I need a transmission engineer/service expert preferably employed
currently or in the past by Ford Motor Company with
experience/credentials applicable to 1999 Ford F350 diesel manual
transmissions.

History:  my truck had a 60,000-mile service done April 9th, 2002 and
was fine until July 20th, 2002 when it suddenly died.  It was towed to
a transmission shop which documented the check oil/fill plug was
completely missing (casing threads not stripped).  He asked me if I
had had the transmission serviced since he has never seen a
transmission come in with the plug completely gone.  Only about 1 QT
of oil remained in the transmission and virtually every transmission
gear was melted and the clutch assembly was also completely destroyed.
 Complicating matters is the fact that 4 days prior I had the truck
into Light Speed Lube and asked them to just change my motor oil and
drain the fuel/water separator since it had been about 3,000 miles
since April.  (These are almost exclusively weekend trips, pulling a
5,000lb trailer, average temp 50-60 degrees in the vicinity of
Anchorage Alaska.)  They changed the motor oil, drained the water from
the water fuel separator, and also checked the air filter.  Four days
later, while towing my trailer the failure occurred.  Neither the
transmission repairman nor I noted an excessive amount of oil on the
underside of the truck or on the pull trailer.   While talking with
the owner of the service shop I recorded him on tape telling me that
they “screwed up, and would make it right”.  This was after he
reviewed the Light Speed Lube receipt and talked with the transmission
repairman.  He submitted the claim to his insurance agent, who denied
the claim after making a couple telephone calls from Arkansas and now
the owner refuses to “make it right”.

I am building a case to take to the small claims court and need an
expert to:

Present expert credentials
Give me their honest opinion, and
Build a case for it being the service centers’ fault
Build a case against it being Light Speed Lubes fault
Build a case against it happening by chance
Be available should a telephone testimony be required for the court

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Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 18 Oct 2002 21:35 PDT

Hi fritzjunker...

Maybe I'm missing something... but didn't
you say you have him on tape admitting
fault? That's pretty much case closed.
I'd contact a small claims counselor &
tell them about the admission of guilt. 
I don't believe you have to "build a case" 
if he has accepted blame in a verifiable
fashion.

About your search for a service expert.
Have you posted any messages on a Ford
enthusiasts group? There are almost always
service techs in those type of groups.


[ http://www.fordtruckworld.com/ ]

[ http://www.fordf150.net/ ]  (Yes I saw it's a F350)

[ http://www.ford-trucks.com/ ]


good luck,
-AI

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Clarification of Question by fritzjunker-ga on 19 Oct 2002 13:11 PDT

Yes I recorded the conversation on a digital dictaphone I had in my
pocket when I went to talk to him.  Here's a portion of the
transcription:

Chuck:  Yeah, yeah.  All right, well let me get with my insurance
company and see what they say but obviously we’ll have to take care of
something so, ahh, have they gone ahead and ordered the parts and
everything for it?

John Nolte:  Yeah, the transmission set came in yesterday afternoon
and he thinks he might have it put back together by this afternoon.

Chuck:  OK.  All right, well, we will uh get squared up with you.

John Nolte:  All right, yea I’m sorry about that.

Chuck:  Well, I am to, you know, I don’t understand how that happened.

John Nolte:  Yep.

Chuck:  I don’t understand at all how that happened cause that’s not
usually the way it works…

John Nolte:  Right.

Chuck:  …around here.  But unfortunately I guess we are human.

John Nolte:  Yep.  We like you guys, we’ve been coming here for a
while and…

Chuck:  So anyway, we’ll get, uh, like I say, I’ve got to get with Jim
and get this squared up.  OK?

John Nolte:  OK.

Chuck:  Let’s see, I know I’ve got your phone number in here and all
that.

John Nolte:  OK.

Chuck:  So, I’ll get back with you, would Monday be all right?

John Nolte:  Yes, that would be fine.

Chuck: That would be all right?

John Nolte:  Yup.

Chuck:  Jim’s actually he’s out of town right now…

John Nolte:  OK.

Chuck: …so we can sit down and get this handled.

John Nolte:  All right.

Chuck:  But we’ll get it handled, OK.

John Nolte:  OK, thanks a lot.

Chuck:  Sorry for the inconvenience.

John Nolte:  Oh, that’s all right, sorry for bothering you with it.

Chuck:  You have every right to bother me, I mean you know, don’t,
don’t don’t you be sorry

John Nolte:  OK.

Chuck:  Don’t you be sorry you have nothing to be sorry for other than
we messed up and you’re are out of a truck for a while but I apologize
for that and we’ll get it squared away.  OK?

John Nolte:  Thanks a lot.

Chuck:  You bet.

John Nolte:  All right.  You can hang on to those I’ve got those on
email.

Chuck:  OK, thanks.


Transcribed by:
Shannon Y Moore  08:55 pm / 08-22-02

I talked with my lawyer, he's the one that recommended me having a
transmission expert.  He said the case will hinge on whether Chuck,
(the president of the automotive repair facility) had all the
information at the time he made the statement.  My lawyer said if he
represented me, his fees would exceed the $6,500 repair bill.

No, I haven't posted the question to the ford site, I'll give that a
try, thanks.

Fritz

I worked for Lincoln-Merq for about a year as a mechanic. I've worked
on heavy equipment for many years, as I had my own excavating company.
I've owned 2 Fords, both manual trans. This is a first I've ever heard
of the trans. fill plug missing. I'd get an attorney, if you get an
expert, you are going to be spending a lot of extra money for nothing.
You can search for service bulletins, from Ford, about the fill plugs.
You can also ask some Ford mechanics, from another town, btw, if
they've ever heard of the problem. You may be able to find an attorney
who knows autos, or worked as a mechanic. Good luck.