My 1962 Fleetwood had a "Jetaway 200" THM transmission. Had two internal torque converters (fluid couplings) along with the main converter. Believe it or not, the vanes on the internal couplings were welded in place, and one of them let go when I had the car.
I don't recall the exact details of the failure mode, suffice to say that the car wouldn't go. Here's the amazing part of this story: My next door neighbor's son owned one of the only transmission shops in the US who still worked on these at the time (1983-4). He always liked my car, and when it crapped out I was telling him about it. He pipes us and tells me to call his son, who then explained to me how they rebuilt these on a regular basis and how he had a warehouse full of parts for them. I don't recall what it cost, but it wasn't outrageous. He had the car for a week or so and after that I never had a problem with it. The real beauty of that tranny was the fluid couplings. In the "D2" range it was turning close to 1:1 I believe, meaning that my RPMs at highway speeds were pretty low. I could approach 20 MPG if I ran the whole tank on the highway. Not bad for a 390 CI V8 and a car with a wet curb weight of nearly 6,000 pounds. Dan On Jan 12, 2013, at 8:28 PM, Peter Frederick wrote: > The old Oldsmobile Hydramatic (later just plain Hydramatic) had one or two > fluid couplings and a four speed triple planetary gear set with all plate > clutches, no bands. A monster of a transmission. > > The "dual range" version had a high and a low slip coupling, selected by the > shift lever. > > Pretty advanced for 1939, but getting very long in the tooth when Cadillac > finally quit using them in the early 60's. > > The Buick Twin Turbine was another monster -- high and low slip couplings and > a single or two speed planetary gear set. The only way to avoid burning up > the fluid on a regular basis was to floor the accelerator any time you wanted > to speed up and get out of the high slip coupling as fast as possible. > Horrible milage too -- less than 10 mpg most of the time. > > Peter > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
