Damn Type-44 drivetrains! Not another problem?!

[William Ng]

Fellow Listers!
	Well, I'm now fully initiated into what it means to be a Type44 owner.
:-(

Since buying an '90 200tq earlier this year, I haven't really had a chance 
to really dig into correcting/diagnosing problems I've discovered until 
this holiday weekend.
Damn, what a mess...

I had a grinding noise from the rear, that the previous owner's boyfriend, 
who is a mechanic at Wolfsburg West in VT, claimed was the wheel bearing.
	Well, I guess there's no integrity from mechanics...he lied, it turned out 
to be the rear differential. The only thing I could find was that it was 
low about 1/2 quart of GL-5 gear lube. Rest must have leaked out the seals. 
Diff is a goner.

My right rear shock snapped off at its base. I replaced both sides with 
Boge Turbogas units. What a rusty mess underneath!!

Rear brake components are completely rusted solid. No hope there. New 
calipers, cables, rotors needed.

Looks like all my rear and front subframe bushings are shot to hell. Any 
aftermarket replacement bushings? Poly?

Front brakes have 3 of 4 brake caliper pins seized by rust. I couldn't even 
take a caliper off to slide in new pads.Are these replaceable or new G60's 
and brackets needed?

At least I discovered my water leak problem in my interior. PO removed a 
grommet near the base of the hood fusebox to run a set of fog light wires, 
and rain water was washing down there like a tub drain.
:-P

To top it all off......

I drained and filled the tranny with 3 quarts of Redline MT90 GL-4. Hearing 
the car only required 2.7 qts, I only had 3 qts on hand. Turns out 3 qts 
never caused the excess to spill out the filler hole to indicate 'full'. 
Hmmmm, this tranny now takes 3.4 qts!!!
I had to drive the car back to Boston on 3 qts. Thinking that given the 
volume inside the tranny and center diff, 0.4 qt spread across that area 
wouldn't amount to much height difference in fluid level. And since the 
tranny used to run on 2.7qts, I thought I had a reasonable margin of safety 
here.
	Well....
200 miles later, I notice a new noise coming from the car. From 1k on up in 
rpms, there's a horrible sounding hollow screeching coming from the 
tranny!!!! With the clutch pushed in, the sound disappears. The car shifts 
fine, drives fines, and the clutch engages fine. Just the horrible 
expensive sounding noise whenever the tranny is spinning. I drove slowly 
the rest of the way into Boston. The worst case scenerio that played in my 
head was the input shaft bearing had seized and is spinning in the case.
Could this have happened, with what I had done?

I'm seriously thinking of selling her now. Too bad, the Lago Blue body is 
in perfect shape.

Thanks,
Will


--
Regards,
Will
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William Ng...........willng at netzero.net...........Boston, MA USA
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"Never knock on death's door, ring the doorbell and run away..."
"he just hates that."
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