Fluid Drive Resealed! New Vendor Info

[Bryan G]

Background: when I first brought my '49 back to life (wow, almost 2 years ago!) I found it would barely move. It took quite a bit of hydraulic fluid to get the Fluid Drive up to the fill line; okay, I hoped, maybe just a real slow leak (after all, the car had sat for nearly 20 years.) Well, gradually I was finding it required topping off more and more often. I could feel the slippage, and see the puddles. Strangers would stop me and parking lots and point out the fluid running out from underneath  Earlier this year I ran to get pizza and could tell it was due for its now weekly (!) top-off. Well, I did something I knew I should never do: dropped the fill-plug down inside the housing. I crawled underneath, knowing the challenge I'd have getting it out...and that's when I realized that the quart of fluid I'd just poured in was running out just as fast. Ugh. It was time for action.

 

I'd said, when it arrived at my house the first time, that it wouldn't leave on a rollback...that I'd drive it away. I did make an exception on getting it to my friend's garage. (I tried running it around the block with a homemade fill plug, but it was none too happy.) I'm blessed to have a mechanic I can con into doing these type of things, but I knew his limits would be getting the Fluid Drive out and then reinstalling it. He did ask around, to see if he could find someone with the tools/experience to reseal a unit, but without success. I knew that Bernbaum and at least one other vendor are advertising resealing at a cost of $1250+shipping (or more.) Could the old cheapskate here get by for less? I put some ads out hoping to come up with a recently resealed unit that someone might have but all I found were a couple used assemblies. I'd hate to go through all this trouble only to find a problem with the replacement. One thing my string of ads did was bring a message from a guy letting me know his boss might be able to help. And, he was right.

 

The place is called Gaslite Garage in Holbrook, NY. I gave them a call and the shop owner let me know that he had resealed several of these, and I could tell he was familiar with them (including the variations in seals over the years.) I forgave him for insisting on calling it a torque converter! I shipped the unit to him and turnaround was perhaps 2-1/2 weeks, in line with the other vendors. Now, Bernbaum says they will convert older units (like mine) to the newer (and preferred seals) but Gaslite felt sticking with the original type was proper. He let me know that someone, in the past (probably the 90s) had fiddled with it before, trying to seal up the leak with some sort of silicone. Among other things he found that the "accordion" seal was cracked. After he had it together he filled with fluid and let it sit at least overnight to check for leaks, then drained it and shipped it to my mechanic. My bill for what Gaslite did was around $850, which included the return shipping. 

 

When I first filled the unit the year before last I decided to buy a 5 gallon pail of AW32 hydraulic fluid rather than special ordering the Mobil Light Circulating Oil. Since I was down to 1-1/2 gallons of the other stuff (what, you didn't believe me when I said it leaked a lot???) I broke down and ordered the good stuff. The results? So far, so good! I've had the car back maybe 2 weeks and have probably driven it close to 200 miles so far. Monday I had to take the dog to a specialist almost 90 minutes away. Of course, I took the Chrysler, and it performed great. The mechanic wasn't sure if he topped it off right, as he chose to fill it off the car. I told him to imagine about the 2-o'clock position. He took it for a test drive and mentioned a slipping; it did the same thing to me once or twice on hard acceleration but it didn't feel like the drive, but the clutch. That was replaced last year (of course, I should have done the drive at that time.) It feels like that did; pretty sure all that some of all that oil found its way where I didn't want it. It hasn't acted up in the last 100-150 miles, so maybe it just needed to "burn off". 

 

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience, and offer my recommendation to Gaslite, 631-738-7712.

[Doug&Deb]

Good to know. Thanks for the info!