Diesel RVs: Re: [diesel_mercedes] Re: The Frankensteining of Great Cars

John,

The way I heard it:

The original GM Hydramatic was one of the most efficient automatic transmissions available. But GM could not get it smooth enough for luxury cars, so they invented a new transmission to replace it.

RR bought it and made it carefully and it was so smooth that it was fine for the RR.

They tightened up the tolerances and used wavy plates in the clutches.

Bobby

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 8:56 AM, john public <brad_macaboy1234@yahoo.com> wrote:

I remember reading that RR destroyed a few Turbo-hydramatics by polishing the interior channels, which were designed to have irregular surfaces to create turbulence in the fluid.

--- On Tue, 8/30/11, Mark in Lakewood, CO <beeser750@q.com> wrote:

From: Mark in Lakewood, CO <beeser750@q.com>
Subject: Re: [diesel_mercedes] Re: The Frankensteining of Great Cars

To: "diesel mercedes" <diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 11:25 PM

Actually, the association goes back much before the Turbo Hydramatic 400, to the original, 4-speed Hydra-Matic of the early '50s. In my opinion, an even better transmission; the only automatic battle-tested in World War II, four of them were installed in the little M24 "Chaffee" light tank.

(Hydra-Matic was also used by Hudson, Nash, even arch-rival Lincoln.)

Mark in Lakewood, CO

From: "Nate" <vwnate1@yahoo.com>
To: "diesel mercedes" <diesel_mercedes@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 6:42:54 AM
Subject: [diesel_mercedes] Re: The Frankensteining of Great Cars

Thanx Brian ! .

The tranny was the venerable GM Turbo Hydro 400 , a very good tranny indeed .

-Nate
Brian Wrote:
>
> Ah, no, RR made their own engines, I think they used GM Hydramatics for a while..
> bk
>
>