Hello all:
For those that think troubleshooting 40 year old British cars is a
fun way to spend some time, you should have a blast with this one...
The car - BJ8 w/overdrive - 65K miles.
The symptoms - Two weeks ago had to brake hard and heard a horrible,
very loud noise from what I thought was under the hood on the passenger side.
The noise sounded like an automatic transmission that had been thrown in park
at 60 mph. (If not for rental cars how would we know what that sounds like?)
Anyway, after stopping, the car drove and shifted fine with no other
symptoms.
I called the shop and they surmised that the engine mounts were loose
and the abrupt stop threw the drive train into the radiator and fan. Took the
car to the shop...no sign of the radiator being damaged or breached in any
way. Wanted to charge me $1600 to change suspension parts "just because."
?????
I took the car home and it drove/shifted fine. Today, while driving
along, I heard the noise while cruising in fourth gear. It only lasted about
a
second but was very loud. The car continued to shift and drive fine. I
later looked under the hood and noticed a chunk out of the transmission bell
housing, about 1 1/2" in diameter, at about the "10 o'clock" position (as
you're
facing the engine from the front - i.e. on the passenger side.) This is
baffling because if the trans decided to implode and shoot something out of
the
housing, how come it still drives and shifts fine?
Any and all thoughts and/or suggestions will be gratefully received.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Steve Gizzi
Benicia, CA
# 43007
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