The Money Pit

I recently baught a 700r4 transmission from BowTie Overdrive,and installed it myself.When the time came for calling in the test TV pressures,the tech,and his supervisor gave me the scare that by not having my transmission cooling lines plumbed through the radiator,the warranty would not be honored.
Plagued with bad luck,I decided to at least install a temp gauge to monitor the trans.Of course the sending unit would not fit the transmission,and at this stage the pan was on,fluid full,and only needed the exhaust installed before I could drive it. I drove it to the muffler shop,and it felt fine,except for the delayed shifting,compared to the TH350 it replaced.
I babied the trans for the first week,with the intention of getting the fluid and filter changed,and while it was at the shop,having the pan modified to accept the tranny temp sender.A few days prior to the scheduled fluid change,I trounced on it,and hurt the transmission in Drive. The trans felt like it skipped right into neutral as the engine tached 6500 rpms.
So I figure I'm in touble with BowTie already,and since I already had the scheduled fluid change with a local transmission shop,I decided to let the transmission guy give my installation a look over.
As I expected,he found no flaw with my installation,no debri or metal chunks in the pan,and he also feels the cooling system I have is adequit for what would be required.He volunteered to give BowTie a call on my behalf(knowing the full details of the warranty) and they ran him though all kinds of hoops trying this and that.Finally they agreed there may be a warranty claim,as nothing I did could have possibly caused what happened to the trans.
I have not spoken yet to BowTie since,but the transmission shop guy told me they said the transmission would have to be shipped both to and from and my expense,and IF they determine the fault was theirs,they'd fix it.If they determined it was my fault,I'd have to pay for the repairs.

I read this as,"YOU WILL PAY NO MATTER WHAT",and if that's the case,why spend the money in shipping if I can find a local performance shop to fix it?

This being said,has anyone else had this kind of treatment from BowTie?
Also does anyone know of a local Pa. transmission shop that would have the experience to rebuild or repair a transmission like this?The transmission must be bulletproof to 600 hp,stock will not do it. :mad

joshs78sleeper

I just recently installed the bowtie 700r4 as well. I have not been able to drive it yet unfortunately because my driveshaft company cut the driveshaft too short. I just replaced the engine and tranny and still cant drive it! :mad

What I can say though is that steve from BTO made it very clear from the beginning the stipulations to getting the warranty. He made it very clear that if the lines did not go through the stock radiator that the warranty would not be good. He did tell me that out of 1400 trannys sold last year not one warranty was withheld. However, you have to follow his stipulations exactly to get the warranty. At first the guy who was helping me out with my engine/tranny installation was like "what the hell is all this" when he read steves 20 pages of instructions, but after reading realized that BTO is just trying to protect theirs and the customers investment.

With that being said, I can understand why steve might be **** about the warranty. Although I understand from your point of view. Especially if you have an aftermarket radiator with a tranny cooler or whatever. Anyways...Hopefully steve will still take care of you, and I hope I dont have any thing happen with mine too, but, next time, play the game and at least follow the directions or tell them you did! :nono:

Let us know how it goes.

The Money Pit

I have a flaw in that I'm completely honest with people,even if I know the truth can result in a unfaverable result on my behalf. When I ordered the transmission I told BTO it was going up against 500hp,and that the car had an aftermarket radiator. I even gave them the link to my web site so they could see it.
I'm still too angry to call and try to resolve this,and had no intention of the transmission shop to be my spokeman. He,as a profesional builder,offered to try to resolve the problem,and through talking with BTO became quite annoyed with their antics. He told me his impression was that BTO was trying to run him through so many hoops,that he'd get tired of calling.And he did.

I don't know what I'll do just yet,but my thaughts are leaning towards a local transmission shop that will work on modified 700r4's.

FNG

sorry to hear that. bto isnt too far from where i live so i was going to take my car down their shop and have them install it. a 200 not a 700. please keep us informed as to what happens. i was planning on them doing the install for the simple reason that they would pretty much have to stand behind it. expensive around 2100 bux. but they cant say it wasnt installed properly. good luck man, and let us know what happens. regards, fng

WESCH

Hello

That's what the tax man likes to hear. :cool:
Sorry.
Gunther :seeya

dman535

What exactically happend when the trans let go ? A cooling issue is not going to manifest itself as an instant failure on a short cruise. I had a front pump fail on my 700r4 and it was just a quick snap and then nothing.

I had all my trans stuff done locally, the only thing I have from BTO is the adapter plate to attached to stock cross-member.

The Money Pit

The failure was the result of one hard upshift from second into drive at around 5500 rpms. I also don't feel that the cooling system had anything to do with the damage.There is now a fairly pronounced clunk when the transmission shifts into drive,that previously was not present.

dman535

I have done several WOT 2nd-3rd gear shift, I even get a chirp from the tires. I think something broke or cracked inside the transmission.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/derek....gstriprun2.wmv

That was a dragstrip run on my first 700r4. You can hear the mushy 2-3 shift, I was loosing a 3rd gear clutch pack. That is the type of failure that I would think you would see from a cooling/heat failure. Not an instantaneous on shift failure.

page62

What "Level" of transmission did you get? I have a Level 2 200-4R mated to a mostly stock L82. It gets cooled only by the radiator. But I only put about 5K miles/year on the car.

Basically, the tranny functions great. It shifts very firmly. But I have had some problems. I had to have the entire tranny resealed :confused: and the speedo cable outlet still leaks. And it turns out the TV cable wasn't letting the secondaries open fully, despite the TV Made EZ setup. I'm still working on that one...

73-454VET

My 700R4 has been leaking since day one. All instructions followed and it does function properly was leaking fluid. Very poor quality control. 73 Corvette 454.




QUOTE=The Money Pit;1544462249]I recently baught a 700r4 transmission from BowTie Overdrive,and installed it myself.When the time came for calling in the test TV pressures,the tech,and his supervisor gave me the scare that by not having my transmission cooling lines plumbed through the radiator,the warranty would not be honored.
Plagued with bad luck,I decided to at least install a temp gauge to monitor the trans.Of course the sending unit would not fit the transmission,and at this stage the pan was on,fluid full,and only needed the exhaust installed before I could drive it. I drove it to the muffler shop,and it felt fine,except for the delayed shifting,compared to the TH350 it replaced.
I babied the trans for the first week,with the intention of getting the fluid and filter changed,and while it was at the shop,having the pan modified to accept the tranny temp sender.A few days prior to the scheduled fluid change,I trounced on it,and hurt the transmission in Drive. The trans felt like it skipped right into neutral as the engine tached 6500 rpms.
So I figure I'm in touble with BowTie already,and since I already had the scheduled fluid change with a local transmission shop,I decided to let the transmission guy give my installation a look over.
As I expected,he found no flaw with my installation,no debri or metal chunks in the pan,and he also feels the cooling system I have is adequit for what would be required.He volunteered to give BowTie a call on my behalf(knowing the full details of the warranty) and they ran him though all kinds of hoops trying this and that.Finally they agreed there may be a warranty claim,as nothing I did could have possibly caused what happened to the trans.
I have not spoken yet to BowTie since,but the transmission shop guy told me they said the transmission would have to be shipped both to and from and my expense,and IF they determine the fault was theirs,they'd fix it.If they determined it was my fault,I'd have to pay for the repairs.

I read this as,"YOU WILL PAY NO MATTER WHAT",and if that's the case,why spend the money in shipping if I can find a local performance shop to fix it?

This being said,has anyone else had this kind of treatment from BowTie?
Also does anyone know of a local Pa. transmission shop that would have the experience to rebuild or repair a transmission like this?The transmission must be bulletproof to 600 hp,stock will not do it. :mad[/QUOTE]

PBF777

Yes, this is a typical experience with most any of the mail-order auto-transmission suppliers, and why we have always cringed any time we sold any of them!

Scott.

Jebbysan

This is a 20 year old thread.....this may be a record!
It is very easy to do and I myself have posted to old threads.......just keep an eye out for the date.....

Jebby

eboggs_jkvl

Necro thread of 20 years. New thread please!