Diagnosis...finally!!
Well, my tranny troubles have concluded...for a mere $2500. I picked up my Ex with a freshly rebuilt transmission. It's shifting very nicely now. In fact, it shifts better than when I bought it with 39K miles on the odo.
He did disassemble my sick tranny so I could peer inside and see what happened. It seems I had a couple things going on.
First, the o-ring servo bore fix didn't work so well. I didn't have the necessary skill or courage to tackle the job myself, so I took it to my local mechanic. He had never done one of these before, but agreed to performing the job. After looking at the OD Servo and bore area with the tranny out, he didn't do a good job. The next couple pics show the servo shaft with a thin black band to left of the two thicker bands. That thin band is a piece of one of the thicker bands that got cut when it was inserted into the servo bore. You gotta' make sure the edge is smoothed out after you cut the bevel. I guess that's not so easy to do with the tranny still in the car.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj497/LTCPipkin/photo6.jpg
Speaking of bevel, the next pic shows how poorly the OD Servo boring was performed...choppy edges and a very rough cut. Notice the nicks around the edge of the bevel.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj497/LTCPipkin/photo4.jpg
Now for one of the surprising observations...the technician showed me how they used the jig to bore a whole and insert the sleeve fix for both servos. The next pic shows how off-center the bore is relative to the servo. He said that this off-center condition causes all sorts of problems and is a major contributor to the ovaling and "rolling up of the aluminum in the bore. He sees lots of servos where the shaft has cracked from the servos plate/face/disk (I forgot what he called it).
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj497/LTCPipkin/photo3.jpg
Even if I had solved my OD servo problem with a proper installation of the o-ring fix, it was just a matter of time before my off-center bore issue overwhelmed that fix. The longer term solution for my tranny seems to be the sleeve fix. The tech did say that this condition was not unique to my tranny case. He sees it all the time. If I evaluate my shifting over time, I really never experienced a graceful delayed shift into 2nd, so I'm not sure I even had a servo bore problem. One day, my TC unlocked and as I downshifted,I heard a clunk somewhere around 5th gear. The next couple pics show why. The technician said I had burned up the OD planetary. I have no idea what that part is or what that means to burn it up. But the pics show bent and badly scraped metal parts. Note the bent gear that goes somewhere inside the larger bent part. The owner of the shop said that when he sees a burned up OD planetary, it suggests that I had an cooling problem. I can't remember my HOT lights or bells going off, but he said that wasn't necessary to burn up the tranny. So he began to investigate my cooling system and found that my fan clutch was GONE. So, he blames the fan clutch for allowing my tranny to overheat. Got a new fan clutch installed this morning.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj497/LTCPipkin/photo5.jpg
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj497/LTCPipkin/photo1.jpg
I am glad this nightmare has come to an end. I am also glad I decided to go to a transmission specialist. He is convinced that had I bought the rebuilt tranny elsewhere and had my local mechanic install it, my heating problem would have burned up the new tranny in 1,000 miles. Thanks for your suggestions along the way. I think for the first time I might have found a transmission shop I can trust. The owner is convinced that because he uses quality rebuild kits (including the TRANSGO Shift Kit) and executes a quality rebuild, that my tranny could last 200K miles. Well, I am too skeptical to believe that can happen. I do know that I have learned a lot from this experience and will spend more time managing my cooling system and RELIGIOUSLY changing my filter and fluid every 30K miles...regardless of driving conditions. BTW, he has nothing but distain for "transmission flushing". A filter and 5 or so quarts every 30K miles is good enough.
If you're interested in taking your business to this shop in Petersburg, VA, it's called Gene's Transmission. He is the only ATRA shop near my home. The link for Gene's is below:
http://www.genestransmissionshop.com/
DISCLAIMER: The story you have just heard is my interpretation of what this transmission shop told me. Even though these explanations make sense to me, I have insufficient skills to determine if any of it is factual. So, maybe some of our smart guys here can comment.
Michael