave St.Paul, MN and drive down HWY35 right past BTS on my way to SoCal and have John Wood rebuild my tranny. I figure leaving here in the middle of January would be a good time to go and would show how smart I am, and the extra $900 I spend in fuel to get there and back should give me more pull later when I enter this debate later as a JW'er!! I'm sure this thread will still be going by then. Let's hope so anyway.

Cheers,

saeiden

Come on down, it's usually in the 70's or 80's here in january, espeically where John's shop is located.

[DZacc]

Originally Posted by T-jet

I live in Denver, CO and the ONLY fellow I'll take ANY of my vehicles to is Neal Rhodes. He lives in Parker, CO and does all his own work on ANYTHING. He just checked out my newly acquired '02 F-250 7.3 (all was well), also rebuild the C4 in my wife's '65 fastback.
He also drag races a couple of Ford's in Stock & Super Stock at Bandimere and makes a C4 live behind a 390. His Fairlane pulls the front wheels - awesome sight.
You can't go wrong with Neal for any application: stock, towing or racing - No kidding. He also does most any other work on vehicles as well. Nice guy too.

Neal Rhodes 303-549-6178

That's like going to a general practice doctor for brain surgery. I don't doubt he knows gassers and how to make them go fast and live long but if you put one of these transmissions in front of him, the assembly manual will surely come out. BTS and JW are specilasts and the finished product demonstrates this every time you drop it in drive. Many of the trucks on this site have more torque than the wheel standing Fairlane and our transmissions have to live through daily towing, stop and go driving, power braking at the drag strip, and a couple hundred thousand miles of durability. I have no personal experience with JW but will shout the praises of BTS and Brians customer service until I die because I experienced it first hand.
I'm not taking anything away from Neal Rhodes at all. I'm sure he knows his stuff but you are driving a diesel which is a different animal altogether. Good mechanics are hard to find. If the occasion arises, I'll keep Niel in mind to work on my car.

[Scott52575]

Here is my two cents

I have a babied 60,000 miled 2001 powerstroke ....pulled maybe 4 trailers in its life none recently I just got a call from the tranny shop in cincinnati telling me the diode was fragged. Bought used in 2004 with 22,000 miles on it.



1. All Ford dealers in town wanted 3500.00 to swap out for a JASPER remanufactered tranny don't let people tell you they are using something else I have a mechanic buddy at ford who confirmed this. Also the price for the dealer to rebuild is 400.00 less and the warranty is 12 month/12,000 look at the jasper site their warranty is 3 yr/100,000 humm a coincidence I think not.

Since Ford cuased this through piss poor design and then not standing behind the tranny with a recall they get no more of my money ever period.

2. The shop I took it to a 2 man operation older guy knew his stuff I talked to a tech who works for WIT tranny parts and he gave me detailed information on the intrernals which let me know my guy knew his stuff.

He rebuilt the tranny with a new triple disk convrter and updated parts for 1900.00 all in a very good deal a billet converter !

John woods and BTS seem to get cudos and I would have liked to go with either but they are just too expensive in these hard times which seem to be getting harder ...but hey not fualting them just money is tight!

my truck seems to get 15 mpg with a 3.73 stock tires and auto anybody know a good chip or programmer which can put me up in the 19 or 20 mpg range or am I just pipe dreaming.

also I have a stock exhuast what can I do to make my truck sound better more like a diesel less clackity clack....??? that doesn't cost a fortune???

[Cavitation]

ZF 6 Speed manual. No question there, bullet proof. No mods needed, no filters to replace, no inevitable leaks to worry about...a true lifetime transmission.

[HighwayPrisoner]

Originally Posted by Cavitation

ZF 6 Speed manual. No question there, bullet proof. No mods needed, no filters to replace, no inevitable leaks to worry about...a true lifetime transmission.

Yada, yada, yada. Don't forget that "lifetime clutch". I had the 5 speed manuel in my 94 F350 DI, it sure was not a "lifetime tranny, and clutch". I fabricated a tranny cooler for the hand shaker, and used synthetic atf, and it still had to have bearings twice, one South Bend clutch, and a slave cylinder. An E4OD, or 4R100 built by BTS is as trouble free as it gets. One "hand shaker" behind a PSD was enough for me. My BTS tranny has 437,000 miles on it as of today. No leaks, no problems, and works as good today, as the day it was installed. One disadvantage to an automatic equipped PSD, if there is a conception on the back seat, the child might grow up to be a shiftless bastard.

[Matt0987]

Originally Posted by Scott52575

Here is my two cents

I have a babied 60,000 miled 2001 powerstroke ....pulled maybe 4 trailers in its life none recently I just got a call from the tranny shop in cincinnati telling me the diode was fragged. Bought used in 2004 with 22,000 miles on it.



1. All Ford dealers in town wanted 3500.00 to swap out for a JASPER remanufactered tranny don't let people tell you they are using something else I have a mechanic buddy at ford who confirmed this. Also the price for the dealer to rebuild is 400.00 less and the warranty is 12 month/12,000 look at the jasper site their warranty is 3 yr/100,000 humm a coincidence I think not.

Since Ford cuased this through piss poor design and then not standing behind the tranny with a recall they get no more of my money ever period.

2. The shop I took it to a 2 man operation older guy knew his stuff I talked to a tech who works for WIT tranny parts and he gave me detailed information on the intrernals which let me know my guy knew his stuff.

He rebuilt the tranny with a new triple disk convrter and updated parts for 1900.00 all in a very good deal a billet converter !

John woods and BTS seem to get cudos and I would have liked to go with either but they are just too expensive in these hard times which seem to be getting harder ...but hey not fualting them just money is tight!

my truck seems to get 15 mpg with a 3.73 stock tires and auto anybody know a good chip or programmer which can put me up in the 19 or 20 mpg range or am I just pipe dreaming.

also I have a stock exhuast what can I do to make my truck sound better more like a diesel less clackity clack....??? that doesn't cost a fortune???

Are you saying that you get 15mpg on the hiway? Or around town? Is that the computer on the ceiling telling you this? Or your own, confirmed with paper and pencil, number?

[T-jet]

Originally Posted by DZacc

That's like going to a general practice doctor for brain surgery. I don't doubt he knows gassers and how to make them go fast and live long but if you put one of these transmissions in front of him, the assembly manual will surely come out. BTS and JW are specilasts and the finished product demonstrates this every time you drop it in drive. Many of the trucks on this site have more torque than the wheel standing Fairlane and our transmissions have to live through daily towing, stop and go driving, power braking at the drag strip, and a couple hundred thousand miles of durability. I have no personal experience with JW but will shout the praises of BTS and Brians customer service until I die because I experienced it first hand.
I'm not taking anything away from Neal Rhodes at all. I'm sure he knows his stuff but you are driving a diesel which is a different animal altogether. Good mechanics are hard to find. If the occasion arises, I'll keep Niel in mind to work on my car.

Yep - Neal is great. However he knows as much about heavy duty towing trucks & diesels as he does about drag racing. I wouldn't hesitate giving him anything to rebuild. Last time I visited him he had a huge dually diesel up on his lift.
This site is great - the info I've gathered so far in such a short amount of time is fantastic. Doing the door mod seal this weekend...

[Cavitation]

Originally Posted by HighwayPrisoner

Yada, yada, yada. Don't forget that "lifetime clutch". I had the 5 speed manuel in my 94 F350 DI, it sure was not a "lifetime tranny, and clutch". I fabricated a tranny cooler for the hand shaker, and used synthetic atf, and it still had to have bearings twice, one South Bend clutch, and a slave cylinder. An E4OD, or 4R100 built by BTS is as trouble free as it gets. One "hand shaker" behind a PSD was enough for me. My BTS tranny has 437,000 miles on it as of today. No leaks, no problems, and works as good today, as the day it was installed. One disadvantage to an automatic equipped PSD, if there is a conception on the back seat, the child might grow up to be a shiftless bastard.

So true on the shiftless bastard! The trans I was referring to is the ZF manufactured 6 Speed which is a totally different design than an older 1994 manufactured 5-speed model. 5 spd trans is much smaller, less cooling/fluid capacity, not a heavy duty trans like the ZF 6. You definately won't find anyone doing the repairs your 5 spd required (bearings and internals)with a maintained ZF 6. Clutches are a piece of cake and are an afternoon job for most folks. Mine went 100K and parts cost for everything: $500.00. You definately won't find any commercial diesel trucks or semis set up with a slush box. The reason is the overall cost is too high and longevity too short. You can upgrade and build up an auto to the point of being very durable. However, the cost of doing so is very high as those of us previous and current auto owners will confirm, you still need to pay close attention to trans temps and who is doing the work for you.

[415_dezl]

Cavitation , yeah, but who wants to drive in stop and go traffic with a hand shaker.